Lara's Biz Talk posts

Dan & Lara on Seattle Magazine's 25 Most Influential People of 2008 list

You've done it again, Bizniks! A month after being recognized amongst Seattle Business Monthly's Top 25 Innovators and Entrepreneurs, your contribution in making Biznik such a cool online small business community that meets face to face, has earned Dan and I another award - the honor of inclusion on Seattle Magazine's 2008 Power List: 25 Most Influential People 2008.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

NETWORKING 2.0: The Connectors
Lara Eve Feltin and Dan McComb, cofounders of Biznik.com

Why being partners in love and business works: The couple says their relationship is one of Biznik’s greatest strengths. McComb is the idea guy who focuses on the development and tech sides of the business, while Feltin orchestrates events and manages the business. And being around each other 24/7 pays off. They say that many an idea is hatched at 2 a.m. --Lilium Pierson

Print Your Biz Card in the BizJam Catalog for FREE

Hey - did you know that a benefit of Supporting Membership is that ALL Supporting Members who attend BizJam Seattle 08 in two weeks are invited to send us their business card and we'll print it in the catalog for FREE. This is the equivalent of a 1/8 page ad valued at $100. Full details.

Not a Supporting Member? Upgrade for $24 today.

Send your card by THIS SATURDAY, June 28 in order to meet the printer's deadline.

Scan it and send it to info@biznik.com or mail it to: 4318 5th Ave. NW, Seattle WA 98107. (If you're going to mail it, drop us an email letting us know it's coming.)

7/8/08 VIP Party cancelled. See you at BizJam instead.

As we move into the final planning stages for BizJam Seattle 08, we've discovered that the pre-event VIP party, which was intended to be a small event prior to the main event for presenters, sponsors, Supporting Members and volunteers, is turning out to be a large distraction from the main event itself. For that reason, we're canceling this party to focus our efforts on throwing an extraordinary event on July 9 and 10, followed by an awesome after-party, where everyone will be a VIP.

We're sorry for any confusion we've caused about which event to attend, and we look forward to seeing all of you at BizJam 08 and the BizJam Soirée on July 10th!

And just a reminder - Supporting Members who attend BizJam not only a free 1/8-page ad in the BizJam catalog*, they may also take advantage of the special offered to all Active & Supporting Members - a 2-day pass for only $129 until July 1, 2008. Register now.

* The 1/8-page ad is the same size as a standard business card. Simply mail or send your business card and we'll print as-is. Send to: info@biznik.com -or- 4318-5th Ave. NW, Seattle, WA 98107. Catalog ads due by 6/26/08.

Winner of Best Video of the Week: Bob Dunn

Unofficially, of course. We don't give out weekly awards or anything (yet). But I saw this Biznik profile video and laughed out loud.

Great job, Bob!

Is there a chance BizJam Seattle 08 won't happen? NO - not a chance

I received the following message from a member today. I was startled enough by the question, that in case the thought is going through others' minds, I'd like to address it broadly to the community:

"I see 9 RSVPs. Want to register and get the early bird price but am concerned I'll lose my money if you don't get the numbers you need and you end up cancelling. Am nervous...have registered for events like this in the past and discovered poor attendance and low value for money. Can you reassure me please..."

Notwithstanding a massive natural disaster, BizJam Seattle 08 will not be canceled under any circumstance. For reasons unbeknownst to me, people tend to RSVP at the last minute for these things. The BizJam 07 registration was open for 10 weeks. The RSVPs didn't start pouring in until 7-10 days before the event. Over 200 people were there. It was our first event, things went off without a hitch, and this one's going to be even better!

In a poll taken after BizJam 07, we asked participants to rate the following statement, "I will come to next year's event and encourage others to attend as well." 73.5% strongly agreed. No one strongly disagreed, and only 6% said they somewhat disagreed that they'd attend BizJam 08 or encourage others.

If you're considering this event, I strongly recommend that you take advantage of the Early Bird price before 5/31/08.

And hopefully this will ease your mind. IF BizJam Seattle 08 is canceled, we will refund the tickets sold. No brainer.

TWO DAYS left to save $95 on an Early Bird pass for BizJam Seattle 08

BizJam Seattle 08 - Biznik's Seattle indie business conference - was announced last week. Early Bird rates on the 2-day pass is only $295. Starting, Sunday, June 1, registration for both days increases to $390.

Take advantage of this $95 savings by RSVPing for this fantastic event today!

Check out the list of presenters and topics here.

Notice of updates in Terms of Service

Biznik has updated the Terms of Service and posted them last night, January 21, 2008. Please note our policy on changes to this Service Agreement in Section 9:

9. Changes to this Service Agreement

If we change this Service Agreement, then we will notify you of the change online through a post in Biz Talk. If you do not agree with the changed Service Agreement, then you must stop using the Service within two weeks of notification. You agree that you are solely responsible for reviewing the terms of this Service Agreement from time to time. If you choose not to accept the terms as revised and posted, you have a single two-week grace period from the date that you first visited the Service (with the revised terms posted), during which your use will be governed under the then-prior version of this Service Agreement and after which you agree not to use the Service.

Brand New Biznik PROMOTIONS feature

There's so many great promotions and special offers being made by Biznik members, that we're excited to announce the release of the brand new Promotions & Special Offers page inside the MEMBERS section.

Check it out at biznik.com/members/promotions.

Access may also be reached via Your Profile, where you can add, manage and delete any promotions you've listed.

As an added benefit of Supporting Membership ($24mo) your promotions will not only sort higher than other promotions offered by Basic (free) Members but your promotions will appear in the right hand bar under Featured Promotions. Upgrade today by going to Your Profile > Your Account.

Pet peeve: business logos in place of mugshot on profile

I need to air a pet peeve of mine on Biznik - members who upload their business logo in place of a photo or picture of themselves. Biznik is a community of people not a listing of businesses, and we're a trust network because the majority of the users are independent or sole proprietors.

Who wants to do business with someone with a bag on their head?

Engaging with someone in BizTalk who's got a logo in place of a picture of themselves, is like talking to the Jack-in-the-Box head at a fast food drive through. You're asking people to conduct business with you through a filter, no differnet than an intercom system.

Coming soon: the ability for Active Members to upload a copy of their logo to their profile. At that time, it will not only be inappropriate for members to upload a logo for free in the "mugshot" area, it should probably be not condoned.

Thoughts?

Free Biznik Events vs. Small Fee-based Events - what do you prefer?

Rachel Whalley and I started a talking about this on a different Biz Talk thread and decided to move it to a new discussion, b/c the earlier thread was more about the title for one of her upcoming events.

Rachel has strong reasons for why she charges $10 for the Biznik events she hosts, I share her view, and we'd like to see others in the community participate in the conversation about it.

Rachel generally charges $5 for her events. Biznik allows event hosts to keep 100% of the fee they set, and we add a $5 transaction fee to each reservation - which makes her events appear with a $10 fee.

We encourage members to upgrade to Active or Supporting status by applying a $7 Registration Fee that is waived for all events for our paying members.

I appreciate Rachel's reasons for wanting to add a small fee to her events. Dan and I worked very hard to find a way to keep Biznik free, while providing valuable incentives to upgrade to an affordable paying membership. Our business model includes the transaction fee in fee-based events.

But I like seeing fee-based events in the calendar for another reason - perceived value. Most every indie on Biznik lives off of billable hours. Many members offer services with rates that exceed $100/hour. When they host a 2 hour workshop on their dime, provide a venue, a syllabus, handouts, and their TIME, that should be worth something to the people who attend. I'm of the impression that event hosts who charge something - even $5 - are saying, "My time is worth something and I would like you to demonstrate that it's worth something to you."

One confirmation of my impression is that over the last two years Dan and I found that the average no-show rate for free events is around 20%. That no-show rate diminishes down to 1-2% when the host ask for a fee - even a fee as small as $5.

Rachel noticed that in Seattle, there's been a sharp increase in the number of events in the calendar, but a significant decrease in the number of fee-based events.

And I've noticed that the number of reservations for these events are a fraction of what they are for free events, and wonder why that is.

Comments?

[Editor] Don't forget that this forum is world-wide. Please include your city in parenthesis in the Title.

Example - OFFERED:WordPress Blog setup (Seattle)

Studio Evolve and Sting (yep, THAT Sting)

I just caught a fun article in the Seattle Times online about fellow Bizniks, Adrin Stauffer, Martine Dedek, and Sting, who visited their pilates studio - Studio Evolve - a couple weeks ago when he was in Seattle touring with the Police. And I learned a little something about a new thing called Yamuna Body Rolling that I hadn't really known anything about.

Check it out:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2003766169&slug=bodyrolling01&date=20070701

OFFERED: sample (Seattle)

Here's an sample of how to write a good Title for this forum. If you're a massage therapist and could use a new business card, then write:

OFFERED: massage (Seattle) WANTED: new business card design

Are you using the "bookmark" tool?

Have you discovered the "bookmark" tool yet? I love this new tool! Not only can you bookmark upcoming events - which reminds you to keep an eye on it and register for it down the line, but you can also bookmark past events, and take some notes on who you met and what you spoke about.

But my favorite is to bookmark other members and take a few notes on a conversation I had to remind myself to contact them later about something. Before an event, I not only scan the list of who's RSVP'd, I also scan my list of bookmarked members to see anyone I've take a note on is also going to be there too - then I can refresh my memory if there was something I wanted to pick up with them on.

It's like jotting down on a note on the back someone's business card, but managing it electronically.

Caution: Just remember that if you bookmark the same person twice, the new note you write, replaces any previous note taken.

Coming soon - a way to bookmark a Biz Talk topic, so you can follow an ongoing discussion or reference it later.

Do you use a business credit card or a consumer cc for your business?

I'm doing some research on credit cards and wondering how many indie business people are using a consumer credit card for their business, and how many people are actually using a business credit card?

If you're using a business credit card, which one are you using?

When I was a freelance photographer, I had one credit card that I reserved for business purchases only, but it was a "consumer" card. I did that because the business credit cards I had found had $50+ annual fees. (It was also a United Mileage card so I racked up mileage.)

I know there's the American Express card (which I don't have - and don't know much about) and a Line of Credit (which I do have).

What are others using?

Call for Entrepreneurial Stories from the TODAY Show

Annie Jacobsen just sent me something she found on the TODAY Show website:

Are you trying to start your own business? We’d like to know how you're making your dream a reality. E-mail us!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18944463/

I'd love to hear is someone does this and what becomes of it.

Less than 4 weeks til BizJam - time to order more biz cards

Just wanted to post a reminder that with the Seattle BizJam in less than 4 weeks - if you've been meaning to reorder your business cards, now's the time to do it.

300 indies & micro-preneurs will be gathering on June 9 for Seattle's first indie conference. Not only will there be plenty of networking opportunities, but we're putting out a large table in the foyer for placing a stack of your business cards on.

Better yet - publish your business card in the printed BizJam program in place on an 1/8 page ad. Go here for more information. Ads due by 5pm on Friday, May 25.

Safety Management for Small Businesses

A friend of mine, Brenna Davis, who's a safety management consultant, forwarded this message from the Division of Occupational Safety and Health in the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries.

Brenna's words: "As some Bizniks expand their business, they will need to know more about Safety Management. The Governor's Industrial Safety & Health Conference is a cheap, cheap local conference and this year they have a small business track."

The Governor's Industrial Safety & Health Conference Tacoma Convention Center Featuring a Small Business Track Wednesday, September 26

We instituted the Small Business Track at last year's Conference in Spokane with the theme being "Building your bottom line: Proven management techniques for small business." There were three components: Rick Gleason of the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences detailed the full costs of a typical accident, Ray Clouatre of Argus Pacific presented some easy-to-use tools for establishing an effective safety program, and Eric Tofte of the Evergreen Safety Council described ways to minimize the costs of those injuries when they do occur.

I would like your ideas for what topics would be of interest to you for this year's Small Business Track. Please let me know what topics or what presenters you'd like to see by Friday, April 6th.

Thank you.

Mike Farley Outreach Services Farn235@lni.wa.gov (360) 902-5591

Graphic artists & illustrators: fun web site for you

I just discovered this fun new web site called Prickie -

www.prickie.com - which offers graphic artists and illustrators the opportunity to gain exposure for their work by uploading artwork for button badges. Prickie sells the badges and artists receive a commission.

If you've got some neat illustrations and graphic pieces lying around collecting dust on a hard drive, why not get them out there for others to enjoy wearing!

Notification of change to Biznik Terms of Service

According to Section 9 of the Biznik Terms of Service, we must notifiy users of changes to the terms by posting the change here on the BizTalk. The Terms of Service may be viewed here.

The Terms of Service were updated on October 14, 2006, however it has come to my attention that we failed to post a notification of the changes on that date.

Anyone who joined Biznik after 10/14/06 agreed the currently published version of the terms. Anyone who joined prior to 10/14/06 agreed to a previous version of the terms and as stated in Section 9, if "you do not agree with the changed Service Agreement, then you must stop using the Service within two weeks of notification. You agree that you are solely responsible for reviewing the terms of this Service Agreement from time to time. If you choose not to accept the terms as revised and posted, you have a single two-week grace period from the date that you first visited the Service (with the revised terms posted), during which your use will be governed under the then-prior version of this Service Agreement and after which you agree not to use the Service."

Notification of changes

Three changes were made on 10/14/06. The first one occurred in Section 11 "Supporting Membership" and related to the definition of and benefits provided for supporting members, and stipulates that all fees collected by Biznik hold no guarantee and are non-refundable.

11. Supporting Membership

Biznik offers different levels of membership. While the features and benefits associates with supporting membership may change from time to time, members that qualify as supporting members are subject to the same terms of service as all other users, and any fees paid for supporting membership are non-refundable. As of October 14, 2006, benefits of supporting membership include (but are not limited to):

(i) addition of a supporting membership icon displayed on user profile and next to user’s name and photo throughout site, (ii) a higher ranking in the membership directory (iii) the option to charge a fee for a member-hosted Biznik event, (iv) the option to attend certain Biznik events held exclusively for supporting members.

The second change occurred in Section 12 "Events" and clarified the relationship between Biznik and members who host fee-based events.

12. Events

Biznik Members may host events (“Biznik Events”) open to other members, and market them via the Biznik site and calendar. Members must notify Biznik of an intention to create a Biznik event, and all Biznik Events are subject to review and approval by Biznik; Biznik retains the right to reject a proposed Biznik Event for any reason.

Only supporting members (See Section 12) have the option of charging a fee for a Biznik Event. As of October 14, 2006, Biznik will retain 1/3 of the gross fees collected by a supporting member hosting an event. Biznik is not responsible for any costs associated with any event, and assumes no liability for anything that happens or doesn’t happen at any event.

Reservations for a Biznik Events must be made through the Biznik web site. When applicable, Members will pay fees using a credit card. Members may cancel a reservation for a Biznik Event via the website at any time; fees are non-refundable at the discretion of Biznik, and no fees will be refunded under any circumstances for cancellations initiated less than 24 hours before the start of any Biznik Event.

The third change occurred in Section 4 under "Code of Conduct" and defined the policy that excludes multi-level marketing companies and those who's business recruits resellers or distributors of products or services that do not originate with the person seeking membership in Biznik.

4. Code of Conduct

We will monitor registration for participation that we feel is harmful to the Biznik community, and remove profiles and all incidences of such participation at our discretion. Although we may tell you what meets our definition of harmful use before we remove you as a member, we have no duty to do so. As a rule, any person that represents a business that recruits resellers or memberships for products or services that do not originate with that person is not welcome in Biznik and will be prohibited from participating; these businesses are sometimes known as multi-level marketing organizations.