201 GREAT IDEAS for Your SMALL BUSINESS, Third Edition

GREAT 82 IDEA: Import Something New and Different

About 45 years ago, a homely, brown fuzzy fruit known as the Chinese gooseberry spawned a new industry. The egg-shaped fruit, now called “kiwi fruit,” because it resembled the flightless, fuzzy bird that live in Australia, inspired Frieda Caplan to start a successful exotic produce business.

In the 1960s, apples, bananas, and oranges were pretty much the only fresh fruits Americans ate. Today, you can thank produce pioneer Caplan every time you munch on alfalfa sprouts, macadamia nuts, sugar snap peas, spaghetti squash, and dried blueberries. Frieda's Inc. also popularized the succulent, oversized Portobello mushrooms that sell for up to $12 a pound. And in 2009, Frieda's introduced American's ...