Biznik - Business Networking that Doesn't Suck

Make Mine a Million Dollar Business deadline extended to May 19

Dan McComb — Wed, 14 May 2008 16:34:19 +0000

The award program application deadline for Make Mine a Million Dollar Business that I blogged about recently has been extended to May 19. So if you’re thinking about entering, you’ve got a little more time.

For more info about the award program and how to apply online go to http://makemineamillion.org/seattle.

If you have questions about the application process, call in to a Q&A applicant conference call that will answer questions about the Make Mine A Million $ Business and Micro to $Millions application process. The conference call will be held on Thursday, May 15, 2008 at 12PM PST. Please dial 641-715-3888, passcode 6729435.

If you apply (and win!) you will receive:

Inspiration, community, coaching and mentoring from Count Me In
Up to $50,000 in financing from OPEN from American Express, financial consultation and promotion in marketing and press campaigns
Consultations about work/life balance, small business insurance needs and financial planning from AIG
Cisco Smart Business Communications Network from Cisco Systems® valued at up to $20,000 for select awardees
Discounts from FedEx® select shipping and office and print services
A $500 Gift Certificate for hotel stays at any Marriott® in the U.S.
Dell Vostro NotebookTM, built exclusively for small business valued up to $1000, from Dell®
Private Yahoo Group

The Northwest program is open to women business owners in the Northwest Region including: Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Montana and Oregon.

Event Info:
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
8 AM to 4:30 PM PST
Seattle Center Fisher Pavilion

Make Mine a Million conference for women entrepreneurs comes to Seattle on June 11

Dan McComb — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:01:58 +0000

The Make Mine A Million conference for women entrepreneurs is coming to Seattle on June 11. The conference is a day of inspiration, marketing and mentoring opportunities for women, with the stated goal of helping them build their existing companies into companies exceeding $1 million in revenue.

Here’s the details:

Make Mine a Million $ Business is seeking applicants to its award program …

The application deadline is May 14.
Don’t miss this great opportunity to win MONEY, MENTORING & MARKETING to help grow your business.

On June 11 in Seattle, national not-for-profit organization Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence will announce the winners as part of a day-long event for their Make Mine a Million $ Business program. This program supports and promotes the success of women entrepreneurs throughout the Northwest.

For more info about the award program, visit the website.

If you have questions about the application process, call in to a Q&A applicant conference call that will answer questions about the Make Mine A Million $ Business and Micro to $Millions application process. The conference call will be held on Thursday, May 8, 2008 at Noon PST. Please dial 641-715-3888, passcode 6729435.

If you apply (and win!) you will receive:

Inspiration, community, coaching and mentoring from Count Me In

Up to $50,000 in financing from OPEN from American Express, financial consultation and promotion in marketing and press campaigns

Consultations about work/life balance, small business insurance needs and financial planning from AIG

Cisco Smart Business Communications Network from Cisco Systems® valued at up to $20,000 for select awardees

Discounts from FedEx® select shipping and office and print services

A $500 Gift Certificate for hotel stays at any Marriott® in the U.S.

Dell Vostro NotebookTM, built exclusively for small business valued up to $1000, from Dell®

Private Yahoo Group

The Seattle program is open to women business owners in the Northwest Region including: Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Montana and Oregon.

Event Info:
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
9 AM to 4 PM PST
Seattle Center Fisher Pavilion

Attendee Registration Info
Early Bird – 3/17/08 thru 4/24/08 - $55.00
Regular Price – 4/25/2008 thru 5/24/08 - $65.00
Late Registration – 5/25/08 thru 6/08/08 - $75.00
On-Site Registration – 6/11/08 - $75.00

Biznik business networking events can now have co-hosts

Dan McComb — Mon, 12 May 2008 02:23:30 +0000

You’ve been asking for this one for a long time, and now you’ve got it: event co-hosts. This new feature gives you the ability for more than one person to host an event, and get credit for it on the event page. Like most everything else on Biznik, using the tool is drop-dead simple: Just look for the Add Host link immediately under the name of the event host field. Clicking that field brings up a text box that you can begin typing the name of the co-host into. Select the person’s name from the list to add them. In pictures:

1. Click “Add Host.”

2. Find co-host by beginning to type first name. Add second name if necessary to limit results to one your want. Click on name to add.

Host is added:

The first host in the list gets to be the one pictured on the main events page and in search results. The person who creates the event is, by default, the one pictured. Change the order in which hosts are entered in order to change who is pictured.

Saturday BizSchool workshop is May 10

Dan McComb — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 19:02:10 +0000

Biznik member Bob Dunn is one of the organizers of a day of business workshops in Renton, that Biznik members in the South Seattle area may find worthwhile in to attend. Myself and Biznik member Pamela Ziemann will be attending to participate in a panel discussion about business networking. Here’s the scoop:

Brought to you by the RTC Small Business Development Center, the Seattle Chamber’s Urban Enterprise Center, Renton Chamber of Commerce, the Southwest King County Chamber of Commerce and the City of Renton. Saturday BizSchool is for business-minded people, start-ups and would-be start-ups, people who sell a product or service on a part-time basis, the self-employed and business owners with fewer than 10 employees. Attend your choice of classes and listen, ask questions and learn from small biz owners and experts.

Almost Free Biz School
Full day of classes and lunch, just $15
Saturday, May 10th, 8:30 am - 3:30 pm, Renton Technical College
Register online at: www.rentonbizschool.com

Topics include:

Blog Wild: A Hands-on Experience in How Blogs Can Help Your Business

Forecasting Your Cash Needs

How Businesses Get the Funds They Need to Grow

5 Communication Steps: Get the Sale

Know Your Customers’ Buying Motives

What’s Your Promise?: Creating Your Personal Small Business Brand

Make Your Money Work for You: Start Investing in Yourself NOW!

Maximize Your Legal Business Tax Deductions

Make More Money From Your Website

Supercharge Your Web Presence

A Marketing Plan: Useless Unless Used

Not All E-mails Are Spam: Secrets to Successful Web Marketing

Big Marketing Ideas, Small Budget: 8 Low-Cost Marketing Strategies

How Personal Networking Can Help Your Business?

Image uploading is temporarily broken, will be fixed soon

Dan McComb — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:27:45 +0000

If you’ve tried to upload a photo to your profile or anywhere else on Biznik since yesterday afternoon, you’ll notice that you can’t do it. We accidentally broke something yesterday with image uploads, and are working to resolve the problem as soon as possible today. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Dan

Six Hour Startup Conference comes to Seattle on May 31

Dan McComb — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 19:37:25 +0000

If you’re interested in starting a business in the next few months,
you may want to check out the Six Hour Startup Conference on May 31st. The idea behind the conference is to get a group of designers, developers, and people with business development skills together to actually build a business in 6 hours. “We are going to cover all of the essential things that you need to do to take an product and turn it into a company,” says event organizer Robert Eickmann. Here’s the scoop:

The conference is going to be a full speed, dynamic event where you
will be plunged into the nuts and bolts of getting your business off
the ground. We aregoing to cover incorporation, writing a business
plan, networking, marketing, protecting your IP rights. The questions
that you have about starting your own business will be answered. At
the end of the day you will have the framework and knowledge to get
your company up and running.

The ticket price is only $99 dollars. It includes the price of lunch,
and host of materials on setting up your company. We have a limited
number of free seats available for current full time college students,
send an email to conference@sixhourstartup.com and we will send you
details on how to qualify.

The webpage for the conference is:
http://www.sixhourstartup.com/conference and it includes a link to the
detailed conference agenda.

Buy your tickets at: http://sixhourstartup.eventbrite.com

Six Hour Startup - Is a Seattle Wa, based organization focused on the
creation of a vibrant culture of entrepreneurship in the Puget Sound
area. We hold monthly Six Hour Startup events, where we invite members
of the community to come and build a new product in a six hour time
frame. It is both a networking, and educational event that is totally
open to the public.

If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, please feel free to
contact conference@sixhourstartup.com

Biznik business networking community gets 10,000th member, Arvis Northrop

Dan McComb — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 01:54:41 +0000

On April 1st, I blogged about Biznik getting its 9,000th member. I estimated that, with a little help, we’d have 10,000 members by May 1. As it turns out, we got a lot of help. (Thanks to Wendy Kaufman’s story about Biznik on NPR.) As a result, less than two weeks later, I’m thrilled to welcome Arvis Northrop as the #10,000 member of this business networking community. Welcome Arvis! More about her in a minute…

When Lara and I started Biznik, we used to dream about having a network with 100 members. It seems like a pretty small number in hindsight, but it took us 7 months to reach that first milestone. Then we dreamed about having 500. Then 1,000, and then - dared we imagine it - 10,000 members. So it’s a big thrill for us to cross this psychological line. And it’s a big deal for the whole community, too, because the more members Biznik has, the more potential business relationships you can form here. And that, of course, is why we’re all here.

In the past 24 hours, Biznik has added 79 new members (well above our 30-day average, which currently stands at 57 new members per day). Our new dream: 15,000 members in time for BizJam Seattle on July 10.

Meanwhile, let’s learn a little more about Arvis. She’s from Napa, California, and she joined Biznik 5 days ago (yes, I should have blogged about this soooner, but I have been busy hiring an extraordinary team of developers - more on that in the next day or two).

What Arvis does
I am a freelance writer specializing in travel writing, ecotourism and Fair Trade. I write/edit newsletters, email campaigns, website content, press releases, etc. for businesses. I also do desktop publishing: flyers, postcards and PowerPoint presentations.

What Arvis does best
I consult small business owners on producing eye-catching marketing materials and creating interesting newsletters and email campaigns that people look forward to reading!

I write a series of local excursions called “Rambliin’ On” that encourage people to be aware of traveling responsibly, aka “eco-travel” whether around the Bay Area, California or worldwide.

I promote responsible travel and Fair Trade shopping with my e-newsletter, The Connection; bringing people articles and interviews about Fair Trade companies, independent businesses, and environmental news.

What does Arvis need?
I would like writing assignments and desktop publishing projects with businesses and non-profit organizations that work to make a positive difference in the world…and have a sense of humor, enjoy their work and insist on having fun!

Biznik wins Best of Class in 2007 Interactive Media Awards

Dan McComb — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:44:15 +0000

Biznik got another nice email today: we won the top honor in the 2007 Interactive Media Awards in the Events category. Every Biznik member who has hosted an event deserves to share in this honor, and I want to out a big “thank you” to all of you - you know who you are. Here’s the scoop:

Congratulations! We are happy to announce that your entry into the IMA competition, the Biznik: Business Networking Community Website (entered March 13, 2008), under the category Events, has won the IMA Best in Class Award with an overall score of 486.

The Best in Class award is the highest honor bestowed by the Interactive Media Awards. It represents the very best in planning, execution and overall professionalism. In order to win this award level, your site had to successfully pass through our comprehensive judging process, achieving very high marks in each of our judging criteria - an achievement only a fraction of sites in the IMA competition earn each year.

Biznik has been selected as an Official Honoree for the Social/Networking category in The 12th Annual Webby Awards

Dan McComb — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 20:09:43 +0000

Now, this is the kind of email I LOVE to get. Without further ado, I’ll share it with you all here. PS - I think with the added developers we’re brining on board we can win this next year! Thank you call for making this awesome business networking community happen.

Dear Dan:

It is my pleasure to inform you that Biznik has been selected as an Official Honoree for the Social/Networking category in The 12th Annual Webby Awards.

The Official Honoree distinction is awarded to work that scores in the top 15% of all work entered into the Webby Awards. With nearly 10,000 entries received from all 50 states and over 60 countries, this is an outstanding accomplishment for you and your team.

Congratulations!

David-Michel Davies
Executive Director

Erin Meehan wins $100 AmEx card

Dan McComb — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:04:59 +0000

We sent 1,000 randomly selected Biznik members a survey about a week ago, and I want to say a big “thank you” to all of you who took the time to respond (just over 12 percent of you). One of the respondents was Erin Meehan, a project manager at Captive Orbit, a High Tech Marketing and Interactive Media company here in Seattle. She’s the winner of the $100 AmEx card (which she can use just like cash).

“My roles include managing, concepting, opening doors to and researching a wide range of technical marketing projects as well as very creative troubleshooting (ala McGyver),” says Erin.