Q: Tell me briefly the story behind ideablob.

While there are a variety of idea sites, there is a problem. That is, many good ideas need some capital. So, why not develop a platform to fund these ideas?

That was the basic inspiration for Ideablob. And, we think that $10,000 is the right amount to prove out an idea.

Since launching in October, we have provided funding for 8 and soon to be 9 ideas.

I was attending an un-conference in Northern Israel. I saw this really cool computer animation presentation by a young artist. I thought about how much her world would change if she had a little capital to launch her business. When I returned to Advanta, we decided to launch ideablob so that we could provide other idea makers with a place to get great advice and a little capital.

Q: How are you involved in this project, and what’s your role?

I’m the Chief Innovation Officer at Advanta, which is one of the largest credit card issuers for small businesses. The Innovation Team is charged with inspiring and connecting with the small business community. Ideablob is one of these projects.

Q: How can ideablob be useful to someone growing a small business?

Of course, the opportunity to win $10,000 is a big factor. But there are other considerations. For example, it’s a great exercise to put your idea into writing. It helps to flesh things out. Something else: Ideablob has a thriving community of advisors made up of experts and peers, which provides valuable feedback for new ideas. It’s something that’s quite unique on the Web.

Q: As someone involved in building a community site, what has been your biggest challenge so far? Your biggest success?

I think the big challenge is that there is no playbook. In other words, you need to try lots of things – and some of it will work.

As for the biggest success, it would be the quality of our users. They are providing a wealth of new ideas and advice.

Q: Why is ideablob sponsoring BizJam?

Biznik is successful place where business people network. We think this is absolutely critical for aspiring entrepreneurs. After all, it can be lonely when starting a business – and there are many pitfalls.

I also like the local aspect. This makes it easier for business people to help each other. I think we get too involved in virtual communities. Instead, face-to-face meetings can be extremely helpful.

Q: Will you be attending BizJam

You bet, I look forward to it.

Q: Have you always wanted to run your own business?

I have always maintained that I was not a business person and that I would never start my own business.  I didn’t have a change of heart I just didn’t realize that my passion and drive to create something was leading me down this path.  At one point, after we had opened our doors, I took a moment to reflect back to the objections I had and realized I still have them.  The traditional way of doing business where “It’s not personal” is absurd and I refuse to act in that manner.  Business is fundamentally personal and it’s the human element people are starved for in our excessively convenient, self-serve, corporation dominated world.

I’ve held a number of jobs and worn many hats.  In college I worked as an industrial painter at a chemical plant.  I got a Computer Science degree and worked at a number of startups writing software.  I went to massage school got licensed as a massage therapist.  I’ve worked odd jobs as a bartender and handyman and for 4 years I ran a free taxi service here in Seattle to amuse myself and show people it’s not always about money.

Q: How did the idea of Office Nomads come about?

I had been fantasizing about something like this for many years and it continually evolved.  In April of last year it had been coming up more and more often so I decided to give it some space to see where it would go.  I had heard that some folks down in San Francisco were doing something similar so I searched around and discovered coworking. I knew in an instant that was what I wanted to do and proceeded to make it happen.  I met Susan in July because she had been talking with a mutual friend of ours about her fantasy of neighborhood office spaces where people could walk to work rather then drive.  She was still traveling in Nairobi but when she got back we met for coffee and it didn’t take long to convince her we should do this together.

Q: What is the long-term vision you have for Office Nomads?

The most important thing to understand about what we are doing at Office Nomads is that for us it’s about building social capitol not making it rich.  To achieve this we need a sustainable business and that means making a profit but profits are not our motivation.  This makes conversations about competition and franchising particularly amusing to us because that just doesn’t make any sense.  We want to build a space that facilitates a vibrant community that we can be a part of.  I don’t want to place any restrictions or have any preconceived notions about where this will lead but I’m exited to see where it goes.

Q: Who are your role models / mentors and why?

There are a number of great people in the coworking world and it would be difficult to name them all.  Brad Neuberg coined the phrase and Chris Messina and Tara Hunt from Citizen Space in San Francisco have championed coworking from it’s inception.  Alex Hillman from Independence Hall in Philadelphia has been a very vocal advocate from early on.  Eva Schweber and David Kominsky from Cube Space in Portland were instrumental in the creation of Office Nomads sharing their business plan and startup stories last summer when we were just an idea.  Julie Duryea from Souk, also in Portland and Derek Young from Suite 133 in Tacoma have been hugely supportive and we are grateful to have them as friends.

Q: What was the last book you read?

Urban Tribes by Ethan Watters.  It’s not the last book I’ve read but it’s one I’d definitely love to recommend.  Ethan was part of the group that started the San Francisco Writer’s Grotto in the mid 90s and he has some excellent insights into the world of community building.

Q: Why do you do what you do?

I just want to live a full and rich life and surround myself with people who are similarly motivated.

Q: Tell me the short story about Entellium.

Like all budding entrepreneurs, I started Entellium with the desire to change the world in some way. My goal was to build a suite of products that would make sure smaller business owners are able to automate all the mundane tasks so they can continue to do what they love – and compete successfully with the big guys. The idea was simple— focus on user-designed innovation to create a better user experience, match or better the functionality of our competitors, offer a better value proposition, and include free 24/7 support for every subscriber. The good news—it’s working. Entellium solutions harness the energy and vibrancy of small businesses, while being intuitive to use and reliable. We have maintained our focus on smaller businesses, and helped our customers make their businesses more successful.

Q: What is CRM?

Simply put, CRM or Customer Relationship Management is software that helps you develop, manage and improve your customer relationships. CRM allows businesses to better manage their sales and customer support operations, to capture more leads, streamline sales to win more deals, and better build and maintain successful relationships.

Q: Isn’t CRM mainly for larger enterprises?

It is true that in the past CRM was only for large enterprises, being very expensive and requiring a lot of technical expertise. Entellium has changed that completely making CRM software custom designed for small businesses with easy to implement and use solutions that even the smallest of small business can afford.

Q: Can the smallest of small businesses benefit from using CRM software?

Small businesses with just an owner come to Entellium with a single problem: they have too much paperwork to track so they’re losing valuable time, and likely, valuable sales. Automating the manual processes lets them focus on selling and doing what they love – that’s why they opened their business to begin with!

Q: What makes Entellium different from other products in the same space?

Unlike other CRMs, which generally target large enterprise businesses, sell a watered down version to small businesses, and the pricing, contracts and extra services are over-complicated. Entellium’s CRM has the features that small businesses ask for most, designed in such a way that they can get up and running quickly, without extensive deployment time. Being focused exclusively on small business means that our solutions are easy to use and implement, and integrate easily with your Outlook and financial software. And unlike other CRMs, Entellium supports our customers with a service level agreement, 24×7 live chat support included, and a money back guarantee. All this makes buying and using Entellium CRM risk free.

Q: Why is Entellium sponsoring BizJam?

Entellium and BizJam share the common goal to help small businesses grow and succeed. BizJam helps small business network and find contacts, Entellium supports small businesses with software to help manage those contacts to grow their business. All that plus the opportunity to support our local small business community, is why Entellium is sponsoring BizJam.

Q: Briefly describe what you do for a living.

I am a benefit auctioneer and a communications consultant. I am also an improviser and film actor, and I teach improv to actors and in the workplace.

Q: You seem like someone who has successfully turned his passion into a business. What was the biggest obstacle you faced along the way?

Stretches of poverty.

Q: Tell me about the workshops you teach. Are they relevant for business owners?

When you learn to improvise, you leave 1 million rules at the door and replace them with 5 or 6 new ones. Once these basic principles are understood and learned, you have a lot more room to move. You can see more and farther. Your options increase. That’s why it’s a great skill for business owners. If we can’t shift paradigms every now and then in a timely manner, we are often out of business.

Q: What piece of advice would you give, based on your experience, to anyone building a small business?

Look for what you do better than anyone else and build on that. (I guess that’s the hedgehog principle.)

Q: What’s the last book you read?

Artful Making

Q: What are you planning for attendees on Thursday night at BizJam?

We are going to do something called “Story Wave.” I’ll tell a short story, and then we’ll break up into groups and one person will tell a story he or she’s inspired to tell because of listening to my story. Then another person will tell a story she or she was inspired to tell because they listened to that person’s story. The idea is to resist deciding what story you’ll tell until it’s your turn. It’s a listening exercise more tthan anything else. It’s also a lot of fun.

I interviewed Laura to learn a bit more about Intuit, and what small businesses like ours can learn from their success.

Q: Tell me briefly what you do at Intuit.

I am a Product Manager in our QuickBooks group. I regularly go out to visit small businesses and see how they are managing their finances. I then go back to the office and design QuickBooks features that I think will help them streamline their finances or make it easier for them to manage and control their finances.

Q: Tell me the short version of the Intuit story.

In 1982, Scott Cook noticed that his wife was struggling to balance her checkbook. He thought that there must be a better way. He developed the first version of a software called Quicken to help his wife and other consumers to manage their personal finances. Since then, the company has grown into business finance software (QuickBooks), tax software (TurboTax), payroll, website design, and other services.

Q: How does a large organization like Intuit connect with and understand the smallest of small businesses?

We started as a small business! And, from day one of building this company, Scott Cook talked to his customers to find out how he could help them. He would sit outside of a store and when he saw someone buying Quicken, he would ask if he could come with them and watch them install and use the software. Based on these visits, he would make improvements to the software. To this day, we have kept this tradition: Our employees regularly go out on what we call “Follow me home” visits where we watch our customers manage their business and learn what is keeping them up at night.

Q: Why is Intuit interested in sponsoring BizJam?

We started our relationship with Biznik back in April. We’ve been very impressed with how Biznik is so committed to the solo-entrepreneur and in making them successful. Intuit is also committed to helping solo-entrepreneurs, so it’s a good fit. I can’t wait to come to BizJam and meet everyone who I’ve been interacting with online.

Q: Intuit has been called “the most admired software company in America” for three years in a row by Fortune Magazine. Why do you think that is?

Personally, I think it’s because we are so focused on doing the right thing by helping small businesses be successful and by making sure that we are connected with our customers. I’ve always been amazed at how pervasive the culture is. Every product manager, marketing manager, and senior leader has gone out to visit a small business customer and has, often times, developed an ongoing relationship with the business owner to run ideas off of. As such, decisions at Intuit are informed by the desire to help small business owners achieve their business dreams by trying to solve their everyday problems.

Q: Is there any lesson that a small business can take from that?

Absolutely! My advice would be to conduct research with your customers to find out how to improve your products and services. Ask a subset of your customers: How did you find out about my business? What made you decide to buy something from me? What did I do well in serving you? What could I do better? As long as you are open to hearing their answers, it will help you go a long way towards improving your business.

Kestrel, which is a Washington winery, is doing some interesting things not only with how they make wine, but also in how they market it. I interviewed Kestrel’s Kelly Koon (who is also a Biznik member) recently, to find out more about both.

Q:  Tell me a the short story behind Kestrel Wine.

We basically have two categories of wines: our Collector series “Lady” bottle wines, and our Ultra Premium/Winemaker Select wines. I specifically work to promote our “Lady” wines-the “Lady in Red” and “Pure Platinum” wines and I have recently (last September) created a women’s wine club called “The Vinevixens” to promote these “hard working ladies.”

The “Vinevixens” were started to build relationships with our customers as bringing Kestrel to the forefront as a leader in giving back to the community with great wines! We bring sign up sheets to all of the events we pour at and collect contact information for women interested in learning more about wine, supporting charity and having fun.

ALL events need great wine to, as I say, as the “libatious lubrication” for the audience and enhance the event/auction and make a great experience for all involved. We offer a huge discount for 501c3 charities to bring our wine into their events and help raise funds for these causes. We also can come and pour our wines at events to help the charity and sell the wine to raise funds for the charity. There are pictures on the website of the events we have done in the last year.

Our wines - in particular our Lady in Red - red blend collector series wines, and Pure Platinum-white blend collector series wines are fantastic everyday wines and once you’ve experienced them at a great event that perhaps is even raising money for a cause close to your heart, you will connect with Kestrel and bring the ladies home with you when you encounter them out on your trips to the market!

Q: What is special about Kestrel wines relative to other wines produced in Washington?

There are many Washington wineries striving to do what Kestrel is doing! We are a work in progress and have come a long way!

Below is our mission and vision statements.. basically, we are a small group of people passionately dedicated to creating outstanding uncompromising wines that create a special moment in your everyday and enhance your special occasion…

Our Vision-
Kestrel innovatively crafts wines of the highest caliber, showcasing the unique terroir of the Pacific Northwest.  Through passion, knowledge and stewardship, we give our customers, community, and the world a little piece of the good life.

Our Mission-
We delight our customers with the Kestrel experience. One taste reveals masterfully tended vineyards, innovative winemaking techniques and unrieveled hospitality.

Q: What was the last book you read?

“The True Power of Water” by Masaru Emoto

I am curious about the energy we put into wine ultimately affecting the energy that will come out of it… and about the power of water in general.

I was just at Deception Falls  yesterday.. WOW, check it –POWER!

Q: Is there anything that you’ve learned by making amazing wine that applies to small business in general, that you can share with our readers?

Wine can be something to look forward to - a special retreat in a glass… Our goal is to create a relationship with our customers so that they know we made that special wine for them and they can count on us to ‘be there for them’, after a ‘day you want to drink after’ or for their special event! It seems that small business realizes and respects the POWER of the “customer relationship” over the big huge conglomerates that rule the world now a days. The webs and nets of relationships that support small business’ are strong!

Q: Who are your role models or mentors and why?

My father, who started a printing business in the basement of our house the year I was born. He was also a home winemaker, his business took off through his connections and the way he did business more than the advertising he paid for, his wine- well, not so much, but he worked hard and was always open to ways his business could help others. He grew his business BY helping others to have better lives, I believe that is a powerful way to do business and live life!

Q: How does Kestrel Wines define success?

Happy, satisfied returning customers who clammer to have more of our fantastic wines and the freedom our winemaker has to creatively and innovative-ly make very wonderful high quality wines.

Q: Why is Kestrel sponsoring BizJam?

Biznik seems to attract successful people who have found a middle groung between the old saying “Live to work or work to live.” I’ve always thought of myself as someone who “works to live” but when you are an entrepreneur and your life is your work, there has to be a way to marry the two harmoniously and the people I’ve met through Biznik seem to have the “greater good” tied into their business plan - for themselves personally as well as for a special supportive community that is being formed through Biznik.

Kestrel wants to be the wine that flows for these unique successful individuals as we at Kestrel are excited about creating new and innovative winemaking and marketing techniques and building a special relationship with our customers.

Q: Briefly describe your company and what you do.

In a nutshell, being MEdia is a video production and new media company. I’m the Digital Media Director.

The longer answer is this: We make documentaries for non-profits and for festival or theatrical release. We also focus a lot of energy on creating online videos for businesses, individuals and non-profits. We do special event and corporate videography which includes things like weddings, commitment ceremonies, speeches and presentations. We also edit video, create DVDs, and help with online and off line distribution strategies.

When I say that we are a new media company, I mean that we help deliver content on new media platforms like mobile phones, the web and other electronic hand-held devices. We do some web application development, internet encoding and media- related web design projects.

Finally, we provide freelance crews for video & film projects. Through this, we’ve had the chance to work on some really amazing stuff. For example, I was part of the post- production team for the Academy-Award nominated documentary Iraq In Fragments.

Q: Have you always wanted to run your own business?

Absolutely. In fact, when I was 15, I started a record company to showcase local bands. Throughout the years, I’ve always had a small endeavor that has kept me busy and excited.

Q: How and when did the idea of your company come about?

Previous to being MEdia, I was working in various social service positions. I have a MA in Mental Health Counseling. While finishing my degree, I realized that this wasn’t what I wanted to do. I enjoyed learning ways to truly communicate with people, how to think critically, how to connect with my inner process and how to listen to others. Outside of that skill set, I couldn’t find a place within the social service industry that felt good for the long term. in Mental Health Counseling.

While assessing my own skills and interests, I kept coming back to two things: I wanted to tell people’s stories; and I loved media. It felt exciting to bridge the two.

Then, billie and I moved to Dripping Springs, Texas for a brief time. Things weren’t working out for us financially, and we needed an income generating source. That need pushed us to take the risk and start our own business.

We started in 2004 as a company that did VHS to DVD transfers. Since then, we expanded our abilities, expanded our services and reformulated our company as a values-driven, full service video production and new media company.

Through the last four years, being MEdia has grown tremendously.

Q: How many hours do you work a day on average?

It depends. Some days we work 4 to 6 hours a day. Other days it’s 8 to 10. Then, there are the long days, occasional all nighters and such that seem to define the small business owner.

Q: What was the last book you read?

Peace Is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh.

Q: Who are your role models / mentors and why?

My mentors include story teller Utah Phillips, poet June Jordan, Thich Nhat Hanh and other people who have contributed something unique to our world. Also, my business/ life partner billie is a definite role model. She is a grounding force in keeping our business aligned with the values we’ve set forth.

Q: If you could give blog readers one piece of advice what would it be?

Hmmm. I guess it would be: Laugh often.

Q: Do you have any future expansion plans?

We’re definitely growing as a business. We are producing some original video content this year, including the pilot of a TV series. Everything else is business as usual.

I interviewed iStockphotos PR director, Karla Udziela, to find out a little more about the company and their story. Karla manages global media relations for iStockphoto, monitors coverage about the company and executes creative tactics. If you’d like to meet her and learn more, you’ll have a chance to do that in two weeks at BizJam.

Q: Tell me the short version of the iStockphoto story.

iStockphoto democratized access to terrific imagery and video, by offering stock photos and videos starting as low as $1. Prior to iStock, small businesses had no options for low-cost imagery other than to do it themselves. iStock also functions as a community, a virtual home to more than 50,000 artists worldwide, who make a royalty from every image or video sold at iStockphoto.com.

Q: Why is your service competitive today?

iStockphoto is localized in 12 languages and offers the freshest collection. We also offer advanced search capabilities for our customers, so they can search by color or even for space for copy. Finally, each image or video file is hand-inspected for technical quality and legal sale, so that trademark issues and model releases are doublechecked, saving buyers worry.

Q: What’s compelling about iStockphoto for independent business people?

Great imagery and stock videos from the world’s leading destination for royalty-free stock. Pay once and use multiple times. Now you can add style and substance to Web pages, marketing collateral and presentations without breaking the bank.

Q: iStockphoto has been incredibly successful at tapping into the power of community to build the business. Are there lessons in your success that you can share with others who are building businesses of their own?

Listen to the community, even when it hurts…The community is your heart and soul. When you welcome criticism and share your dilemmas, the community respects that.

Q: Why is iStockphoto sponsoring BizJam?

iStock is sponsoring BizJam because Seattle is a thriving independent business community. 75 percent of our three million-member customer base is small businesses. We believe in supporting their growth. BizJam is doing the same, so it is a perfect match.

Matt is talking about Authentic Communication with your Customers and Keith is covering Entrepreneurial Success By Design. Both workshops are focused on the small-business entrepreneur and we’re expecting standing-room only crowds.

We couldn’t be happier that BizJam is being sponsored by a company that Forbes Magazine survey respondents earlier this year called “the most admired software company in America” for a third year in a row.

Is it possible that a huge company like Intuit really cares about the smallest of small businesses?

Here’s a clue. During the month of April this year, Laura and her colleague at Intuit, Bridget O’Brien, spent the month contributing a series of educational business articles to Biznik’s Learn section. And Laura will be flying up to Seattle from Intuit’s headquarters in San Francisco for the full two days of BizJam, to meet small business owners like you, and participate in the conference.

Welcome to BizJam, Intuit.