Take Biznik member survey, win an iPod
Biznik members, we don’t know enough about you.
We need to know more, because we’re looking to attract relevant sponsors for both events and the website. We’re giving away an iPod Nano as an incentive. Complete the survey by this Sunday, Nov. 4.
To be eligible for winning, enter your name and email address in the survey, so we can contact you (your name and address won’t otherwise be kept on file). Thanks for participating!
Start Survey (takes less than 5 minutes)
Biznik demographics member survey
3 Comments Office Nomads to open Seattle co-working space on Capitol Hill
Tired of working in a crowded coffee shop, but can’t afford to rent an office of your own? Consider co-working. Seattle got it’s first co-working space, MyDayOffice, in September, where I’ll be hosting a Biznik happy hour on November 7. Now, Seattle is about to get it’s second co-working space on November 1, when Office Nomads co-founders Jacob Sayles and Susan Evans open a 5,0000 square foot space at 1617 Boylston Ave. Their tagline pretty much says it all: “Individuality without isolation.” If you’re one of the 20 million “personal businesses” identified in the last US Census, you’ll appreciate the freedom that comes with starting and running your own business … but are perhaps slightly less enthusiastic about the isolation that shadows your free enterprising ways. Co-working spaces aim to provide you a place where you can show up for work in an environment designed for work AND for community.
The new Office Nomads space will provide indie business types with a permanent desk, use of up to three conference rooms, full kitchen, T1 wireless network, office printer, and a key card allowing 24/7 office access for $475/month. If that number sounds like a lot, or you just want to use the space occasionally, you can rent a desk for $20/day.
I’m particularly excited about these two new spaces, because both of them are going to be great venues for hosting Biznik networking events and educational workshops. Despite the fact that Office Nomads hasn’t even opened its doors yet, John Martin and Biznik co-founder Lara Feltin have already scheduled an event at Office Nomads on November 20, Hosting Biznik Events - a great way to market yourself and your business. And MyDayOffice has been host to several events already.
Congratulations to Shauna, Jacob and Susan, and thank you for supporting Seattle’s indie business community by opening these spaces!
co working independent business office space SeattleQuickBooks hosts two-day “Just Start” event aimed at entrepreneurs in Seattle next week
QuickBooks is one of those indispensable pieces of software that just about everyone who runs their own business has almost certainly heard of (we’ve been using it to keep track of Biznik’s finances since we started two years ago). But here’s something you might not have heard: QuickBooks is sponsoring a two-day event in Seattle next week aimed at helping new entrepreneurs like those of us in Biznik start a business. The “Just Start” event is part of a promotional launch of QuickBooks Simple Start, a software application that helps small startups manage their business, and they’ll be giving away free copies of the software to everyone who shows up.
The event is happening at Seattle’s Westlake Center between 11 AM & 6 PM on October 24th & 25th. They’ll have business experts on hand to answer your business questions, one of whom will be Biznik member Barry Hurd, which is how I learned about this event. Finally, you can enter a contest to win $50K in cash and expert resources to help start your business, by sharing the story of how you started your business. Here’s the details:
If you can’t make the event, you can visit IWillJustStart.com, where you can enter the contest and download a free copy of QuickBooks Simple Start.
entrepreneur intuit quickbooks simple start startupBrown Paper Tickets CEO Steve Butcher hosts Not-Just-For-Profit Workshop series
I’m thrilled to announce that Steve Butcher, the CEO of Brown Paper Tickets, is hosting a series of educational workshops about how small, startup businesses can succeed using his “not-just-for-profit” business model. Here’s the full description of the first event, which will happen on three different dates next week. There will be a a total of six different workshops in coming weeks, which you can find in the Biznik events calendar. Here’s the description of the first event: Not-Just-For-Profit Series Workshop I: The Mission.
This workshop is the first step in walking away with the business plan you’ve always wanted. Learn how to bootstrap your business, never worry about your competition again, spot the difference between ethical and moral dilemmas, become a citizen of your community, measure and shrink your environmental footprint, and make the hell sure you’re in the right business.
Business/Project size, category, industry, legal form do not matter.
Bring your mission statements and manifestos - or at least notes related to it.
Cost of admission includes an Outlaw Capitalist t-shirt!
Reduced rate for those under 18 or living below poverty level: $25. Email lara@biznik.com to take advantage of this offer.
Bios of Organizers:
Steve Butcher, Founder - After working with small and large businesses for 20 years making them more profitable, Steve started Not-Just-For-Profit, committed to inspiring and empowering people to pursue their passions and go beyond profits. He is also the CEO of Brown Paper Tickets (a NJFP company), leading the entertainment industry into a new era of affordable ticketing and quality service.
Sandy Pederson, Editor and Sustainability Education Consultant Sandy develops and edits educational materials and a range of other publications for international and local organizations in the sustainability field, including the Global Reporting Initiative and the World Conservation Union (IUCN). Transplanted in Seattle from the Canadian prairies, Sandy’s farming roots have held strong–she rarely leaves the garden, except to spread the word about compost. Her most coveted title is “Master Composter/Soil Builder” and, much to her surprise and delight, she is also the co-owner of a local bakery.
First Biznik event in Boston happens this Sunday
Seattle business consultant and Biznik member Ruth Hatmann is on a roll lately. While working on a project in Mexico last month, she hosted Biznik’s first event in Mexico. She’s going to be in Boston this weekend, and while there she’s going to chaulk up another first - hosting the first Biznik event in Boston, an educational event she’s calling Boston Tea Party, Biznik Style - Revolutionize your business!. Go Ruth! Here’s the event description:
boston business educational workshop seminarDo you ever wonder to what extent your clients or prospects “get” your message? Have you thought that perhaps it was time to change your image or business communications? Have you wondered how you can measure the effectiveness of your marketing collateral?
Ever wish you had someone to give you some straight-up feedback on your marketing collateral? Then bring your business cards and marketing materials and join us this Sunday for breakfast and a graphic design discovery session with Tamar Wallace.
We’ll all get a chance to have our materials be peer-reviewed and get some feedback/suggestions from Tamar on the effectiveness of our materials.
She’ll also be sharing on the following topics: 1) Importance of having a congruent business image – does your collateral clearly communicate who your business truly is? Or who you want to be? How can it be more congruent? 2) What are the most common and some uncommon types of marketing collateral? How can we use them effectively? 3) How can we evaluate the effectiveness of our marketing collateral? How often do we need to update it? How do we know if we need to update it? And how should we go about updating it?
Biznik business network adds 3,000th Seattle area member
One thing that sets Biznik apart from a lot of other business networking organizations of its kind is our transparency and openness with regard to membership numbers. I once attended a networking event hosted by another organization, at which a young man who represented an online business social network was pitching his service. “How many members do you have,” I asked him. “That’s private information,” he told me, adding: “But I can tell you we have members in 44 countries.” That sounded vaguely impressive to me at the time - I mean, wow, they must have a TON of members if they’re in 44 countries! But after a couple of years of running Biznik, which now has members in 90 countries, I know better. The question I have is: Why hide that information? Why not be completely transparent about how big you are? There’s nothing to be ashamed of in starting small. Small, as they say, is the new big.
So, on that note, I’m happy to give you a report on the current smallness of Biznik. As of today, Biznik has 3,000 members in the Seattle area. Sort of. That is, if you draw a 50-mile wide circle around the center of Seattle, we have 3,000 members in that area. If you draw the circle 25 miles wide, we have 2,825. If you draw the circle 10 miles wide, we have 2,294. Intriguingly, if you draw the circle much wider, 500 miles, for example, that only adds another 251 members. So Biznik is very much a Seattle-area thing in this part of the country.
If you ever want to know how many members there are in a certain place, just switch your city location, and head to the members page. You’ll see the number of members who have been geolocated to that area right under the search bar, and you can select the radius of your search from there.
business networking demographic information stats
1 CommentBusiness networking in the back of a limo
Can you call it business networking if you’re having this much fun? Members who attended Justin Baker’s Biznik Mixer for those involved in the wedding industry clearly were enjoying themselves Sunday night, while at the same time meeting others involved in their industry with the goal of forming long-term relationships to generate leads for each other. Here’s just one photo from quite a few posted by member Bret Percival in his blog this morning. You can see the rest of them here. Thanks for posting these photos, Bret, and thanks Justin for hosting an outstanding event.
This event is classic Biznik - members getting together, having fun while at the same time building relationships, promoting their businesses and sharing their experience. Events like this one are how Biznik is redefining the term “business networking” so it doesn’t scare the kids!
business networking social media social networking wedding industryHow to talk about your business in 60 seconds or less
There sure are a lot of events in the Seattle Biznik business networking events calendar, hey? And while most of the listed events are social in nature, I’m particularly impressed to see educational workshops like the one John Martin is teaching in Seattle on Thursday, Oct. 18: Pitch your Business in 60 Seconds. That’s because workshops of this kind offer valuable skills that can have a direct, positive influence on our ability to successfully grow our businesses. I interviewed John to learn a little more about him, and what members who attend his workshop can expect to learn.
Q: Why do you think it’s hard for people to talk about their business?
For many people, one of their biggest fears is speaking in public. And when it comes to speaking about their business, this intense fear is compounded. I believe the reason they fear speaking in public about anything is that they’ve had little or no training to speak in public. Few people have taken a public speaking class in high school or college. I find this lack of training or education interesting, since we spend over 55 percent of our communication time speaking and listening to others speak. Conversely, most people have had 12 or more years of education learning to write. However, writing is the communication skill that most people use the least.
Q: Where did you learn public speaking?
My first speech class was in high school. I had the coolest teacher ever. His name was Bill Lewis. He was tall and classy. He always wore suits. His favorite saying in speech class was, “Cool Your Jets!” He wanted all of us to slow down. This is so important when it comes to public speaking. Especially in the fast-paced communication era we now live in. I’m currently working on a book about delivering effective business presenentations in honor of Bill Lewis. The title is “Cool Your Jets!”
Q: How did you get into teaching, and how long have you been at this?
I was lucky enough to get a teaching assistanceship at Miami Ohio in 1985. So I was teaching 20 year olds when I was still in my 20’s.
4. What is the most common mistake people make when talking about
their business?
They don’t have a single presentation objective (SPO). An SPO is like a blurb in TV guide. Another way to think about it is a dust-jacket cover on a book. You must develop an SPO and practice it in public. I recently attended a backyard BBQ at a Biznik member’s home. This was a non-Biznik event. Many professionals were there networking. One gentleman stands out in my mind. He was an excellent speaker. He had maybe 6-7 people standing around him. The question came up, “So, Bill what are you up to these days?” Bill launched right into his SPO without hesitation. It was like the old commercial: “When EF Hutton speaks, people listen.” His pitch was smooth, clear, and best of all precise. Whe he was done, he just happened to have a stack of buisiness cards to hand out. It wasn’t a bit cheesy. Bill was very genuine and authentic about his offering. People appreciate this.
5. What can people who attend your upcoming workshop expect to learn?
To learn how to become comfortable speaking about themselves in public. Everyone will get a chance to develop there own SPO. What has always amazed me about the workshop mechanics is how the group bonds. Seeing the bonding is why I continue to teach this workhop. It’s very much like group therapy. The speaker only receives positive feedback from other group members. It’s amazing to see what happens when someone is bombarded with positive comments. Their fear of speaking slips away. As a facilitator, I do give constructive feedback as to what could be improved on. This is a very safe and supportive learning environment. It’s sacred ground.
John Martin is a Seattle-based presentation coach. To sign up for his workshop, visit http://biznik.com/events/2007/10/18/pitch-your-biz-in-60-seconds
Recording attendance after your business networking event is now a snap with Biznik’s new drag-and-drop tool
We’ve released a major improvement that makes it much easier for event hosts to record attendance after their events. The new tool automatically puts everyone who rsvp’d for your event into the “attended” column after the event, and you only have to drag the no-shows into the no-show column, then press “record.” Here’s a brief video tutorial that shows you how it’s done:
business networking event management online networking rsvp toolBusiness networking is not a spectator sport: Biznik’s new algorithm rewards active participation
Biznik is built on the notion that business networking is NOT a spectator sport. It’s a game where you get out of it in direct proportion to what you put into it. The more active you are, the more you’re likely to gain … and the more the entire community gets out of it, too. So we’ve developed an algorithm that rewards active members by displaying them at the top of the membership directory. There are a lot of reasons why you’d want to earn a spot close to the top: Google ranks your profile much more highly, for example, than if it finds your profile buried on page 59 of the directory. Not to mention the fact that the membership directory is the second most popular page on the entire website, so tons of real people will see your profile and have an opportunity to learn about your services, which can translate into increased business for you. And getting more business is a big part of why we’re all here!
So here’s the scoop: Today we made a huge change to that algorithm. And it’s already resulted in a big change in who’s who in the membership directory. And there are even bigger changes coming. We’re going to cut to the chase and give you an overview of the new rules of the game, so that you can start playing, too.
In a nutshell, we’ve changed the rules to reward what we call “active” rather than “passive” participation. Up to now, we’ve rewarded passive participation such as simply viewing another members profile or updating your profile. No more. As of today, members are rewarded for “active” participation only. Here’s what we’re talking about: 1. Hosting an event. The most active form of participation, by far, is hosting an event. The value to everyone - including the person hosting - should be obvious. 2. Attending events. Enough said - events are where real relationships are formed, and it’s what makes Biznik special from just about every other online social network out there. 3. Since the value of Biznik to every member increases in direct proportion to the size of the network, we value you inviting your friends, especially when your friend actually accepts your invitation and joins. So that’s now worth a ton of points.
Other forms of activity that we consider active: uploading photos from an event (you will get points every time you do that - we want to encourage that because much to our surprise, hardly anyone is uploading photos from their events and it adds a lot of value to see what’s happening at your event). Sending business referrals. Introducing members. Sending compliments.
A note to event hosts: we discovered while we were at it that event hosts weren’t getting the points that they should have been getting, which is why you’ll notice that there are currently a whole bunch of event hosts who don’t appear on the first page of results. That’s about to change. From now on, event hosts will get a huge (and I mean huge) number of points at the moment that they record attendance for an event. So it’s going to be possible for people who are hosting Biznik events to go from zero to sixty just by hosting several events. All of this is time sensitive, by the way, so just because you hosted a dozen events last year doesn’t mean much - it’s what you’ve done relatively recently that gets counted (although we do have a long tail in the mix, so all things being equal, you’ll outrank a new event host if you’ve been hosting events for awhile).
We’ll be keeping a close eye on how members sort out using the new participation point system, because we want to make sure that the active rather than passive members of Biznik are getting the most visibility for their participation. So jump in, and rest assured your active participation will be rewarded!
business networking online networking participation social networkTell us what you love about Biznik in 20 words or less
Biznik membership is growing steadily at an average of 15 new members per day. But we’d like to see that rate increasing, so we’re launching a campaign to get first-time visitors to Biznik.com to sign up. And, because Biznik is all collaboration, we’re going straight to you to come up with content for this campaign, and in return, are giving participants an excellent opportunity to gain additional visibility for your business. Here’s how it works: Tell us what you love about Biznik in 20 words or less. If we choose your quote, it’ll appear in rotation in the right column of selected pages throughout the website, and will include your name, your business name, and a link to your profile. So, what do you love about Biznik? Post your quote here. Here’s same examples of what we’re looking for:
New look for Biznik home page
The Biznik home page is sporting a new look this morning. Visitors to the site who are not logged in now see a much simpler message: “Build relationships. Promote your business. Share your experience.” Followed by a brief description: “The local, independent business network where relationships matter more than referrals and collaboration beats competition.” Also, there are now a dozen photos that rotate on the home page, showing several of the different types of Biznik events, from dog-walking networking events to educational workshops, with plenty of smiling faces from happy hours in between. We hope the new look makes it easier for first-time visitors to grasp what Biznik is all about while inviting them to take a closer look. Do you think it works?
local independent business redesign social networkNew books about online business networking
Until now, surprisingly few books have been written about online business networking, perhaps because it’s a relatively new phenomenon. Lucky for us, though, that seems to be changing. A new book about business networking, Lets Connect, has just been published. It’s available today for the first time today Amazon.com. And the cool thing about this book: author Jan Vermeiren, who hails from Holland, interviewed Biznik a few months ago while writing it (and I THINK she included Biznik in her book, although I haven’t actually gotten my hands on a copy yet). If you can judge a book by its cover, this one will be great!
Much closer to home here in Seattle, there’s another book currently being written on the same topic by Kirkland Biznik member Anne Alberg, due out early next year. Her working title is “Leveraging the Internet: Using online social networking as a tool to grow your business.” She interviewed me last week, so I’m thrilled that we’ll be included in her book, too. I’ll keep you posted when that one is published, and who knows - maybe we can talk her into hosting a workshop of the same title when its published!