BIYO Business Update

Business Update; 2004
It is March of the year 2004 and the website has been moved to a new service. Since 90% of all online purchases are done with a credit card, we had better get up to speed on adding some form of shopping cart to the site. Our other service did not allow for this type of script transactions, so we had to move. It is also less expensive with the new service including the added features and faster internet backbone. We also had to change our e-mail name and update that all over the place...it too is now more better.

There were many art shows last year, but when it was all said and done we were at an expense ratio of 5 to 1. That is not how a business is suppose to be operated. The four shows in the Chicago area were fun, but they were also expensive to attend. People bought the artwork and both artists and the public had positive comments, but sales and the distance made the area too expensive to continue attending at this time. We need to try and establish our market a little closer to home to support the marketing at more distant ones in the future.

The application process is also in full swing again, as well as establishing authorization for the company to do business in Connecticut, Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania. Another added cost of doing business as a corporation. We also dissolved the authorization to do business in Vermont. One Vermont show was just too expensive to maintain a business presence in the state at this point in time.

Also learning about search engine optimization (SEO) and how the BiyoArt site is setup in frames creates a whole new world of problems. Most search engine web crawlers or spiders cannot handle a frameset index. So, for the moment the noframes content was updated to include site content and a site index link. Currently working on the keyword ranking but competing with multimillion dollar organizations and their internet content is a little daunting to obtain a page ranking. We are pondering this issue, as this might be the direction required for future sales with controlled expenses.

Since the economy appears to be picking up, it may be possible to find an agent to promote the artwork or the images within it. Depending on the outcome of the search and on how the acceptance into more regional art shows progresses will determine how and where the business focus will head...working on it.

It's been real
We'll have to do it again real soon.
Talk at ya.

-yO