(FORTUNE Magazine) – Oh, those entrepreneurs! Chris Zane, owner of a Branford, Connecticut, bicycle shop, didn't waste much time on sentiment when one of his nearby competitors folded. He quickly bought its yellow pages ad and phone number--then connected that line to his own. Over the next month, 285 callers to the defunct business were patched through to him, and his sales rose more than 40%.

--Ronald B. Lieber