Launch Your Million-Dollar Idea :

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Have you ever come up with a clever idea, but you didn’t know how to get it off the ground? You might think you need deep pockets and a team of patent lawyers to launch your business idea, but think again. These days you don’t have to be Donald Trump to turn your small idea into a million-dollar business.

In fact, more women are becoming kitchen-counter entrepreneurs, by cultivating dream businesses out of home-grown ideas. According to a recent news survey, women are starting businesses at almost three times the rate of men. Do think you have a nifty idea that could one day make you rich? Read on to find out how these rags-to-riches women made it big -- and how you can, too.

Spanx® Pantyhose
Sara Blakely was only 20-something and selling copiers door-to-door when she decided to do something about the unsightly cellulite and thong lines that she could see whenever she tried on a pair of white pants. So she cut the feet out of her control top pantyhose, which smoothed the lines better than anything on the market. Thus, Spanx -- a line of footless pantyhose and bodyshapers -- was born. How She Did It
To take her idea to the next level, Sara did Internet research and discovered there was no existing patent on footless pantyhose. Instead of paying expensive legal fees, she bought a "how-to" book on patents and trademarks and wrote her own. She found out that most of the world’s pantyhose are made in North Carolina, and started cold-calling the hosiery companies. She took a week off work and met with mill owners, pitching her idea in person. Everybody rejected her idea, but two weeks later a mill owner called back and decided he liked her "footless pantyhose" idea. Today, Spanx is sold in high-end retail stores such as Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom and is expected to bring in an estimated $30 million in revenue this year.

Days Ago Digital Day Counter
Entrepreneurial mothers Debbie Stephens Stauffer and her partner Kathleen Whitehurst came up with a novel idea for tracking when containerized food stored in the fridge is about to expire. Debbie, who was a new mother of two toddlers, had lots of half-used, expensive baby-food jars in the fridge but couldn’t tell which was the oldest, once opened. The women teamed up and created DaysAgo Digital Day Counter -- a timing device that counts up days to let you know how many days ago a food container was opened. The counter is designed with a magnet or suction so it sticks to lots of surfaces in the fridge and pantry.

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