Unusual Business Ideas
Can Spark An Innovative Business!

Unusual business ideas have spawned many businesses. Who would have thought that you could sell plain old rocks as the perfect pet? Yet Gary Dahl did just that in 1975.

What started as a conversation with friends, about the inconveniences of owning pets, sparked the idea to sell Pet Rocks as the perfect pet. After all, you don't have to feed them, exercise them, cleanup after them and a host of other tasks that come with ordinary pets.

Each pet rock came with a thirty-two paged training manual. Every owner was instructed on the proper way to raise their new pet. It is believed that this manual was the secret to the success of the Pet rock.

It only took six months for the fad to make Gary Dahl a millionaire. While the enterprise didn't last long (fads rarely do), it does show that you can earn substantial money in a short amount of time from unusual business ideas.

If you lived near open water, you know that geese can be a royal pain. While geese may be fun to watch, they are noted for leaving messy deposits on your lawn, beach, sidewalks, and anywhere geese chose to contribute.

One golf course superintendent had to find a way to chase off the Canadian geese that were leaving messy droppings on the golf course he managed. The normal techniques failed to work including fences, pyrotechnics, and flags.

One day while standing in a bookstore, he saw a picture of a Border Collie dog. He remembered, from his days of working on a farm, how a Border Collie was used to herd cattle. This sparked the idea of using a herding dog to move the geese off the golf course.

So he bought a Border Collie and trained it to work geese. It worked! In a few weeks his geese problem was solved and his dog was out of work, but not for long. Soon other golf courses wanted his services and a business was born.

Today, 20 years later, David Marcks has licensed 11 franchises in nine states. David's business still uses 45 Border Collies on 385 properties according to Entrepreneur magazine.

So you can see, unusual business ideas can spark your imagination for a new and novel business.

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