What Makes A Tech Company, A Tech Company?

Tech is sexy these days; tech companies, even sexier. Nothing gets the MBA rock-star juices pulsing through the cortex and loins faster than handing over a geektastic looking business card and saying "Hi, I'm so and so, the founder of tech start-up [enter techie name here]." Cue Beat.ly mania!

But, lately I've been thinking, what exactly is a tech company? And what makes them so… techie? Afterall, the word tech comes from the word "technology." And last I checked, humans have been using technology to innovate and advance the human condition since man decided to sharpen rocks. 

Great moments in tech company history ... The film: 

WORKING TITLE: "O.G. – Original Geek"

FADE IN

Man A, not the strongest of the clan, but clever, finds sharp rock, ties to long stick using roots, kills now-extinct large animal. 

Woman A swoons:  "Oh, he's so smart … and has great hair!"

Man B, Alpha male type, seething, grunts:  "Geek."

The first Lawyer: "You should patent that."

Artist: "Can I have my rock back now? I need to finish the cave painting before dark." 

The O.G. "Original Geek." (An artist's rendition of a Paleoindian man making a stone tool. Illustration by Colin Campbell.)

What makes tech... tech?

This question of what makes one company a tech company has been on my mind since my company ArtJamz was accepted to be part of tech incubator 1776 in Washington DC. I have to say, we are excited to be part of it. I didn't think we'd get chosen. We faced an uphill battle. We are definitelty the only business with a retail location. Brick and mortar does not exactly scream "tech company" these days. That's reinforced when I go to tech events or tech pitch competitions. I'm continually amazed and impressed by the eco-system of ideas floating in the digital entrepreneurial community these days. But, I also think that "tech" companies, you know, can become victims of the misappropriation of the term technology to describe what they do. It's as if "Tech" has come to simply imply… developer. Although, it's true, at the end of the day, this is what people mean when they throw around the term "tech company" – there is person, somewhere, anywhere, churning out code. Meanwhile, there's an "they are NOT techy" ideas person coming up with a fabulously acceptable geeky techy name, logo, font and app icon -- that unsurprisingly looks somewhat rounded and three dimensional. This tech company is all about the concept -- which mind you, is a good one and fills a market need -- being transposed into the digital. Hopefully with the help of angel investors. 

The slippery slope in all of this is the tres modern belief that "tech companies" do and should soely exist in the digital world. Of course, yes, many do, and that's cool. This isn't a black or white thing. Facebook, twitter, drop box, and lots of other "tech companies" live in the digital world. But some of the most successful quote on quote tech companies live in the digital and physical. Zappos, amazon, Apple and Google for instance. Waz started off building shit in a garage. He tinkered. Steve Jobs always combined art, tech and design. Jobs didn't start off saying, I think I'll revolutionize the retail experience. But Apple stores did. That's not something an algorhytm can do. And developers don't build smartphones or google glasses, they make the software that runs in them. So, wait, if you make a physical product, you are not a tech company anymore? Was IBM a tech company when they started making computers? Or not?

Science becomes Tech 

Somewhere between Bell and Howell, NASA, IBM, Microsoft and Apple, science became tech. Perhaps it was when science jumped from the lab into consumerism. It's all a bit like the need for musical genres. Humans must have order. We categorize everything. Lord help us if there is an undiscovered ant species somewhere in the jungle and it doesn't have a classification yet! Same with that new band that plays that new kind of music, with that strange new combination of instruments, and beats, and that singer, wow, no one has ever done that before. Jesus! We need to find a genre for them fast. Is it Alt Punk Electronica? Yes, Alt Punk Electronic. That's it. Phew. Thank God. They have a genre. Thus with tech. I mean we created an entire stock market NASDQ for all these tech companies. Was general electric a tech company? Edison a geek? When the phonograph came out no one called it a gadget? Did they? And those Native Americans who first used smoke signals. Ahh, weren't they the first vanguard? The early adopters. And the person who first took flint to rock to create a spark -- the original CTO. 

I hate to break it to you app.ly and techarooroo and gadget-a-go-go, you are not a tech company. You are simply … human. One in a long and amazing line of many who put creative thought and visualization into action to create innovation that became the technology humans use to advance our condition. You don't own the term "tech" anymore than Copernicus.

If anything, companies built in the digital realm need a foot in the physical world. And those companies built in the physical world, i.e. ArtJamz need a foot in the digital. This is why I wanted Artjamz to be a part of 1776. Brick and mortar companies are built on the backbone of systems. In fact, all of the worlds most successful businesses are successful because of their processes as well as their product and ability to reach scale. The back-end franchise process of ArtJamz as well as the digital intersection of the brand and the consumers -- in our case, reservations, POS, inventory, apps, staff scheduling -- everything is a constant "tech start-up" by the modern geeky techy definition. We are inventing and developing -- using developers who code and master algorhytms -- to create new digital systems and applications. And we're applying those to how consumers interact with art, and art materials, and artists themselves, in a brick and mortar environment. Just like the intersection of tech gadgets and retail stores -- all tech must eventually connect to the physical world. Digital enhances the physical. And visa versa.

The Lounge Level at the ArtJamz Dupont Studio in Washington DC. Very brick and mortar; not so techie ... at least in outward appearance.

When the physical and digital meet

With all this in mind, I do have to commend the team at 1776 and others in DC tech start-up industry for being open minded about letting our old school get-your-hands-dirty-playing-with-paint-in-a, gasp, retail-location-business, join the ranks of the digital start-up community. Where else better than to test a digital concept or application or Saas than with a physical location and consumer facing brand and experience? Ultimatlely, everything is an experience that trickles down to the physical relm. My belief is that, the biggest impact, and the potential for the most transformative, distpruptive, positive and successful innovations come when tech is considered in both its modern and historic context, ergo, when it blends the physical with the digital. In art in particular, which is where I'm focusing my entrepreneurial pursuits,  the scale has been tipped in favor of the physical for too long. Conversely, those in the digital world of apps and gaming etc, tend to steer clear of the art world because of its deep physical roots. Once we blend the tactile and physical world of art with the power of digital technologies, that is when the next great disruptive art paradigm will emerge. And when it does, it should be considered a tech company, just like all other companies that came before it. For without technology, and the geek in all of us, we would still be playing with dull rocks. 

Do You Need An Adversary to Succeed?

The other night I was having drinks with a friend who has started a thriving business in DC. Our conversation meandered  touching upon business and just general catch-up. But somewhere in the middle they asked me, "Do you have an adversary?" I kind of brushed it off but the question has stuck with me since. "Do I?" And if I do, who is it and what purpose do they serve?

My friend likes having an adversary. In fact, in round about terms, they not only like to have one, they like to crush and destroy them. They take joy and delight in seeing a competitor fail and fall by the way side. Perhaps this is their secret motivator. Who knows. It's certainly working for them.

It does make sense, some of the best work in history has been produced by competing rivals who peak at the same time and push each other to new heights. Borg and McEnroe. Frasier and Ali. Google and Apple. Apple and Samsung. Stars Wars vs Star Trek. The entire super hero film and comic book industrial complex. Obama va Boehner, and so on and so on.  We live in a world of rivalry. Arch-rivals in fact. Two of my favorite artists, Warhol and Basquiat mockingly played up the whole rivalry concept as only artists could in a show they did together during the height of the '80s New York pop-art explosion.

Otherwise known as the “Fire Vs. Ice”, the Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe rivalry consists of a total of 14 matches through the careers of these two athletes.

So I thought about it. Yes. ArtJamz definitely has rivals. When my friend asked me who my biggest rival was, I said LivingSocial. How could they not be? They are a half billion dollar VC-funded 800 pound gorilla with millions of dollars of city tax breaks that decided to replicate our business model and do painting and sipping classes. Did LivingSocial's move into our area cause some consternation? Sure. Did I send out a biting press release the same day they launched their competing product? Sure did.  Did I talk shit about them with my friends? Guilty. But, aren't there 5 or 6 other paint and sip businesses that have popped up since we started? Yes, there are. Aren't they also also rivals? And what about that person, and that blogger, and that vendor, and so on and so on. You see, having a rival can be a slippery slope. Emotion can be a motivator, but it can also be a hinderance.

The drive to destroy your competition at all costs! is ultimately wrought in anger and negativity. An entrepreneur should be motivated by creating the best possible product, business or service possible. They should be injected with the adrenaline rush of ownership by the over-powering need to create something amazing and profitable, not by reveling in the havoc of an adversary. They should be driven to engage their audience or customer better each day, providing them with something they haven't experienced before, not be obsessed with what their competition is doing. Business owners should get out of bed in the morning wanting to create a better place for the staff that depend on them -- not devising Machiavellian plans for the competition's demise.

Poster originally produced by Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York and Bruno Bischofberger Gallery, Zurich in 1985. Advertising an exhibition of the paintings produced collaboratively by Andy Warhol (1928-87) and Jean Michel Basquiat (1960-88). 

Don't get me wrong, I'm fiercely competitive. I played soccer my whole life, captain of the high school soccer team, etc. I could not stand losing. It hurt. Viscerally. When I'd lose, I wouldn't eat or talk to anyone for hours. I hated the teams that beat us. I still hate losing, but as I matured, I learned to channel my competitive fire. Like Tai Chi, I try to use the force of the punch from our opponent against them.  Or like Bruce Lee said, "be like water."

In the case of LivingSocial -- I could have turned my feelings to hate, and sat there and stewed, or even threw in the towel. But instead, I turned the other cheek and looked on the bright side. In fact, I should probably write them a thank you letter. Business has boomed since they started doing all our marketing and promotion for us for free. Nothing like having your competitor send out millions of emails promoting the same business concept as yours, but then only be open a few hours a week to actually do it. It also provided the inertia for us to evolve our business model. As soon as LivingSocial started doing by-appointment only paint and sip classes, we changed from the same structured art class model to an open-7-days a week public art studio and lounge, where you can walk-in any time. I used the energy from their punch to morph into something they aren't. Which means that all those people who see a LivingSocial paint and sip invite and decide they want to go, but can't fit into the tightly scheduled windows provided -- or go and want to go again, but LivingSocial isn't running "a deal" -- they Yelp! or google "Paint and Sip", "Paint Party, or "Paint and Drink", what have you, and ArtJamz comes up,  because we decided to take our battle to the SEO front. LivingSocial also undercut all our competitors, who had been living off daily deals, essentially, doing us a  huge favor by marginalizing our competition. They also have lots of market research about what customers will pay to paint and drink, so when they set their price at $29, we added multiple options for customers that range from $22 to $40. Recently, we launched an ArtJamz Academy where we replicated their business model by offering crowdsourced art classes. So, you see, you can have a rival, but don't let negativity, anger or schadenfreude drive you. In the end, I wish LivingSocial well. I hope they create more jobs for the city. But the most satisfying and motivating thing you can do is stay two steps ahead of your competition by focusing on being the best you can be. Because the thing a rival fears the most, is a rival who has no fear.

5 Steps to Better Focus

An entrepreneur's perpetual to-do list can be daunting.  In fact, you could probably spend an entire day just creating and prioritizing to-do lists. For me, this process manifests itself in the daily prioritization of tasks. In order to make sure that I spend as little time as possible deciding "what to do" instead of actually "doing," I've – through trial and error – developed a vetting process and come up with some guideposts to help me weed through the never-ending morass of tasks in order to bring it from its scarily overwhelming hypothetical state of "need to do" and into the wonderfully satisfying state of "done."

Sometimes your daily tasks can look as frenetic and disjointed as this communal painting that over 100 people contributed to over 3 hours at our ArtJamz Underground Studio opening in Crystal City. (Photo credit: ArtJamz, 2013)

WILL IT DRIVE REVENUE
One of the positives of bootstrapping / self-financing is that you don't have millions of dollars of angel or VC money to blow through – your choices are constrained and focused because of budgetary limitations. Of course, one of the negatives about bootstrapping / self-financing is also that you don't have millions of dollars of angel or VC money to blow through. This means that your decisions should be driven by the bottom line. Essentially, if I'm looking at 10 things to do, I ask myself "which project is going to lead to revenue generation the fastest?" Cash flow is king ... or queen.  One draw back is that this question tends to get applied mostly to short-term operational must-haves, such as inventory and restocking of merchandise. For example, we serve wine at the studio and sell merchandise. If we run out of those, we don't make money selling wine and merchandise. So, the task "restock wine and merchandise inventory" fits squarely under the "will it drive revenue" filter and gets bumped up the "importance totem."

IS IT LUXURY OR NECESSITY?
I applied this mantra liberally during two recent build-outs of ArtJamz studios, but it applies to the daily operations of the business as well. Just ask yourself, is this something we "really need" or  can we get by with our current system / situation? Yes, we needed a refrigerator for our wine. Could we use a $4,000 bar back refrigerator? Sure. Did we need one that expensive to get done what we needed to get done. Nope. We found a solution for $400 that works just fine. We could have easily spent $250K on the new ArtJamz studio build-out. We spent about $30K. People love it. We're doing just fine. Using the criteria, I have kicked a few large projects down the road a bit – one such project is the implementation of a new POS system.  We need a new POS system, badly. One that is cloud-based and scalable across multiple franchises and enables us to operate like restaurant, with assigned tables, tabs, tipping, etc. etc. I found one I like. Took about a year of research. But it's very expensive and will take about two months to fully integrate with our staff as well as back-end accounting system. Our current POS – a $29 app – works just fine for now.  We will eventually switch over in the next few months, but there were other "will it drive revenue" issues I decided to focus on first as I deemed the new POS as a "luxury" instead of a "necessity," which it will eventually become.

IS SOMETHING DUE?
If you're growing and expanding chances are you are spending a lot of money and you have multiple vendors to whom you owe money – inventory, legal, accounting, taxes, etc. etc. The list is never-ending. Obviously, if something is due, it gets put on the top of the to-do totem. Stay current. Stay in the green. Pay your bills and handle your responsibilities on time.

IS IT SOMETHING YOUR TEAM  IS PINING FOR? 
One of the many traps a business owner can fall into is retreating into hubris and amusing you know what's best for your business 24/7. In the case of ArtJamz, where we have a retail location that I'm not at 80% of the time, it's important to listen to your team who are in the trenches and operating the location and interacting with your brand and customers on a daily basis. When they come to you and say "We really need to XYZ." Listen to them. Evaluative. And then get it done and implemented.

WILL IT LAY THE SEEDS FOR FUTURE GROWTH?
The "will it drive revenue" question above tends to get hijacked by immediate short-term needs. But, an entrepreneur solely focused on the operations of the here and now will lose the big picture and slip when it comes to strategic thinking. Long term projects that create additional revenue streams also fit under the "will it drive revenue" question and shouldn't be drown out by immediate needs. I'm currently spending a lot of time building two new revenue generating initiatives: The ArtJamz Academy – an online crowdsourced art-class marketplace and our Artz Bazaar – a more digital way to sell art. Both will generate new revenue for us. I deemed the time, resources and investment needed to incubate and develop these additional revenue streams as crucial to our long-term survival. So, these projects get bumped up the important totem pole too.

Whatever system works for you is up to you. But don't get overwhelmed by your task list. Find a consistent way to evaluate what's important and then allocate a set and consistent amount of time each week getting them done. Trust me, all will get done if you keep chipping away at it. And remember, it won't get done in one day, so, for goodness sake, save time for having fun and kicking it with your loved ones and friends – this should always be at the top of the list! 

The Orange Moment

Part of being an Artrepreneur is creating. And your art should not be constricted by time. Some of the best work you've done, might have been hidden for 10 or 20 years. Just keep creating. Someday, time will give it context. Recently, I've been rediscovering a lot of early writings on old discs. So I took the time to transfer them into the cloud. This includes a book of poems, photos and short stories several hundred pages long. Mostly from 1993 - 2005, my time in Atlanta, Japan, Hong Kong and LA.  I was searching a lot then. 

Here's an excerpt from the short story "Losing Hong Kong" which is part of the larger tone  "Elementality: Water, Fire, Wind, Air." 

The Orange Moment

By Michael M Clements

I'm losing Hong Kong, slowly but surely, like I did Japan, like I did my youth. It's a process; a natural process. Letting go never takes effort – unless you're talking about love. Instead, the releasing of places in your past – those blocks of time, when, when you were in them, seemed endless, periods that neither had ways out nor connections with events past. They were just "the moment." The current situation. 

But I do remember the countryside in Japan. I lived in a town called Izumo; translated as "the place where the clouds come in." On most days, that's exactly what happened. The most orange day of my life happened in Izumo. Located on the West coast, mid-Honshu main island, Izumo is Japan's oldest settlement – quite a feat for one of the world's oldest cultures. 

But each day in LA takes me away from all of that. Away from the past. Away from green rice fields and mountain-lined seas. Further away from the most orange day of my life, which happened in Izumo, Japan. I know, I  already said that. They told me that in the fall, the winds pick up dust from the Huangzhou River in China. The dust finds its way across the East China Sea, Sea of Japan, or Sea of Korea, or whatever. It's no Spradley's, but still. The crappy yellow river dust flies over to the Western Coast of Japan causing these absurdly beautiful orange sunsets. One day in particular, ever so often, there is an extremely orange sunset. So deep in tangent red and Tangier orange that the world beneath lays bathed in a burning orange haze.  

I was doing the dishes. This light, this warm, heart-numbingly pacifying light, embraced me. I had to go outside. I dropped what I was doing, darted outside and was hit with an epic dark orange, burning, cloud-layered sunset – which was happening over a large rice paddy next to my house. It was almost harvest time, so the rice was tall and green, but not tonight – tonight it was orange.

Sky on Fire,  Izumo, Japan c.1997.  By Michael M Clements with instant camera. 

I sprinted back inside to grab my camera; the entire house was humming in the transcendental glow of sunset. The clichés rang true – time stood still, still stood the time, still the time stood, the still time stood, and so on and so forth.  When I returned outside camera in hand, the sunset had nearly just past its most brilliant point. Nonetheless it was still awe-inspiringly magical. When things surprise us, catch us off guard – that is when life is most beautiful. 

We are predisposed to account for the shift in the environment, thus predicating a reaction by said initial action. For every action there is a reaction, and for every reaction there is certainty for more action. Snap. Photo taken. Later this photo would come to represent my 3.5 years in Japan. A snapshot, a burning yellow-river induced orange sunset. But it is more, much more. But dig too far into the past  and all you will find are picked over bones. The real nourishment of life is not in the past or future – it's in the moment. The orange moment. ~  Los Angeles c. 2004

Published via Genki Media. All rights reserved, 2013. 

The Key to Success

Who ever takes the key, returns the key
Here's something you don't think about when you start a business -- how does your staff get into the office? I mean, you aren't a door person, you can't be there to open the door everyday, can you? And who gets the key or code? In our case, we can't have a fancy keypad for our door -- it's glass. We have to use a key. It's safely in a key box. Somewhere. Yesterday, the person who took the key, forget to return it, which led to a call at 830AM from my team -- they were locked out. So, I woke-up and drove across town to open the door. Whoever takes the key, returns the key is the rule. Sometimes rules don't get followed. Which leads to today's theme....

The Artjamz Dupont Studio, 1728 Connecticut Ave NW, open and ready for business.  Photo by Anchyi Wei. 

There are no days off when you are an entrepreneur 
You want to run your own company so you can work when you want. If you're starting a company because you believe that, don't quit your day job. It's a bit like saying, I want to have kids so I can get more sleep and enjoy more "me" time. Ain't happening. Okay, there is some truth to it -- you do decide your hours, no one is telling you when to clock in, its your company, you have no boss. Well, actually, you have thousands of bosses -- they're called customers. And customers, if you are doing something right, want to know about and interact with your business and brand 24/7, when they want, on their schedule. They have a question about your brand at 8am on a Sunday? They call, they email, they tweet, they write Yelp! reviews. And when you're not "on the clock" but your retail business is open,  what happens when the electrical circuits blow?  Your staff calls..... wait for it.... you! How is that day off now?

So, you see, the key to success is very simple -- make sure trusted team members have the proverbial keys to the castle (the front door, the hoot suite account, the phone line and the info email account)  so they can run the business without you.

A business created with "you" as the key to every door will never fully be open.  And yes, that takes a lot of trust.... which is an interesting blog entry in and of itself.

Inertia Part II

Day 1: On the flip side
Days as an entrepreneur meander like mini odysseys -- you move from one issue to next and often back to ones you visited earlier in the day. As the first day heads into the evening, already three big learnings:

1.) Just because you own a business doesn't mean you know what the heck you are talking about. And you have to be able to know your limitations and be open to learning.  

Entrepreneur dilemma –  it's your business -- the buck stops with you. You're always making choices. You kind of like to be right, don't you? Admit it. Today, I was wrong. It happens. In fact, it happens a lot, especially when you're building something new and going someplace uncharted (for you), doing things you've never done.  If you read my earlier, post, well... I could have added a waiver to our event tickets. The nice peeps at Eventbrite enjoyed their Cappucino and got back to me really fast.

 Hi Michael,

Thanks for reaching out. While Eventbrite doesn't have a button on the order confirmation tool, you can absolutely add a waiver to your events that requires the user to agree to terms and conditions specified by your organization before completing their purchase. This could help your merchant fight chargebacks on your behalf.

Ultimately, chargebacks are fought, executed, and resolved by the issuing merchant and the attendees credit card company, so while adding a waiver can certainly help and heighten the chances that a chargeback will be resolved in your favor, ultimately there is no guarantee as these handles at the merchants discretion.

To add a waiver to your event:

Log in to your account and click My Events
Click the name of your event and then, click 'Order Form'
If you'd like to collect information from each guest--not just the ticket buyer--then select the radio button next to 'Collect information below for each attendee'.
Click ‘Add A Question’, and input ‘Waiver’ or ‘Please agree to the following to complete your registration for our event’ in the Question box.
From the 'Question Type’ dropdown box, select ‘Waiver’ (then, copy and paste your waiver into the open field and be sure that the waiver question is displaying for all applicable ticket types by clicking the check box for Optional Settings)
Click Save and then Save Changes
For more information on this, click here:
http://www.eventbrite.com/t/how-to-create-custom-survey-questions

So, ultimately, the entire situation with the chargeback, I could have taken care of 3 years ago by simply adding this custom form to our ticket. Did I know that? Nope. Who's responsibility is it to know that? It's mine. And this is how you learn to run a company. Because not one entrepreneur is born with all the answers. We get them because we "do"and when we "do", we make mistakes. And if we don't learn from them, we don't grow.

2.) Second learning. Don't leave your keys in your car and close the door when you're loading art materials in it. 
Yep. I locked my keys in the car today. That was fun. Had to call my wife to drive cross town with the extra keys. Thanks honey. :-)

3.) Third learning. Be thankful you have an amazing team 
You can't do it alone. Build a team. Everytime I go to the studio, I'm reminded how lucky I am to be able to steer a company with an amazing group of people. We have 18 people on staff. They are wonderful. The feeling of knowing they trust me, keeps me motivated. As does this.... putting it all together 7 days a week (we're open 7 days a week) so, people can smile and have a good time.

Probably won't be blogging this much everyday... who knows... but... in a nut shell... that's a brief snapshot of at least 75% of a day of an artrepreneur. I won't drone on about the cleaning of paint cans, and stuff. But the studio closes at midnight tonight, so still 5 hours to go. I mean, what could possibly go wrong, right....?

Inertia

Day 1: Welcome to the compliance jungle 

Doing a blog about artrepreneurship (that's art + entrepreneurship in case you were wondering ... I like to make words up) has been on my mind since I started ArtJamz in 2010. With each day comes the excitement, thrill and frustration of starting, owning and growing a company from scratch. Especially when you are bootstrapping like we are. After each day passed, I would say to myself, "man, I wish I would have documented what happened that day, I mean, even Ronald Reagan gave a few sentences a day and he was president. And that (whatever) that just happened was insane." Well (best Ronnie impersonation).... today is the day. Mainly, because sometimes the back-end compliance, finance, taxes, HR, licenses, permits, staffing, utilities, lawyers, accountants, contractors, social, digital, online, web, app accounts, and hundreds of other a sundry things keep you from doing what you actually got in to doing in the first place ... being an entrepreneur.  Why today? Here's today's fun dealings in business ownership...

MERCHANT SERVICES and Chargebacks

Ah, the joy of merchant services. Authorization companies. Processors. Here's a little diagram to help you:

Easy right? Now add in the fact you need one authorizer and one processor for online and one for card present. Oh, you do? And they each have a fee. (of course). And they hook you by saying your rates are like 1.9% - 2.4% per transaction. But, funny thing is, my card present are always 3.0% and my online are 4%. Call and ask them why? "Oh, that's because people are using affinity and reward cards". Of course, they are! Who DOESN'T use a reward card? File that under "The things merchant services sales people don't tell you...." "Well, yes, the rate is 1.9%, but really only if someone is using a debit card with their left hand between the hours of 500 to 515AM in the mountain standard time region, during a solar eclipse, on a leap year... then it's 1.9%. Otherwise, it's about 4." 

But I digress. Today, it was "the chargeback' that lead me to blog. We have a 48 cancellation policy. It's on the event ticket, it's on the order form before you order the ticket, it's on the order confirmation page, and it's on the ticket. Four places. Is this enough for Visa? No way! You have to have a separate page with a button for customers to click saying "I agree to the terms and conditions." even though it says it in 4 other places. Our first chargeback was reversed. I took the time to send in all our event screenshots and emails with the customer. Yeah! We won. Not so fast. The customer sent in another chargeback claim, on the same case. Now Visa tells us we need a terms and conditions button on our ticketing page. I guess they missed that last time when we got the chargeback reversed? So.... I call Eventrbrite, the company that we've been using for 3 years for our online ticketing. Since, I'm using our own payment processor (authorize.net), they basically wash their hands and say "Not our fault." I ask them... "aren't you in the ticketing business? I mean your website boasts 98,080,306 tickets sold. Wow. impressive. You would think somewhere in the process of selling almost 100 million event tickets someone in your hip and techy SF office would have figured out that Visa requires event organizers to have a terms and conditions button that customers click, in order to protect the event organizer from a chargeback; and that 'order form' you give us doesn't cut it." Eventbrite rep ...silence. Maybe by ticket 100 million they will figure it out. When I speak to my merchant services rep (who sounds like he's working for Visa.... I thought they were supposed to be on my side?) I ask him, how come I don't see these terms and conditions boxes when I buy a movie ticket or something. He calmly states, that those sites do so much volume that it doesn't matter to them. Great. So it's just the small businesses that it hurts. In our case, in this instance, we had a sold-out event with 50 spots. We pre-purchased goods, champagne and food for each person. We turned away lots of people since we were sold out. We had our cancellation policy in 4 different places. That person doesn't show up. We lose out of pocket for the stuff we had to buy for that person, we couldn't fill their spot since we held their spot for them, we put our cancellation policy in 4 places. We get hit with a chargeback that effects our credit. And we the small business lose money since according to Visa, our Eventbrite page didn't have a separate terms and conditions button ... which Eventrbite doesn't seem to know or care about, since, although we are using their service and spending close to $500-$1000 a month on them, and have for three years, we are SOL since we don't use their payment processor. Thank you Eventbrite, I do hope your Cappucino maker in your SF loft office is working. Really. Anyway, this is just one day in the life of a small business owner, entrepreneur and job creator. It's only 1:30. Lots more fun to go today. Still have DC Sales and Tax, Pepco and Comcast to call regarding bills and accounts. Welcome to the compliance jungle.