Sm. Biz. General Discussion

Know of a Good Marketing/PR Design Person?

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 10:55:59 PDT

A client of mine is looking for help designing a marketing kit of sorts for her small radio show. She can't afford the full firm driven PR and design extravaganza so she'll need to use a decent freelance marketing designer/consultant who's good at designing press kits or a small company affordable enough for a small operation like hers.
If finding such a creature isn't very realistic, she can also make do with a consultant who can direct her (or us) in the right direction in assembling the marketing kit and...more

Review: Earthlink Web Hosting(Phone/Data)

Wed, 30 Aug 2006 12:19:58 PDT

Reviewed: Earthlink Web Hosting
Description: The well known ISP Earthlink also offers web hosting for people and small businesses.
Review Title: Fast Servers, but No Power and Frustrating Customer Service
My Rating: Thumbs Down
My Opinion: Earthlink Web Hosting got rated one of the top web hosting providers by C-net. How they managed that rating, I have no idea. Some serious money must have...more

Review: Better Business Bureau of Silicon Valley(Misc)

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 07:56:05 PDT

Reviewed: Better Business Bureau of Silicon Valley
Description: The Silicon Valley chapter of the Better Business Bureau serves the areas in and around Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties. They're best known for the reports that they provide on businesses and organizations. Their mission is to encourage self regulation on the part of businesses and promote good and ethical business practices.
Review Title: Too Bad You Can't Report the BBB to themselves
My...more

Did Someone Steal Your Domain Name?

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 09:51:37 PDT

If you've ever researched a domain name that you wanted, but waited to register it only to find out a day or two later that it's been claimed by some mysterious company, read on. There are some shady players who are running a domain name registration scam that tries to buy the domain names that you want so they can sell it back to you at exorbitant rates. This isn't the old practice of cyber-squatting that was common in the boom years. This is far more pervasive.
Here's my scenario. A...more

Review: Domain Registry of America(Phone/Data)

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 08:52:41 PDT

Reviewed: Domain Registry of America
Description: Domain Name Registration known for those "patriotic" looking domain name registration notices that they send via the postal service.
Review Title: Domain Name Registry of America is a Borderline Scam � My Rating: Thumbs Down!
My Opinion: This company is a recurring headache for me because they flip out my clients year after year with their deceptive mail notices for domain name renewals. If you own a...more

Know of a good place for customized give away promo items?

Mon, 27 Jun 2005 02:45:51 PDT

We're looking for some inexpensive give away items that we could print with info about Social Wave. These would be things like pens, buttons, keychains, bottle openers, etc. The more interesting (but practical) the item, the better. Anyone know of a good source for this kind of stuff in the South Bay?

Bad Check Restitution Program

Mon, 30 May 2005 06:17:48 PDT

If you're a merchant in Santa Clara County and one of your customers has written you a bad check and won't make good on it, the Santa Clara County Bad Check Restitution Program is here to help. Sheldon and I found out about this at a great presentation done at a meeting of the Campbell Chamber of Commerce. It's run by the SC County District Attorney, it's very simple and effective, and it's at no cost to your business or taxpayers. For information on it, go to:
http://www.checkprogram.com/santaclaracounty
As they say, it's...more

credit card processing recommendation?

Wed, 23 Mar 2005 11:39:51 PST

hello all, i'm new here.
i have a little cafe in palo alto. our credit card processing contract is getting over now, so we are free to move on to a new processor. so i wonder if any of your business also take credit charge, and if you have any low rate cc processors to recommend.
also, our credit card printer just broke down, so i'm looking for a new printer also. will barter for food if you have a spare one.
thanks,
cindy.
...more

Better Business Bureau, Worth the $$$ to Join?

Tue, 08 Mar 2005 03:42:33 PST

Anyone here a member of the BBB? Anyone have an opinion on if they're worth the money to join?
I just joined as a BBB member and I'm having second thoughts about it. Their website was broken half the time in the past month and when I've been in contact with them, they appeared to be disorganized, which didn't inspire me to believe that my membership money was wisely spent. Besides the poor communication, one thing that really put me off was when they didn't know they could look up...more

Calling All Owners & Partners in Local Small Businesses

Tue, 15 Feb 2005 10:43:58 PST

Attention owners and partners in locally owned small businesses in Silicon Valley, we're trying to establish a peer network for support, advice, and other information. This is the first message posted to this group's forums, so I'll take a minute to lay out details for this group.
Who it's for: Owners, partners, and supporters of Silicon Valley based small businesses.
Why start this group: I've taken limited part in some other small business online networks, but didn't like them because...more