“Twenty Million-Dollar Businesses You've Never Heard Of”

Twenty Million-Dollar Businesses You've Never Heard Of

Posted: 05 Nov 2010 08:42 AM PDT

While visiting Las Vegas in 2004, auto-dealership fleet manager Rico Elmore decided he needed some stylish sunglasses for his honeymoon. Elmore is six-foot-three, weighs 300-pounds and has a head to match, so finding shades that fit proved a struggle.

"I must have tried on 300 pairs and literally found nothing that fit," recalls Elmore, 36. "I walked out and said, 'This is ridiculous.' I decided to make sunglasses for people like me with fat heads." Elmore's company, Fatheadz, now sells "full-figure" glasses, for $28 to $54 a pair, and is on track to hit $2 million in sales this year--up from $700,000 in 2009.

Have a nutty business idea and need some inspiration to pull it off? We went looking for small companies that generate at least $1 million in annual revenue in unexpected ways. Look hard enough and they are legion. For a list of 20, click here.

Like many entrepreneurs, Elmore had a good idea but needed a little luck, too. Back in Brownsburg, Ind., after his honeymoon, he worked up a basic design for his super-wide specs. He hired a product-engineering company to make the molds and a contract manufacturer to crank out the frames and temple arms; he assembled the glasses at home during the evenings after work. Elmore tried patenting his discovery, but lawyers told him he could only patent the design of the glasses, not their size. Sales were a trickle.

In Pictures: 20 Million-Dollar Businesses You've Never Heard Of

Luck struck about a year later when an Indianapolis Star reporter called to interview Elmore about his friend, Rupert Boneham, the gentle-giant star of CBS' Survivor series. She mentioned Fatheadz in the article.

The ripples eventually reached a top Wal-Mart ( WMT - news - people ) executive, who ordered 300 pairs in three styles as a trial run. By 2008 Elmore's glasses were in 3,000 Wal-Marts and Sam's Club stores. Elmore also happened to know an equipment manager with the Indianapolis Colts; soon the players were sporting Fatheadz rims. (Elmore has no promotional deal with the NFL, but he says it's on his to-do list.) Now with a full-time staff of 10, Elmore plans to launch a new line for women--under a different name, of course.

Here are a few more highlights from our search for million-dollar businesses you've never heard of:

Geese Police

Howell, N.J.
Entrepreneur: Dave Marcks
Product/Service: Geese abatement using collies
Start Date: 1987
Startup Costs: About $3,000
Revenue: Estimated $2.5 million in 2010
Every Roadrunner has his Wile E. Coyote, and for golf-course superintendent Marcks, geese were the mortal enemy. Their incessant droppings vexed golfers and "fowled" water hazards, and he couldn't get rid of them. Then he discovered that border collies--an intelligent and persistent dog breed--are great at banishing the big birds for good. His elite force now includes 33 animals.

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