Everything About Business Except The Bottom Line: FunnyBusiness

Doing Business In Your Bathrobe Day

Four Years Ago, Kristie T was trying to figure out a way to get the media to pay attention to her book " I Love My Life: A Moms Guide To Working From Home."
She and her business partner came up with the idea of Doing Business In Your Bathrobe Day--never thinking that the media would embrace it
quite as enthusiastically as they have.

Kristie talks about the holiday and why she believes wearing your
bathrobe to work is the ultimate symbol of freedom from the corporate
cubicle.


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As Kristie shared in her blog Webmonz not everyone thinks Doing Business In Your Bathrobe Day is a good idea.

"Just got the press release sent to 3300+ media outlets. I got several request for interviews and more information. And then there was this one that makes it seem demeaning to host a holiday celebrating mom entrepreneurs who are wearing their bathrobe for 1 day.

Sorry. It’s cute, but our subscribers don’t wear bathrobes to work, even when that’s in their own homes. They are dressed for action, wanting to make money, so they need to make tracks on a moment’s notice. … Perhaps you can change our point of view!

Sincerely,

Lady’s Name
Publisher and President
Website.com

What do you think? Is Doing Business in your Bathrobe Day a fun holiday to celebrate women entrepreneurs or is it completely unprofessional to joke about wearing your bathrobe even for 1 day while you are working to show your entrepreneurial pride? "

Som interesting facts about women entrepreneurs working at home that I posted in my bi-weekly post at Blogher

$427 Billion is generated by home-based businesss--Entrepreneur Magazine
Newsweek estimated that by 2005 nearly 50% of all U.S. homes would have a home based busienss
Today women run 70% of home-based business: nearly 17 million. (National Center for Policy Analysis)

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Catching Up with the SPAM Queen

Four years ago Laura Betterly was in the business of producing commercial emails.
During an interview with a Wall Street Journal reporter she joked that she was the Spam Queen. The title stuck and for Laura it has been both a blessing and a curse.
While there were many who sent her hate mail, there were plenty of companies that sent her business. Today, a reformed commercial email producer, Betterly heads up In Touch media -- a marketing company focusing on search engine optimization, market research, blog, podcasting
The company recently launched SCOOOP.net that bills itself as a citizen journalism site. Laura talks about SCOOOP and what its like to be vilified in the media.

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A quest and a request

After the fourth day and the fifth attempt to figure out  how my daughter could use her One World Telecom prepaid calling card to call home for 9 cents a minute as opposed to the 31 cents a minute on her international cell phone, I decided to go for The ASK.

I didn't get very far. More on that later. That's when I decided to go on a quest-- I want to find out who owns One World prepaid Calling Card. The name on my daughter's card says One World Telecon -- I can't find them.

Perhaps my commitment to go on this quest was inspired by the fact that I have just completed Mark Helprin's Freddy and Fredricka-( a book club book) - Actually it wasn't the book that inspired me, but  R Forzani's review of it on Amazon

"If you decide to read this book, let me give you a bit of advice: You must get in the right frame of mind, which is to say you should temporarily suspend any disbelief, in preparation for some of the literally unbelievable things that happen in this wacky story. Just accept and laugh at some of the situations the two main characters get into, which at times border on the absurd, and you will enjoy this book more. "


That's how I feel about tracking down a company that doesn't want to be found. I have to get in the right frame of mind and temporarily suspend any belief for some of the unbelievable and unacceptable things that happen in a business world where companies play hide & seek with their customers.

This is a racket. My daughter's calling card had a $10 value on it. If you add up the time that I have spent trying to straighten the whole thing out --another person would simply walk away and say "forget it, it's just 10 dollars."

That's the problem. I would imagine a lot of people simply give up and the company gets people to deposit 10 dollars on a calling card that never gets used. You do the math.

If the U.S. Congress found fit to pass a law that makes it a federal offense to send  anonymous annoying emails and anonymous annoying comments on blogs, then surely there has to be a law that states that companies doing commerce in the United States cannot be anonymous to the general public.

So my quest is to find someone in authority at One World Telecom and have them add $5 to my daughter's calling card. ( Okay I would be happy if they add $10 but I was attempting to be more temperate in my request)  That's it. A reasonable request given the circumstances.

The original problem was that the access number on the card was no longer in working order. Neither were the next 3 phone numbers they gave me to have her try.

Now a word for the calling center. They did call me back on two occasions to update me on the problem. However, it wasn't until yesterday afternoon that I finally got a number that worked.

But, when I went for 'The Ask", I was told that they were just the calling center and didn't have the authority to add $5 to her calling card.

In one of my previous conversations I had learned that this particular calling center handled the customer service for 500 different calling cards

When I asked the obvious question, please give me the number of the calling card company so I can chat with them, I was told, " we are not permitted to provide that information."

And so my quest begins.And so does my request. Anyone who has information in the very secretive One World Telecom, please pass that information my way.

Tulip O'My Tulip

NOTE: The spellchecker is not working again..jeez.

It was the first post I saw when I clicked onto Blogher this morning --Liza Sabeter's provocative post Is this blog history in the making? I am 1 of 24 bloggers invited by Holland.com to visit Amsterdam

Here's the deal : the bloggers are being invited to a five day all expense-paid trip to Holland. No blogging about the trip will be required.

"In exchange for the trip each blogger will [a] be interviewed about the trip (the Dutch Tourism Board may be using this for online/offline promotions), [b] give Holland.com one month of premium adspace, and [c] put the "Bloggers in Amsterdam" logo in their nav bar for one year, linking it to this blog post to disclose the nature of the trip. The mantra here is transparency. "

Here is my response that posted on Blogher.

Is it transparency, unconscionable, or the changing of the guard?

This junket is both fascinating and a bit horrifying to me because it is forcing me to debate with myself the very core of my blogging ethics.

I think it is absolutely brilliant on the part of the tourism bureau of Holland and their marketing strategists. Money well spent.
Even before people are leaving there is attention on the program...Holland is getting exactly what it wants...media time. Bravo to them. From a marketing perspective , it is fabulous.

On a personal level I would love for someone to invite me to an all expense-paid vacation to Holland. My ego would love it that someone thought my blog was adworthy enough to be included. I would love just going and being on a junket and hanging out with a bunch of bloggers who may or may not be blogging in the spirit of "transparency' about the junket. In many ways, I would finally feel like I was getting paid for my work.

On first read,my inclination was to think I would have to decline the offer. This in no way an indictment against the bloggers invited and who accepted the junket.

It just highlights the spectrum of personal ethics and backgrounds that bloggers have.

For many ,the "transparency" of the entire vacation provides the ethical window to go, imbibe and take in the sites. Maybe you'll blog and maybe you won't. Actually you already have. And that is making some marketing person very happy. They probably have promised that the entire program would deliver X amount of coverage and this post is helping them achieve that goal.

Then there are they recovering journalists like myself --the ones who went to journalism school in an era where we were taught that it was "unethical" to accept anything in exchange for coverage. The goal was to try to be as objective as possible and the ethics said, when you are given a gift you are more likely to write favorable stuff.

But here's where my struggle erupts. Am I so steeped in old-fashioned values that I am not being realistic of the new business model?

Is accepting this junket really so different than a newspaper,TV or radio station that accepts advertising? As bloggers we are both the reporter and the advertising department-- that is if we are trying to make a living at blogging.

Traditional media outlets all exist thanks to advertisers(or grants from foundations which in my mind is advertising)so what's the problem in accepting a junket? A girl has to live and take a vacation once in awhile.

The old mantra was "don't mix advertising and 'the news'." Advertisers supposedly couldn't pressure the newsroom and say cover this story( that of course is debatable)

If, as a blogger, I would accept advertisers to my blog ( and they are very welcome) then what is my ethical problem with the junket? If an adveriser were really paying me, wouldn't I self-censor myself just as I self-censor myself about sharing stories about current business clients?

If I will accept compensation via advertising, isn't the junket just another form of compensation- a lovely one at that.

The journalist blogger in me is fascinated by this story just as I am fascinated by product placement advertising in movies and television, and advertisers trying to figure out how to out TiVo, TiVo.

So while I did not get a dance card on this one, I hope to 'cover' this story on several levels. I want to understand the ethics of it. I want to understand the personal censorship of it ( If you have a horrible hotel room, will you blog about that and face the possibility that when Saint Bart's offers a junket you may be excluded for bad blogging)and,

I want to understand---- if transparency is the new ethical standard, will truth or truthiness prevail?

Being Annoying is now a Federal Offense

It's being coined as the e-annoyance law. As C-Net reported , this law  which was signed in January states that if you are going to send an annoying email or comment on a blog, you better not do it anonymously.

"In other words, it's OK to flame someone on a mailing list or in a blog as long as you do it under your real name. Thank Congress for small favors, I guess.

This ridiculous prohibition, which would likely imperil much of Usenet, is buried in the so-called Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act. Criminal penalties include stiff fines and two years in prison.

"The use of the word 'annoy' is particularly problematic," says Marv Johnson, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. "What's annoying to one person may not be annoying to someone else."

Over at What Pisses You Off which bills itself as the Best Damn Debate Forum, the posters are debating the issue.

Ray says," If the ISPs hadn't been so intransigent when people complained about TOS
violations, and terminated accounts when it was clearly warranted, the new
law would not have been necessary."

Chadwick Stone replied, "Your silly little law wont silence:

1. Non-anonymous poasters
2. Poasters living outside of the U.S.
3. Poasters in the U.S. who realize that it it is unenforceable due to
it contradicting your first amendment

The thought of any prosecutor coming after an individual who posts an annoying comment to a blog is very funny(can you say the delete button) if it weren't so sad. As the C-net article states,

"Think about it: A woman fired by a manager who demanded sexual favors wants to blog about it without divulging her full name. An aspiring pundit hopes to set up the next Suck.com. A frustrated citizen wants to send e-mail describing corruption in local government without worrying about reprisals.

In each of those three cases, someone's probably going to be annoyed. That's enough to make the action a crime. (The Justice Department won't file charges in every case, of course, but trusting prosecutorial discretion is hardly reassuring.) "

Taking it a step further, does this mean that when journalists quotes a " high ranking member of the justice department" could those anonymous comments fall under this law?  It was bad enough when journalists are hauled in front of a grand jury to disclose sources. Now, under the e-annoyance law, they may not even be able to quote them.

A reminder to self: People read this stuff

It was not a call I would have ever expected to get. I guess I can thank Google Alerts--I doubt that Arnold Angeloni,CEO of Americinn ,is a regular reader of FunnyBusiness --not that there would be anything wrong with that.

Whatever the reason, it seems that Angeloni read my blog post where I shared some frustrations with the wireless setup at the Americinn in Ashland, Wisconsin.

Now Angeloni, didn't actually call me but he called the manager in Ashland and made sure that Todd, the manager did. Todd assured me that the next time I'm at the Americinn, I won't have any problems connecting to secure sites using their wireless system.

It was a small gesture. It took Todd maybe 3 minutes at most to leave me the voicemail and then chat with me when I returned his call. But I have written about my adventures in hotels and motels for the past year and the Americinn is the first place that responded.

I like that. It made me feel very good that the CEO was paying attention.

What it said to me is that the company is committed to customer service and they want to be known as a company that listens to their guests. I believe that.I saw that in action when I stayed there.Everyone was lovely and very helpful.

At the same time, it's a sobering reminder to myself about the power of the media because had I not blogged about it,but rather simply said something to Todd or even written to the company's headquarters,I doubt that the CEO would have gotten involved.

My wireless connection problems is exactly the kind of thing subordinates don't bother a CEO about.

When I was just starting out as a reporter, I covered a story about a young boy who had been kidnapped in Georgia and was found wandering around the Sears store in Richmond, Va. He had a note attached to his shirt, call my mom in Georgia.

Unbeknownst to the folks in Richmond, all hell was breaking out in Georgia. Jimmy Carter was the governor and he had called on the National Guard to search for the young boy.

When the Richmond authorities finally contacted Georgia -- more than 24 hours later--Carter had the mom flown up on the state jet.

I was in the airport to cover the joyful reunion. As I was standing there chatting with one of the camera guys from Georgia, he said, "find out why Richmond waited  more than 24 hours to contact Georgia to see if there was a missing boy." 

Seems that instead of following the instructions on the young boy's shirt, the authorities followed their procedure and handed him over to social service.

The next day, knowing that I was going to have some fun, I called the detective on the case and said I wanted to do a followup.I started the story very gently, and then doing my best Mike Wallace impersonation, I went in for the kill, demanding why they waited to call anyone in Georgia.

I was relentless. The police office was completely blindsided.  I left feeling I had done some of my best journalism ever. A couple of days later I learned he had been "transferred"..

Instead of feeling victory, I was horrified. I didn't mean for anyone to get fired. I just wanted them to not make the same mistake twice.

And so, as tickled as I am that the CEO of Americinn listened to what I wrote, it is a reminder that people actually read this stuff and that I have a responsibility to share stories honestly, accurately, and without any hint of personal revenge because someone's job could be on the line.

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Fukitol-relief for stressed out workers

It's Friday and this is funny. My friend Janie forwarded this to me via email.

This is just the teaser. The real fun is at www.fukitol.com

Here's a sampling of their happy cusotomers. Tanya says, I received an email at 5:10 pm today, Sunday evening, changing my entire work schedule for the month. As I was trying to write a letter of resignation to forward back to my boss which was more than 2 words long, I stopped to check my other emails. One was from my cousin Elaine, who sent me the promo for your drug. As an RN, I about laughed to death, and have decided to give my job another month.

Shea says, Wow, how do I ever begin? Your product means so much to me! Before this, I was always stressed about doing it all. Between home and family obligations, I was going insane. Now, I can take one tiny little pill and say Fukitol!!!

Patrick says, I've tried therapy, Anti-depressants, Anger-Management. I stumbled on to your Website by accident several months ago. After a few days of using the fukitol remedy, I felt better... AMAZING! Fukitol really works... and there are no nasty side effects... no diarrhea... cramps... or worse - limpis penisitis, a common problem with the other "cures". THANKS, FUKITOL!!!

When you stop by there site, you can enter your email. one lucky winner each friday wins a Fukitol poster( I know they're building a database for someone but I don't care --I'm on so many databases now that another one isn't going to reduce the stuff coming into my email box and if i use Fukitol I won't get stressed about it anyway).

They also have Fukitol Gear for sale including posters, t-shirts and my person favorite -- the fukitol keyboard key.

Advance Copy

Note: Spellcheck is on the fritz, again.

Time was that only a select few "inner" circle types were privy to the advanced copies of yet- to- be published books. As Meryl Evan writes in her blog, Meryl's Notes there's a new service for books on cutting edge technology that is changing all that.

"Safari has a new service called Rough Cuts. It gives you access to books BEFORE they’re published. These chapters won’t be fully edited or formatted for print. For computer-related topics, this is an excellent idea because you know it’s hard to keep up with technology especially for books. As soon as a book on a software product is published, a new version gets released soon after.

It’s not a free service, however. Instead, the Rough Cuts are sold at 50% off the book’s expected retail price. This gives you access to the evolving manuscript in PDF and you can provide feedback to the editors along the way. The FAQ explains the three purchase options: pre-publication, pre-publication and final product, or final product only.

If you purchase both versions, you may or may not save money. As you know, many online book stores rarely sell the books at the recommended retail price. You can also learn more on InformIT and O’Reilly Web sites."

People who subscribe to this service will gain access to ,

" an evolving PDF manuscript that you can read, download or print. Once you've purchased a Rough Cuts title, you will have a chance to shape the final product-you can send suggestions, bug fixes, and comments directly to the author and editors.

You have your choice in the Rough Cuts program of purchasing just online access, just the print book when it releases, or the best of both worlds - online access immediately and the print book later.

Rough Cuts titles live up to their name-they haven't been fully edited, subjected to final technical review, or formatted for print. In other words, they'll be very current, but they won't be pretty."

Rough Cuts is starting with four titles and says they will be adding more titles on an ongoing basis.

Available Rough Cuts:

Title	Available	Anticipated Publication Date
Ajax Hacks	January	03/01/2006
Flickr Hacks	January	02/01/2006
Ruby on Rails: Up and Running	January	03/01/2006
Ruby Cookbook	January	09/01/2006