Show : Microsoft's Small Business Summit
Guest : Frederic De Wulf, Microsoft Web Director for SMBs
Aired : Sunday March 23rd, 2008

We're back! After taking the first break in almost a year and a half, TFBS is back in action.  And we're glad to have Microsoft's Frederic De Wulf on to talk about the 3rd annual  Microsoft Small Business Summittaking place online March 24th-27th.  Frederic tells us what's in store this year and how it differs from the previous two.  He also fills us in how the role small businesses will play in the event, how they can participate from the comfort of your office, and what kind of takeaways you can come away with after the event is over.

 Plus Brent talks about his travels to Infusion Software's user conference as well as his experiences at Microsoft Convergence.  Plus he covers his thoughts on participating in Oracle's first ever blogger's call.

Frédéric De Wulf is a 15-year veteran of Microsoft, and has spent the past 11 years in capacities serving small-business customers. Prior to joining Microsoft,  he accumulated firsthand experience running his own small business film-production company, and running an interactive division for a 250 employee mid-size company. He has served as the host and overseer of the Microsoft Small Business Summit since its inauguration in 2006 and oversees Microsoft's Small Business Center site, the Microsoft Startup Center, The Microsoft Small Business Show, the Microsoft Mid Size Business Center and the Microsoft Business site. 

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Show : Building an Effective Web Presence in 2008 for Your Small Business
Guest : Michael Schultz, Marketing Director - Microsoft Office Live
Aired : Sunday January 13th, 2008

Even now in 2008, many studies still show only half of all small businesses have a website.  Those small businesses without a real presence on the web still perceive it to be to difficult and costly to create and maintain a website.  Others still don't see where a website would be of any real value to their businesses.  Our featured guest, Microsoft's Michael Schultz, gives any small business thinking along these lines many reasons to reconsider.  Michael explains why it's more important than ever before for small businesses to get on the web.  He fills us in on how much easier it is to get started than many small business owners may think it is, some best practices for getting started, and how a great web presence can improve the image of any small business.  And if you think only targeting local prospects means you don't need a website, Michael points out why you're probably wrong with that assessment.  Plus check out the free 64-page ebook from Microsoft and Startup Nation on how to create a successful website.

Plus we have a great conversation with the organizers of the upcoming third annual Small Business Summit taking place in New York next month.  Marian Banker, president of Prime Strategies, and small business technology evangelist (and friend of the show)  Ramon Ray of SmallBizTechnology.com share with us in why this year's summit will be a can't-miss event for small businesses looking to put technology to use in order to compete, thrive and survive.  Marian and Ramon fill us in on all the scheduled topics, speakers, networking opportunities and demonstrations that will help the expected crowd of 400 small business people get a jump on figuring out which tools and services are right for them.  To learn more about the event, please go to http://www.smallbiztechsummit.com.

Michael Schultz is passionate about helping small companies take their business online. Michael currently leads U.S. Marketing for Microsoft Office Live Small Business (http://smallbusiness.officelive.com), a Microsoft service for small business. Since the beta launched in February 2006, Office Live now has over 500,000 customers. Michael has deep expertise in online marketing and customer acquisition, where the team recently won an OMMA award for best Interstitial Ad.

Michael has written a number of articles and given radio interviews and presentations on how to build successful Web sites and generate business online. At Microsoft he has worked in various worldwide Sales and Marketing roles for a number of real-time technology solutions.

Prior to joining Microsoft, Michael was Senior Director of Product Marketing and Channel Development for PlaceWare, Inc., which was acquired by Microsoft in 2003 (now called Microsoft Office Live Meeting), and the Senior Director of Product Marketing at Voxeo, a startup company that offered hosted IVR, speech recognition and call center solutions for small- and mid-sized companies.

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Show : Microsoft on Small Business and Microsoft CRM Live
Guest : Cindy Bates, Microsoft GM of US Small Business Group
           Brad Wilson, Microsoft GM of Dynamics CRM
Aired : Saturday September 15th, 2007

Microsoft's long awaited on demand crm product, Microsoft CRM Live, is close to hitting the streets and will no doubt be of interest to businesses of all sizes looking to implement a customer relationship management solution. But what will it mean to small businesses ready to take the crm leap?  And how will it work with other popular Microsoft products like Office and Outlook?  Our guests this week are Cindy Bates, Microsoft's general manager of the US Small Business Group, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM general manager Brad Wilson.  Cindy and Brad fill us in on the biggest challenges facing their small business customers and how Microsoft is addressing them.  They also discuss how Microsoft CRM Live will benefit small businesses, and how services like Office Live are being used to help small businesses utilize the web more effectively.  Plus find out how Microsoft Startup Center is helping entrepreneurs get their business ideas off the ground with the help from partners like Federal Express, Bank of America and Master Card.

And check out Brent's take on why too many people are focused too heavily on figuring out how to get ranked higher in search engines and on social media sites like Digg, and not producing the best content they can to capture the attention of those who can use their services.  In fact, people can use the COLT-45 approach to the web.  No this is not about cracking open a "40" with Billy Dee Williams, but writing content that people will want to Comment On and Link To.  And the easiest way to begin getting comments and links is to build your home team of friends and family that you can count on to write a short comment and/or link to when you post a blog entry.  Try to get at least 4 or 5 (these numbers just work better for naming purposes) folks to get started with and move up from there.  And check out Michael's reaction when he hears Can I Kick It from A Tribe Called Quest for the first time!


Cynthia (“Cindy”) Bates is the general manager of Microsoft Corp.’s U.S. Small Business where for the past two years she has been responsible for harnessing Microsoft’s resources to best serve the needs of the 5.5 million small businesses in the United States.  Bates is charged with bringing even greater focus and visibility to Microsoft’s already strong, ongoing efforts to serve small businesses. She aims to build increasingly meaningful connections between Microsoft and its small-business customers and educate them on ways that Microsoft^® products can help them successfully meet their business objectives.

Previously, Bates was a managing director for corporate development and strategy at Microsoft, a role in which she led a team responsible for strategically evaluating, structuring, valuing and negotiating the company’s mergers, acquisitions, investments and joint ventures. One of her primary areas of focus was on the small-business applications market, including the orchestration of the strategically vital acquisitions of Navision a/s and Sales Management Systems for Microsoft Business Solutions.

Brad Wilson is the general manager of Microsoft^® CRM for the Microsoft Business Solutions Business Group at Microsoft Corp. Wilson leads global product management and marketing for Microsoft CRM and is responsible for driving awareness, demand and revenue for Microsoft CRM on a worldwide basis. His team is responsible for product positioning, pricing and packaging, as well as press and analyst relations, sales tools, and partner channel development.

Wilson has 20 years of experience in the technology industry, including more than 10 years in CRM. Before joining Microsoft, Wilson was the worldwide vice president of marketing for PeopleSoft where he was responsible for messaging, sales tools and support, press and analyst relations, and global demand generation. Before PeopleSoft, Wilson held senior management roles at E.piphany, including vice president in product marketing and technology alliances. Wilson also spent approximately 12 years at HP in engineering, consulting and marketing management roles, and has played key roles in two Silicon Valley software startups (RightPoint and Sigma Dynamics Inc.).

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Show : Talking Tech with Stephen Wildstrom
Guest : Stephen Wildstrom, writer and editor of BusinessWeek's "Technology and You" column
Aired : Saturday June 23rd, 2007

From the iPhone, to Microsoft Surface to Web 2.0, and all things Google there are so many things going on in technology.  Lucky for us that Steve Windstrom from BusinessWeek allowed us to fire a whole bunch of questions at him to help us figure some of this out.  And if one guru weren't enough, our guest co-host this week is Paul Greenberg, author of the best selling book CRM at the Speed of Light and popular blog PGreenblog.  Paul fills in for Michael who's been dispatched on a secret assignment.   Brent and Paul talk about Web 2.0 and CRM being perfect partners, and how the CRM vendors haven't seemed to recognize that yet.

Stephen H. Wildstrom is writer and editor of BusinessWeek's personal technology column, "Technology & You," a position he assumed in April 1994. Mr. Wildstrom has done commentaries on high-tech issues for CNBC, Fox, PBS, and National Public Radio's Morning Edition. In addition, his column has been featured in segments on BusinessWeek TV and ABC's Business Now. He has served as a panelist at industry trade shows and conferences, including the Consumer Electronics Show and Mobile Insights, and as a judge at a number of industry competitions, including the Software Publishers Association's Codie Awards. Mr. Wildstrom had the honor of receiving two National Magazine Awards and a McGraw-Hill Achievement Award, and is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery.

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