New Meetup Group

I am hosting a new meetup group in Westlake Village, CA. It is designed as a small business forum to discuss technology without the sales hype or the geek-speak. This is a discussion for businesspeople by businesspeople using their language, and mirroring their concerns and goals. It’s called SmallBizExec Tech Roundtable.

Topics that may be discussed include, but are not limited to:

• Trends in Business Technology
• Social Media Marketing
• Cloud Computing
• Internet versus Desktop Applications
• Small Business Advantages
• Mobile Computing Applications
• Secure Your Business Tech
• Finding Reliable Business Consulting

NO SALES PITCHES ALLOWED. Otherwise, industry folks such as computer consultants and web designers are welcome. As long as we share Rule #1.

We meet on fourth Tuesday of every month at 5:30 pm at Vivoli Cafe in Westlake Village for little dinner, a little wine, a lot af discussion and a generous sprinking of fun.

To find out more, go to Meetup.

Opportunity for Businesses in Ventura County

Naval Base Ventura County is the 3rd largest naval facility in the world. On April 2nd they are holding an open house for folks who have never done work with them in the past. They are going to explain how, who, what and where to do business with NBVC. One of the great innovations has been to give purchasing agents the right to buy up to $2,500 of goods and services locally to solve a problem locally, without having to go through the whole purchasing process.  This event is put on by Ventura County Economic Development Agency. Check out www.vceda.org/documents/0803-triad.pdf

Small business doing well… so far.

I fully expected (and still do) that small business in my area would be affected by the general business malaise. For the most part (knock on wood…) they have not.

Although my largest client is now one of my smallest, all of the others have continued to do the same amount of business with us. In fact, the are generally looking for additional tools or savings that technology can bring to bear.

I tested my results at the SMBTN Los Angeles meeting the other night, and had very similar feedback. None of the small business IT professionals were seeing a slowdown at all.

It is extremely gratifying for a small business advocate like I am, to see the resiliency and the fire shown by small business. The question is can it continue with so many employees laid off, and so many enterprises chopping their business. It cannot help but affect small business. Let’s see how small business responds.