Michael's comments

The after-party was absolutely fantastic! Dan and Lara really know how to throw a shindig.

100% of my Massage Therapists are from BizNik?

Do you really want to buy from someone in San Francisco? Your cost basis is going to be very high buying locally, SF just isn't a manufacturing town.

Jeff, the balloon one is actually a great example. In my mind if I try to think of corporate vans I think of AT&T trucks because I was a phone geek as a kid, and the big pink vans in San Francisco by the "Balloon Lady" balloon company. I stand corrected.

I have 5.

• Killing For Jesus by the Dayglo Abortions
• The Crowd by Operation Ivy
• I don't wanna grow up by the Ramones
• Lost in the Super Market by the Clash
• Err that song by Notorious Big that has the lyrics "I'd rather go toe to toe with all of y'all, because running ain't in my protocol"

Marketing is a way to keep marketing professionals in business.

Kevin, ask yourself this question. How many times have you purchased anything because a car was covered in colorful saran wrap? Considered purchasing? even went to that company's website?

Vehicle marketing is pretty silly for b2b. Sure it might help build some brand recognition, but will it get you laid?

My clients get to reduce their actual or expected IT staffing requirements while greatly improving both the breadth and quality of their IT services. We're also 70% cheaper than hiring their own IT staff and hosting their applications themselves.

I spoke to somebody about this recently. I'm probably mis-remembering, but the number I was given was somewhere between $3,500 and $5k. I didn't quite see the value there. I've never spent a dollar on advertising and in the end told myself "That was a good idea, let's do it again".

I used to admire authors, until I had a pitch for a technical/business book accepted, and looked at the offer. I stopped admiring authors, and began questioning why anybody would ever publish a book.

Helen, the statistic I think you're referring to is that members of the politically/financially (but not necessarily numerically) dominant religion in a region tend to live something like 6-7 years longer on average than their fellow countrymen in the same region. Probably something to do with the tendency of the devout to inflict genocide on infidels and blasphemers?

Just over two years ago I made the switch to Apple from Linux ( which is a horrid, horrid, experience) after using Linux on my desktop for around a decade. My productivity has skyrocketed. I spend less time intricately thinking about everything I do (like setting up multiple monitors, or futzing around with yet another desktop environment like Enlightenment or Gnome ) and more time just working.

Especially helpful for a simplistic coding tool is Textmate. The one thing that Linux always lacked was even a semi-useable diagraming/flowcharting tool, so I always had to have a Windows laptop handy for Visio. I've found with the latest version of OmniGraffle, my need for Visio has disappeared.

Now, I just wish Apple could make a laptop whose keyboards don't die after 6 months, batteries after 8 months, and don't have such annoying temperature problems and loud fans.

I've been told by two different accounts we've worked with that services are not tax deductible, so this does somewhat limit that aspect of pro bono work.

I mostly sneer at inspirational/motivational books, but I thought Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" was a great, quick guide to self-help and business motivation!

Beyond that, Moneyball was a good (but too long)way to look outside of your normal realm of efficiency.

William H Deming's "Out of the Crisis" is a most for giving you a set of tools for logically looking at your efficiency and quality.

The Box by Marc Levinson is also a great book about the history and innovation of a business changing model.

Simple, to make far more money than I could as an employee.

Beth,

I definitely feel you on the non-profit problem. My response to non-profits is usually to give them a highball estimate of what our services cost. That usually changes the topic.

Mark, I can feel for you with this whole "Secret" MLM scam. There are two coffee shops where I now make it a point not to make eye contact with strangers when I'm talking business. I've been approached by 4 "life coaches" trying to push "The Secret" on me. Every time I turn them down I expect them to counter with asking me if I'd be interested in Amway or some herbal supervitamin mlm scam.

It's not so much running a business that "gets my goat" but rather the peanut gallery. Childhood/old party friends who like to chime in on everything.

It's worse when it comes from the friends who really don't contribute, but just sort of exist. How do you explain to them why you're aggressively taking risks to move forward?

There are those of us who are always trying to get ahead, and then there are pikers who have lots of time to give their -$0.02.

http://biznik.com/members/angel-djambazov

You might want to meetup with Angel over at popshops.com. They're a local company specializing in doing virtual affiliate stores, and Angel seems to be the man who knows the most about the affiliate market.

Charge for your time. If you have to spend 3 hours in the car for a customer, that's an opportunity cost. Those are 3 hours you could have billed out to a local customer.

At last year's BizJam after-party, it turned out one of the people who helps out @ LRS was this girl I had a crush on 13 years ago, but had never met. I saw this girl and kept thinking "Man that looks like.. nah it couldn't be, she lives in California I thought..." That was a rather awesome conversation.

You know BizNik is a hosting company. I'm sure Dan and Lara would love to hook you up with a place to host your site. www.biznik.net will give you the information you need.

Parents, mortgage brokers, and real estate agents are the worst. I can't do much about my parents, but when I meet a real estate agent or mortgage broker at a networking event or coffee shop, I refuse to give them my contact information or card. I can't understand the mentality that giving somebody your email address make you think they want your stupid MLM scam newsletter, company newsletter, run-down house of the week list, religious chain letters, or political commentary.

Top on my list of worst offenders in Seattle are the realtors from Paul Cantu Realty (paulcantu.com) .. I've gotten spam from them at 3 different email addresses, my home address, and at my datacenter (they're the only company to ever send me mail at my datacenter).