Month: October 2009

Shoeboxed.com and iPhone – Small business MUST HAVES

via shoeboxed.com

If you’re a small business owner (consultants count obviously) then Shoeboxed.com and their new iPhone App is an absolute must have. Beyond a doubt, unequivocally, absolutely the best thing ever. Simple – send your receipts to SB and they’ll process them for you and put them into a spreadsheet. You can sign up for the service and get mailing envelopes, you can scan them and email them to the service, or they just released the iPhone app that lets you take a picture of a receipt, make a note about it, and submit it and it is processed for you.

Run a report and you get a spreadsheet with all this info! DONE AND DONE!

This is near and dear to my heart this year as I get audited for expenses related to the Wine Bloggers’ Conference that I produced. If you submit a Schedule C for business expenses DO NOT GO ANOTHER DAY WITHOUT THIS COMBINATION. Starts at about $10 a month but its the most useful service I’ve seen since I started freelancing a few years ago.

Amazon Puts Wine Program on Hold – Wine Business News

Amazon.com, considered the world’s largest online retailer, may be bailing on its wine program, which never really got going, winebusiness.com has learned. After some two years of preparation, Amazon.com appears to be pulling the plug. In an email communication sent to wineries today, senior account manager Dini Rao said the company recently decided “not to resume shipping.”

“As you know, we were excited to work with you to build the AmazonWine business, Rao said in an email that went to winery partners. “For that reason, this was a very tough choice for us. “Many of you took the time and leap of faith to really support us.”

Amazon had been working on a wine launch and had at one point inked a deal to use New Vine Logistics of American Canyon, California to fulfill orders. The plan was to create a consignment system, where wineries earned 47 percent of the retail price for wine when sold.

According to industry sources, the logistics of launching the system turned out to be a regulatory headache that was difficult to overcome, an issue that was illustrated last summer when the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control issued an industry advisory raising concerns about online wine sales going through “unlicensed third party service providers” –websites where consumers can buy wine through a third party.

We will have more details as they become available.

 

via winebusiness.com

Well, I think many inside the wine industry understood the issues with shipping wine direct. The increased scrutiny by the California DABC is an interesting point worth noting. I wonder who it was that paid a lobbyists to prompt that CDABC industry advisory…hmmmm…who could possibly want to impede the progress of a marketplace that allowed HUGE volumes of winery direct sales…hmmmm…I wonder….

I bet Fermentations will have a few thoughts very very soon. What’s the over/under on a Warkian post?

Great Guerilla Marketing Idea for a Winery!

Ready? 

Pay me $25K and I'll write about some wines, not disclose it, and have a friend report me to the FTC.  I'll eat the $11K and then all the publicity of being the first one caught will explicitly and inevitably draw oodles of attention to your winery as I contest the fine in a very public manner and all sorts of blogs follow my progress and the rulings in my case.

Anyone in?  Gotta act fast before someone else does it!

😉

p.s. – I'm half kidding.  I don't have a ton of time these days but this is a guerilla marketing tactic that will DEFINTELY work.  Cheers!