Have you ever been to a big concert or sporting event and passed nearby houses selling parking spots in their front yard? Well, these property owners sure make a lot of money doing this, and believe it or not but there is a business opportunity for you even if your house is not near any venues.

Many houses near these big venues do not participate in parking services for a variety of reasons. Maybe the home owner does not have the time, maybe they are going to the actual event, or maybe they will be out of town. Go around to these homes a few weeks before the event and find out if they will be selling parking spaces on their property. If not, offer to set up and run the whole operation on their property and then split the profits half and half. If your prices compete with surrounding parking areas, it is bound to profitable. There are almost no start up costs! All you have to do is collect people’s money and direct them to logical parking spaces. You may want to throw together a little contract for you and the home owner to sign just to be safe and so that you get all the money you deserve.

Photo credit: Thienzieyung

Just as we always encourage our readers to get out there and put that dreamed-up business idea into action, we here at Finding Benjamin are doing the same! We’ve come up with our own idea for a second website (the first being FindingBenjamin.com) that will be fun, interactive, and useful for everyone – and quickly worth a lot of money to us and potentially to you too (or so we hope!).

We’re only in the beginning developmental stages, but we’ve been doing a ton of brainstorming and story-boarding, a necessary process to get any project off the ground. Who knew there’d be so many questions to answer?! We’re quickly finding out that you have to be prepared for as many “what-ifs” as possible in order to even begin thinking about opening a project like this to the public.

We don’t want to let the cat out of the bag just yet, but as our project progresses we’ll update you here at Finding Benjamin and you’ll be the first to know when the site goes live, so stay tuned!

photo credit : Stefan Baudy

It’s a new month, so its time for a new list of awesome inventions/would-be ideas from Halfbakery.com. In case you’re not familiar with our Halfbakery series, there’s a good little summary of what it’s all about here. This month’s list features ideas that might actually be somewhat feasible, but are still as entertaining to read and think about as always! [Read the rest of this entry...]

Check out this interview! Chris Hurley sits down with the CEO and CMO of Vital Energy, a beverage company out of Rochester, NY. Stores all over Rochester carry their drinks, and they can be purchased online at TheVitalEnergy.com. These guys share their unique startup story along with great advice to other young entrepreneurs out there.

By Kevin Randall

Kevin Randall, a sophomore at the University of Notre Dame, has signed on as a guest columnist for Finding Benjamin. If you’re unfamiliar with the first-time home buyer tax credit, check out Chris’s story all about his own home buying experience!

What are you waiting for?  If you’re a prospective first-time homeowner, buy that house you’ve been eyeing up NOW.  Although Congress has been debating extending the first-time home buyer’s tax credit beyond its current December 1^st end date, a recent report by the inspector general makes that extension seem less likely. [Read the rest of this entry...]

By Megan

For all you college students – note taking is a part of being in school. Aside from the few who are blessed with photographic memory, most of you will agree that taking good lecture and study notes is a big part of what earns A’s and B’s instead of D’s and F’s. Taking notes can be a huge pain, but a well-done set of notes is valuable, and now may be even more so, thanks to the internet. Websites are now popping up that offer a resource for students to go to and download class notes that others have added, and reward students who upload high-quality, helpful notes cash or other prizes. As if you didn’t have enough reasons to pay attention in class, money adds a whole new incentive to jotting down some notes. [Read the rest of this entry...]