Utah Business

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Connect Magazine Reader's Choice Award Nominations

May 18, 2007

Dear Connect Reader,

We are conducting a survey to determine the Connect Reader's Choice Awards for the 2007 Connectory, Utah's Premier Book of Lists. Your response would be appreciated.

Here is a link to the survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?A=196093830E75094

Thanks for your participation,

Connect Magazine

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Now the real question is, who's your dadd...? I mean, who's your favorite Utah web design firm?

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The Plight of Mormon Movies

March 27, 2007

Richard Dutcher, the guy who more or less created the LDS film genre, thinks Mormon cinema "has gotten too safe for its own good." Filmmaker Mark Hale thinks the market for LDS films may be tapped out. Sorry guys, you're both wrong. The reason LDS movies aren't successful is because they stink.

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Multi Level Marketing Spoof Film

February 27, 2007

Somebody is finally making a movie spoofing the multi-level marketing industry, aka network marketing, aka get rick quick scheme, aka pyramid scheme, aka etc. Sure, it looks cheesy, overdone, and low budget, but still, I feel obligated to support the cause. I'd recommend going straight to the trailers.

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Does Salt Lake Need an Entrepreneurial Forum?

February 26, 2007

I just posted a question regarding whether Salt Lake needs its own group similar to the Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum on the Connect blog. If this is a topic of interest to you please head over there and read the post and leave your comments.

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Aros.net's (Aros net, arosnet) problems

February 21, 2007

What happens when a locally-owned ISP / hosting company has a problem and 3,000 of their customers lose access to their websites and/or email? Trouble, that's what. Customer's websites are down. They can't get email. They can't access the Internet. Two of my web design firm's clients have called up and expressed emotions of panic to me.

The Salt Lake Tribune published the article ArosNet move causes Internet headaches which says service was supposed to be restored yesterday, but as far as I can tell it hasn't been. KUTV reported on the 19th that the website was up and you could access email there, but a quick visit to aros.net shows the website still not working.

I've previously written a post on how to set up a web hosting account if you're looking to switch to a different provider.

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MWI Launches Official Company Blog

January 16, 2007

For those who have asked whether DonLoper.com is the MWI blog or why I don't just turn it into the official MWI blog, my response has been that I post about a lot of things on DonLoper.com, and much of it has virtually nothing to do with MWI other than a lot of my experiences and thoughts are prompted by experiences I've had at MWI. I've long planned on launching an official MWI blog, and that day has finally come. I introduce to you WeLoveBlue.com, the official MWI company blog.

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Search Engine Optimization Presentation, Provo, Utah, January 18th

January 9, 2007

Free presentation open to all attendees

On January 18th MWI founder Joshua Steimle will give 20-minute presentation entitled "10 Search Engine Optimization Tips Anyone Can Implement" at the Corporate Alliance Hub in Provo, Utah (see http://carma.corporatealliance.net/contact.aspx for address). A question and answer session will follow the presentation. There is no need to RSVP and all members of the public are welcome.

Einstein’s Bagels will be served at 9 a.m., and the presentation will begin at 9:15 a.m.

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Give Me Your Suggestions for Connect Blog Column

January 4, 2007

I am blogging on Connect magazine's blog in the Web Marketing and SEO category and would welcome anyone's requests or suggestions for content. After all, I can write stuff all day, but in addition to writing about what I think is important for people to know I want to write about what people are curious about. I've already posted five times covering mostly introductory topics such as What is Web / Internet Marketing, What is Search Engine Optimization / SEO, What is Pay Per Click Advertising, and How to Avoid Getting Ripped Off On SEO.

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Minimum Wage Hike in Utah? Who Cares?

January 2, 2007

Two articles came out in the Deseret News this morning regarding a potential hike in Utah's minimum wage. The first takes on the issue from the perspective of employers with the usual griping about how raising the minimum wage will hurt business owners, cause prices to go up, and result in layoffs, while the second follows the typical template of finding someone who's suffering, in this case a working mom trying to support her kids with two minimum wage jobs, and then using her as the sole example for the story despite the fact that she might not be representative of more than a fraction of those concerned.

What's interesting is that both articles provide evidence that a minimum wage hike won't affect anyone but politicians who can use a hike as evidence of how much they care for the downtrodden, in which case I have to think, who cares?

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Connect Magazine Launches Blog

December 21, 2006

Connect Magazine has launched a blog at ConnectBlogs.com.

At the moment of this post it's just barely getting started, so there aren't a lot of authors on it yet, but I would look for it to have quite a few within the next month. Chris Knudsen already has his blog being syndicated throught the Connect blog. I thought of just syndicating the content from Don Loper there, but I'd like to try and write unique content for it, plus there is the issue of having duplicate content which could potentially hurt my blog's rankings and I don't want to mess with that.

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It's Time for the vSpring Top 100 Again

December 14, 2006

Every year vSpring Capital accepts nominations for the top 100 entrepreneurs related to Utah. You don't have to be in Utah to get on the list, nor do you actually have to be an active entrepreneur running a business. This is the stated criteria: Provide the names of individuals that you believe are most likely to lead a successful venture as CEO or CTO in the next 5-7 years in IT or Biotech industries.

You can nominate up to 20 people, and you are invited to nominate yourself. There's no shame in it. If you are nominated then you will participate in a peer-voting process to choose the 100 top candidates. Ready to vote? Then git 'er done.

Oh, and don't send me any "I'll vote for you if you vote for me" requests. It's not worth it to me. I can, however, be bought off with a good steak dinner.

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Rental Property Management in Utah

October 9, 2006

None of you has any clue why I'm asking this, so don't even try to figure it out. Does anyone out there know anything about property management? That is, you have a townhouse or a house you want to rent out, so you contact a property management company that gets it rented for you, does background checks on the renters, checks in on the place to make sure it's ok. Does anyone know anything about those types of companies? If so, contact me at jsteimle@mwi.com.

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Commerical Cleaning and Custodial

August 24, 2006

No, I'm not looking for a side job, but we have had a cleaning person here at our office who is awesome. He was working for another guy but now he's doing his own thing, and I'm trying to help him grow his clientele. If you or someone you know happens to be looking for someone to clean their office, restaurant, or other commercial facility in or around Salt Lake City or Park City contact Valdir Antunes at 801.604.4800.

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BlogWatch - A Suggestion for Connect Magazine

July 14, 2006

I have a suggestion for Connect Magazine. Start a monthly column that is one page, call it something like BlogWatch, and on that page print the intro parts to 5-10 blog posts made by Utah bloggers that might be of interest to Connect's readership. Then include links to the homepages of the blogs where the posts can be found.

How would this benefit Connect Magazine?

1. It forces someone at Connect to regularly go out and read blogs which will keep them more informed about the Utah business scene and perhaps lead to more and better stories. Perhaps someone there already does this, but certainly having this column would provide extra incentive.

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CleanFlicks, Play It Clean Video and CleanFilms - Court Rules Against Three Utah Companies

July 10, 2006

"Sanitizing movies on DVD or VHS tape violates federal copyright laws, and several companies that scrub films must turn over their inventory to Hollywood studios, an appeals judge ruled."

Court Rules Against Sanitizing Films

One more example of how established businesses in their ignorance and arrogance can stifle innovation and competition at the expense of not only consumers, but themselves.

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I've Been Quoted

April 12, 2006

I responded to a request in the Deseret News the other day for readers to submit comments about the state's new brand and they printed several responses, including mine, although they neglected to include a link to my site and the banner ad I sent them...

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Utah Search Engine Optimization

April 11, 2006

I'm trying to compile a complete list of companies offering search engine optimization and/or search engine marketing services in Utah so I can create a small directory site similar to Utah Web Design Firms or Utah Advertising Agency.

If you would like to have your company added to the list just post your url.

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Utah's New Brand

March 13, 2006

"Life Elevated"

That's Utah's new brand. "The new slogan embodies the heart and soul of our state," Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said in a prepared statement. "It captures the essence of life in America's greatest state." I wonder who prepared the statement for him?

In what appears to have been a rather rude and unnecessary use of the Government Records Access and Management Act the Trib filed a request which forced the state government to reveal the new brand four weeks ahead of a planned presentation.

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Salt Lake City Office Space

March 8, 2006

No, it's not a new Mormon-genre movie, although such a film might be more interesting to me than some of the others that have been released as of late. What I'm talking about are executive office suites available for sublease, 20 minutes south of downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. We've got some offices and cubicle spaces available, and we might be getting some more, so if you're looking for 1-3 offices and maybe some cubicle space, perhaps for short-term needs, let me know. More details below.

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Totally Awesome Computers Out of Business?

March 3, 2006

I was just in a client meeting when the client suddenly said "Totally Awesome is going out of business?!" He had just received an update on his laptop and saw this article in the Salt Lake Tribune. First LoveSac declares bankruptcy and now this. Seems like every business person in Utah who is the least bit zany is having issues.

Apparently it's a done deal. I can't say I'm all that sad to see them go, having had some negative experiences with Totally Awesome Computers about which I've previously posted on this blog. At the same time, being a business owner myself it is a bit sad to see any company go out of business, if only for the sake of the employees and customers, but also due to the fact that it probably didn't need to happen.

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Branding Utah

February 13, 2006

If you're looking for a branding firm in Utah click here. However, this is a post about the process of creating a new brand for the state of Utah, as covered in this latest article from the Deseret News.

It's a process fraught with danger as well as potential payoff, although in my opinion the potential payoff is mighty slim compared to the relative danger. Past taglines for the state have included "Utah, the Friendly State," "Utah, Land of Color," "Utah, the Unique," "Ski Utah," "A Pretty, Great State," "The Greatest Snow on Earth" and Utah's current tagline, "Utah! Where Ideas Connect." That last tagline was introduced just as the dot-com boom was crashing down, and the imagery used in advertising for the state included a printer cable and the cord for a computer mouse, not exactly symbols of the high-tech industry, at least not since 1987.

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Utah's House Bill 122 - Health Care for Small Businesses

February 11, 2006

What is Utah House Bill 122? It has to do with the idea of allowing private businesses with 2 to 50 employees sign up for the state government's health care program, the idea being that this would save small businesses money, allowing them to put that money to other uses. This issue gives me the opportunity to talk about some questions I believe are relevant to the matter:

1. Why do employers provide health benefits in the first place?
2. What is the situation of small business owners with regards to providing health benefits?
3. Would a program such as HB 122 promotes be a form of government subsidized health care?
4. Would HB122 give small businesses an unfair advantage over their larger competitors?
5. Why not allow all employers, regardless of the number of employees, buy into the plan?

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LoveSac Files for Bankruptcy

February 3, 2006

Wow, this is something of a bombshell - LoveSac in bankruptcy - S.L.-based firm has $500,000 in assets and $3.2 million in debt.

Having lost approximately $50-60K over the past three years because of clients and business partners who filed for bankruptcy, I feel the pain of those who are losing money, and I can understand their frustration with LoveSac and the probable target of their frustrations, Shawn Nelson himself.

On the other hand, being an entrepreneur and knowing the struggles it takes to run a business and how things can change quickly, I can also emphathize with Shawn's position and that of his associates.

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Larry Miller and Brokeback Mountain

January 17, 2006

A few days ago Utah entrepreneur Larry H. Miller decided to not have any of the theatres he owns show the movie Brokeback Mountain. Responses have been positive and negative. Aside from the issue of whether you think Miller should or should not have allowed the movie to be shown in his theatres is the matter of what a business owner should and shouldn't be allowed to do. If you're expecting a post that talks about morals, politics, bigotry, etc., this isn't it. I'm just using this as an intro to the topic of business regulation.

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Utah Web Design Jobs at Gigster

January 4, 2006

Utah web design jobs.

Do you live in Utah? Are you a web designer, HTML/CSS guru, or web developer? Are you looking for a full-time job, part-time gig, or contract work? Head on over to Gigster.com.

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Neumont (Northface) University

December 10, 2005

I graduated in 2002 from BYU's business school with a master's of information systems management. I absolutely loved the school (except for the lack of parking) and the program, although there was plenty of room for improvement.

A while after I graduated I read an article in Connect Magazine about Northface University. What I read about was similar to the program I had recently graduated from, but in some ways it sounded better.

Last week I had the opportunity to interview nine students from Northface University (now renamed Neumont University due to a trademark dispute with a certain outdoor clothing manufacturer who shall remain nameless...) and I was seriously impressed, and I don't impress that easily.

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Utah Advertising Agency Update

November 9, 2005

My advertising agency / web development firm MWI runs a little network of websites that are business directories for the different industries we participate in. One of them is www.utahadvertisingagency.com. It's a directory or listing of advertising agencies in Utah.

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Utah Web Design Firms Update

My advertising agency / web design firm MWI runs a little network of websites that are business directories for the different industries we participate in. One of them is www.utahwebdesignfirms.com. It's a directory or listing of web design firms in Utah.

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TestOut Offers IT Certification Training

October 24, 2005

TestOut is a new client that my web design firm MWI recently picked up. We've started doing some search engine optimization for them and will be doing that for a few months on a trial basis to see what kind of results we can generate for them.

TestOut specializes in IT certification training including MCSE training, MCSA training, CCNA training, and Network+ training. They've also just added C# .NET training packages.

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Not So Totally Awesome Computers

October 22, 2005

Click here for more information about Totally Awesome Computers going out of business. Otherwise, feel free to read the following post about my negative experiences with TAC.

By the way, if you don't read all the comments on this post you are really missing out. Trust me, they're worth it. Some of the comments are from SuperDell Shanze himself and they're pretty choice.

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Super Dell is flying over my office at this very moment. I kid you not. I came in to do some work on a Saturday, and suddenly I hear this noise like an airplane from outside. I go out to look and see someone with a big fan strapped to his back and one of those paraglider things that says "totallyawesome.com" on it. I'm pretty sure it's Dell Schanze himself, because he's pretty low and I can see the guy and it looks like him, only with goggles, ear protection, and some sort of suit. By the way, did you hear that Super Dell is selling his gun range? But that's another topic altogether.

We've got a fun park called Boondocks next door to our office, so I'm guessing he's trying to do some guerilla marketing, or get killed when the volcano spouts out flame, or something.

This serves as a nice way for me to talk about my bad experiences with Totally Awesome Computers.

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Owen Cherrington, A Personal Tribute

April 15, 2005

I just received an email newsletter from the Rollins Center for eBusiness at BYU containing this article - http://ebusiness.byu.edu/newsletter/news.cfm?newsletterid=59&id=186.

Out of all the professors I had at BYU I don't believe I had more one on one talks with any of them more than with Owen. The last time I talked with Owen was a few years ago. I wanted to talk with him after he got cancer but I never had the opportunity.

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Canopy Group in Crisis

February 10, 2005

Wow, I just read this article on what's going on over at Canopy and it's fairly shocking, especially the news of Rob Penrose's suicide, apparently directly related to events at Canopy.

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Utah Dept of Business and Economic Development

January 14, 2005

This Deseret News article on the Utah Department of Business and Economic Development details some of the fallout happening after the entire department was pretty much dissolved to make way for a new strategy.

As much as I've enjoyed my limited association with the department, I do have to wonder if what they've been doing for the state has been worth it.

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Response to "Letters to the Editor, aka Soapbox, December '04 issue of Connect Magazine"

January 10, 2005

I just read the Letters to the Editor (aka "Soapbox") section of Connect Magazine. Rather than posting many excerpts from various letters they posted the entire text of one large letter from a disgruntled reader, Mr. Alan Jacobsen. Here's how it begins:

Dear Editor:

I have been reading the recent issues of connect with interest, particularly the articles dealing with the topic of what Utah needs to do to grow Utah businesses. There have been a few articles on this one topic, including one that laid out Jon Huntsman Jr.'s plan for Utah's future.

What all of these articles downplay, or not mention at all, is the issue of Mormonism and what it is like to live in Utah as a non-Mormon. No analysis of business growth, or the lack thereof, is complete without examining how Utah is different from other states and what it is like to relocate one's family to Utah as a non-Mormon.

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