All New Eastside Business News Site is Live!

The All New Eastside Business News site is now live at EastsideBusiness.com Mucho thanks to Ramey Bell and Rocket Fuel Marketing. I think that you will like it a lot and look forward to your comments. Please make sure to visit our Business Directory and list your Eastside business or organization for FREE. Featured listings are available for a limited time at only $50 a year on a first-come, first-served basis, although priority is given to advertisers in the print edition of Eastside Business Monthly. For more info send an email to Ads@EastsideBusiness.com

The China Eggs

This is a great story that was in today's Small Business Advocate e-newsletter from Jim Blasingame. I recommend that anyone in business sign-up for and read his newsletter. The China Egg "Farm-fresh eggs." Seeing those words on a breakfast menu harkens me back to when that was a daily reality. But farmers know that hens don't lay eggs for our breakfast. Consequently, they harvest the fresh eggs each day, and leave a China egg in each nest, which is sufficient to prevent the hens from abandoning their nests and continue production. There are China eggs in business, too. They're the prospects you keep calling on who never buy anything. Since you're smarter than a chicken, don't spend time and resources sitting on China eggs. On the farm or in business, China eggs never hatch. The message I get from this is that your time is your key resource and you cannot afford to spend it on those who waste it and will never buy or do business with you. On the other hand, my brother is a pit-bull salesperson who will call on a prospect every month or couple of weeks in person until they do buy from him. He will tell them straight up "I'm going to keep on coming by until you end up buying from me". It almost always works - although he occasionally has had to call on a person for 2 or 3 years before getting an order.

New Website almost Ready

Hello Dedicated Readers: I wanted to let you know that we have been hard at work on the new, and greatly improved Eastside Business website. Thanks to the design work of Ramey Bell, I believe it kicks ass on all the other local news sites, including the King County Journal's. You'll have to take a look on the 1st of Decemeber (or maybe a day or two earlier) and see for yourself. Please let us know what you think! When it goes live, we will be consolidating the websites for Eastside Business Weekly and Eastside Business Monthly into one great site at EastsideBusiness.com. Besides being updated on a daily basis, one of the great features of the new site is that local businesses and organizations will be able to add themselves to the online Eastside Business Directory free of charge. Visitors will then be able to rate these businesses and write reviews. It's cool and I'm looking forward to introducing it to you!!!

Bill Gate's "Sea Change" Email - Full Text

Thanks to Dave Winer and Hypercamp we now have the full text of Bill Gate's by now infamous email noting a "sea change" in technology as well as the complete memo from Ray Ozzie that was attached to that email. We're certainly glad that they've recognized the need to adapt and hope they can do so quickly and successfully. We'll certainly do what we can to help.

Ruby's Diner at Redmond Town Center Celebrating 5th Anniversary

Ruby's Diner at Redmond Town Center is celebrating its 5th anniversary with a 15 day celebration with special promotions. Congratulations to Ruby's!

Redmond's Perma-Chink Systems on "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition"

Redmond-based Perma-Chink Systems has contributed to television's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition". The show will air Sunday, November 13th at 8pm on ABC. (full story)

McCormick and Schmick's Pre-Opening

Tonight's pre-opening at McCormick and Schmick's in Lincoln Square was a real nightmare! People were cramming in and it was almost impossible to get anything to eat or drink. I'm not sure why they even asked for RSVPs as it was readily apparent that anyone who walked by could get in - after the stood in line waiting for everyone in front of them to cram in. They are very lucky the fire marshall wasn't around (or had his eyes closed). At any rate, it looks like it will be a very popular place. If it is like the other M&S restaurants, the food and the service will both be very good and generally be a very positive experience. I'm glad to have it so close to home.

Seahawks Partner with Creative Concepts

The Seattle Seahawks and First & Goal Inc. have reached a new partnership agreement with Woodinville, Wash. based print broker, Creative Concepts. Creative Concepts specializes in creating printing solutions by utilizing a network of specialized printers to fulfill the needs of their clients. The Seahawks and First & Goal Inc. will utilize Creative Concepts for all internal and external printing needs.

“Fight The Flood” T-shirt Raises Over $175,000 for Hurricane Relief

Sunrise Identity, a Woodinville-based promotional merchandise and marketing firm, was called on by Bungie Studios, developers of Xbox video games Halo and Halo 2, which reacted immediately following the Hurricane Katrina disaster to create "Fight the Flood" Halo-themed T-shirts. All profits from the sales of those T-shirts were donated to the American Red Cross Hurricane Katrina disaster relief effort. With the help of Sunrise Identity, Bungie was able to have the T-shirts designed and available for shipping in just 24 hours, with credit card order processing online and ready to go almost immediately. Sunrise Identity¹s speed of turnaround and built-in logistical flexibility meant that there was virtually no gap between Bungie¹s initial idea and the campaign¹s inception ­ ensuring as much money made it to where it was needed, as quickly as possible. Fight The Flood shirts sold for $19.95 at www.bungiestore.com <> . To date, more than 11,000 T-shirts have been sold, raising over $175,000 in actual donations. “Our entire team was immediately excited at the chance to contribute resources and effort towards the hurricane relief mission,” said Sunrise Identity CEO Mitch Mounger. “This fundraising effort resonated with Bungie¹s intensely loyal and technology savvy fans ­ the grass roots response was made possible because of a company willing to leverage the value of its immensely popular brand, a huge group of incredibly passionate and charitable gamers and a number of people who worked hard to execute orders.” “Without Sunrise 's expertise and infrastructure, Bungie's idea could have simply become a good intention with no result. Thanks to Sunrise , we were able to turn that idea into a real effort, and take advantage of the tremendous generosity and kindness of the Halo gaming community to do some solid, measurable good,” said Pete Parsons, studio manager at Bungie Studios. “We thank our employees and vendor partners, many of whom worked extra hours and weekends to meet demand. This was a team effort ­ Bungie Studios, Halo fans, Sunrise Identity ­ and it feels good to help the people affected by these storms any way we can,” added Mark Lynch, senior vice president of Programs and Fulfillment at Sunrise Identity.

Melanie Saedi is hired at Sammamish Chamber

The Sammamish Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors has announced the hiring of Melanie Saedi to the position of SCC Executive Administrator. (details)

Lockheed Martin Opens New Office in Bellevue

Lockheed Martin opened the doors to a new customer support office Thursday. The 8,000- square-foot office located in Bellevue reflects Lockheed Martin's expanding presence in the Seattle metro area in support of its growing regional business base. (Read the full story)

First Mutual Announces Stock Repurchase

First Mutual Bancshares, parent company of Bellevue-based First Mutual Bank announced today that they have agreed to buy back 2.7% of their outstanding shares from Bellevue Square Managers and Kemper Freeman Jr. (complete story)

Microsoft and Pinnacle Partner on Digital Photo & Video Organization and Editing Tool

Microsoft and Pinnacle Systems Inc. today introduced Microsoft Digital Image Suite PLUS, a complete set of intuitive digital photo- and video-organization and editing tools that combines Digital Image Suite 2006 with Pinnacle Studio version 10 in a single, package. (complete story)

AT&T to Provide Managed Hosting Services to Microsoft Game Studios

AT&T announced today it has won a $9.5 million, three-year managed hosting contract from Microsoft Game Studios (MGS) to support various online experiences and the infrastructure for massively multiplayer online role-playing games. The online games include the latest for both Windows and the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. (full story)

Concur Technologies Appoints Jeff Seely to Board of Directors

Redmond-based Concur Technologies recently announced the appointment of Jeff Seely to its Board of Directors. (story)

Grand Opening of Lincoln Square and the Westin Bellevue

I wasn't able to get to this morning's grand opening ceremonies for the Westin Bellevue and Lincoln Square, but took my wife and daughter to look around this afternoon. On our way out of Lincoln Square and down to the hotel, we happened to bump into Kemper Freeman Jr. and I introduced him to Elena and Jackie. Not surprisingly he said pointed out that Jackie was a future shopper (I didn't bother to tell him that both Elena and Jackie already spend many days and nights at Bellevue Square stores like Victoria's Secret and Gymboree). I congratulated him on getting the place open and he did seem like he was relieved that it was actually getting done. Along with Bellevue Square, & Bellevue Place, Lincoln Square is being marketed as part of the "Bellevue Collection" by Kemper and his Kemper Development Corporation. In an article that I read online the other day, they are supposed to be doing a $3-6 million advertising campaign over the next three years in local publications. I'd be lying if I said it doesn't hurt to know that so far none of those advertising dollars are scheduled to be spent with Eastside Business or Eastside Business Monthly, especially after what we've already done to help promote Lincoln Square and Westin Bellevue. I didn't want to rain on Kemper's day today, but do want him to realize that Eastside Business would love to be able to continue to support him and his Bellevue Collection, and we would welcome his support for Eastside Business. He might even see some of those dollars back from a "future shopper" ...

Robert Scoble blogging about Microsoft Live

On the Scobleizer blog today, Robert Scoble from Microsoft wrote about MS showing off their new http://www.live.com in San Francisco. Apparently some 50+ of the thousands of people who read Scoble's blog each day decided to comment on his post - many very negatively. The Windows Live site is still in beta and does not yet have everything figured out for all browsers other than Explorer, but I'm sure they are working away on it in Redmond as I type and you read. Give 'em a chance and they'll make it work. I have no doubt. I'm really pulling for the Microsoft machine in the battle of the bay.

Herbolds give $1.5 mil to the Hutch for Cancer Research

Former Microsoft COO Bob Herbold and his wife Pat, who has recently been named American Ambassador to Singapore, just announced a $1.5 million dollar gift to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. This donation will help to fund the Herbold Computational Biology Program at the Hutch. Please read the full story.

First Mutual Bank Hires Mizumori

First Mutual Bank has hired Victor Mizumori as the Community Business Banking Manager.

 

Mizumori, a 30-year Northwest banking industry veteran, oversees a group of four community business development officers in First Mutual’s retail markets.  Mizumori also lends a hand in product development and manages a number of contracts.  Prior to joining First Mutual, he worked at Key Bank for 29 years. He earned a BA in business from Seattle University.

 

Mizumori is a Lions Club member and has been the treasurer of the Wing Luke Asian Museum, located in Seattle’s International District, for seven years.  In addition to those groups, Mizumori volunteers with the Executive Development Institute, of which he is a graduate. He resides in Redmond.