Wyospace.com

Great Opportunity for Wyoming Entrepreneurs

By Venture West

Here's an opportunity to present your business plan to Wyoming's only organization dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship and the investors and service providers that support them!

Venture West, is having its third meeting of 2007 on September 6th in Laramie.

Up to four entrepreneurs will be selected to present their prospective, new and ongoing ventures.

Presentations will be limited to five minute time slots followed by a brief Q & A session.

To compete in this process, submit an electronic copy (formatted as WORD or .rtf) of your company's executive summary to: exec-summary@venturewest.org

Semi-finalists must be prepared to submit a five minute PowerPoint overview of their company and business plan to the screening committee.

Deadline to submit the executive summary is Monday, July 30th, 2007 by 5 p.m.

Serious investors are looking for the next great Wyoming company

By John M. Pope, President & CEO
The Blue Sky Group Inc.
Laramie, WY
www.theblueskygroup.com

The Big Sky Venture Conference, an investor-only, invitation-only event started by the Carlyle Group and Solitude Management a few years back, is looking for the next great Wyoming high-growth company.  At this year’s conference, scheduled for August 23 & 24 in Big Sky, MT, a select group of entrepreneurs will present their ventures to a national audience of angel investors, venture capitalists, and other financial sources.  This is your best opportunity in the region to get in front of serious, active investors.  If you are building a high growth company and are seeking financing to support that growth, go to www.bigskyventurecapital.com to apply to present.

Can your site be found and used by everyone (and everything)? Part 4 of 4

By Stan Grabowski, Website Coordinator for Manufacturing-Works

Please visit the previous articles for some background:

1. Intro
2. Web standards
3. Testing your site

Make your website “fail gracefully”

"Failing gracefully..." It's like tripping over a crack and instead of landing on your face, you do a cart-wheel and land right back on your feet. You never intended to trip, but you didn't get hurt. But how could a website "trip?" Depending on how fancy your website is, with all its bells and whistles, your site may be set up to fail in a browser that doesn't work properly. The bigger they are the harder they fall...

...but it may not hurt as much if you have a safety net to fall into.

I was recently talking to someone who's website has drop-down menus. Their menu had the top most option, such as "About Us" and more options would show up when you put your mouse over the "About Us". From there you could navigate to the other sub-categories of the About Us section. It seemed to work just fine, until I disabled JavaScript. I was then stuck on the home page. I could not reach those sub-menu options, and there was no "About Us" page either. The visible "About Us" option was there merely to trigger the sub-menu; it did not link to anything.

So I'm stuck on the home page...

Now this was a deliberate problem I got myself into. I disabled the JavaScript. But JavaScript is not always available for everyone in every situation. The script may not work in a specific browser, or maybe the user is on their Blackberry or other handheld device. Maybe the user is a search engine! Search engines can't utilize JavaScript or Flash, so it would be stuck on the home page with me.

Drop down menus are often done with either JavaScript or Flash; neither of which are search-engine friendly. When a menu is built with JavaScript, it only exists in a visitors browser. Search engines don't use a mouse to navigate your site, so they will never see those drop-down options, and cannot follow those links to those pages. Search engines also cannot use Flash. If a search engine can't navigate your site, then your pages will not end up in the search engine's index, and no one will ever see those pages when they search.

You should think of JavaScript and Flash as "added frills," not a "required feature" of your site. All the information and content of your site should always be accessable with, or without Flash and JavaScript.

Solutions:

If your site must have drop down menus, consider these options:

1. Have a site map linked off of every page. The site map should have links to every page on your site. If a search engine finds your site map, it can find every page on your site.
2. Have a "text only" version of the menu at the bottom of the site. Make sure every page can be reached through a normal text link.
3. Use a CSS drop down menu. The downside of this is that the drop down options won't work in old versions of Internet Explorer (IE6 and before), but they are search engine friendly. Read this article on CSS Dropdown Menus for a good example.
4. Learn proper JavaScripting methods (which can be a bit of a task) and check out this article on Dropdown Menus.

Basically, you need to plan to fail sometimes. Make sure your site is still usable when Flash or JavaScript does not work.

See this topic in action:

I've built a demo of what I've been talking about in this article. Please visit the demo to see how a properly coded menu works versus an improperly coded menu. Please read the notes for clarification.

Again, this is an extensive subject that cannot be completely covered here. Feel free to contact me if you are interested in learning more.

Have You Heard of Venture West my Friend?

By Brandon Marshall

Recently I was given the opportunity to represent the Wyoming Business Council on the Board of Directors of The Venture West Network (so now I’m really important and credible, making everything I write on wyospace also really important and credible!)  Venture West is essentially and educational and networking organization dedicated to encouraging entrepreneurship as well as investment in entrepreneurship in Wyoming.  Really the goals of Wyospace.com and Venture West overlap in many ways.  Needless to say, I couldn’t be happier to give a little pitch for the organization today. I encourage you to check them out and consider joining up.

One of the major activities of Venture West is organizing periodic afternoon panel discussions with some of the most successful rock star entrepreneurs in Wyoming.  Each entrepreneur will each speak to whatever subject has been picked for the afternoon and offer their tips and insight based on real-world experiences from their companies. Topics typically range from bootstrapping to start your business to seeking venture capital to finding and keep good people for your management team.  After the afternoon session an evening session is held with a dinner and an opportunity for selected entrepreneurs to make a five minute pitch to several potential investors who are invited to the session.  Potential investors typically come from various places and companies in Wyoming and Colorado.

Now, the pitch that I promised....   Networking in Wyoming is somewhat of a difficult task, simply because of a lack of critical mass and the great distances between all of us.  Venture West is a great, extremely inexpensive, way to conveniently network with the best Wyoming’s entrepreneurial community has to offer. 

Venture West says:

Our collective membership represents the knowledge and experience of many businesses over many years and that information can replace the trial and error approach of an inexperienced entrepreneur.  The opportunity to network with peers as well as government leaders provides value far in excess of the cost of membership.  Attendees also have the chance to network with potential customers and gain exposure for their business.  Our focus on educational programs will provide all members with insight into effective business practices and strategies.

Memberships are $50 per year, meaning the value of the membership is gained back simply by attending two of the afternoon workshops. 

Afternoon workshops are offered to members of Venture West for free, and $25.00 for non-members.  Evening dinner programs are $25.00 for members and $40.00 for non-members. 

Give Venture West a look.  I’m sure you’ll see the value.

By the way, Venture West is a Partner in the upcoming Wyospace.com Idea Expo.  Several sessions will be Venture West panels, offering real world ideas, from real world business people.  If you haven't already signed up, visit www.wyomingideaexpo.com for more information and to register. 

Wyoming Business Tips: Hiring your first employee

By Arlene Soto, WSBDC Region 4 Director

A weekly look at Wyoming business questions from the Wyoming Small Business Development Center (WSBDC) at the University of Wyoming. This article came courtesy of the University of Wyoming Media Relations.

"My company is ready to hire the first employee. How do I proceed?" Dan, Sheridan

Hiring the first employee is a big step for any company. It's important to get everything set up correctly, including registering as an employer, developing a personnel management system, and hiring the right employee.
    
To register as an employer, first contact the Internal Revenue Service to receive an Employer Identification Number (EIN). Information is available by calling 1-800-829-1040 or e-mail www.irs.gov . Also contact the Wyoming Department of Employment at (307) 235-3217 or http://wydoe.state.wy.us for the state employer application form. Registration takes at least two weeks to complete.
    
Having employees requires a business owner to be aware of a pay period, quarterly and annual reporting of wages, and withholdings and employer taxes. A record keeping system is needed and most computerized accounting systems that process payroll will handle the information needed for reporting. Employers must keep a personnel file for each employee including a signed W-4 form and I-9 form with documentation. The file also may contain the application for employment, resume and employee reviews.
    
A personnel policy manual is useful for explaining the business owner's expectations to a new employee. Before hiring, an employer should carefully consider the rate of pay and the benefits offered. An attorney can provide valuable input on what needs to be included in the personnel policy manual.
    
Hiring the right employee takes careful consideration of the type of work expected and the organization culture. Consulting with an accountant can be beneficial in the process. For additional help, contact a local Small Business Development Center office.
    
The WSBDC is a partnership of the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Wyoming Business Council and the University of Wyoming. To ask a question call 1-800-348-5194, (307) 766-3505, e-mail wsbdc@uwyo.edu or write Dept. 3922, 1000 East University Ave., Laramie, WY 82071-3922. Additional help is available at the WSBDC Web page at http://www.uwyo.edu/sbdc .