Bizzibiz Review
We’ve been getting a lot of calls and emails regarding the buzz around Bizzibiz, so we’ve decided to provide a Bizzibiz review for everyone with the information that is public as of now. In August of 2010 a United States federal trademark registration was filed for Bizzibiz which was later approved in December of 2010. The trademark description for Bizzibiz services are as follows:
Digital marketing and advertising services, namely, providing e-mail advertising campaign management, pay per click advertising management services, advertising and marketing by means of social media, video advertising and marketing, design of Internet advertising, on-line advertising services for others; franchise services, namely, offering business management assistance in the establishment and operation of digital marketing and advertising services.
Bizzibiz Review | What Bizzibiz Will Offer
The chief aim of BizziBiz is to provide digital marketing services for small business owners that will allow them to compete in the digital marketplace. There is currently a lot of hype surrounding online marketing, especially social media marketing, and so this service is being offered at a time when it is needed most. The biggest hurdle for Bizzibiz will be whether or not the services provided by Bizzibiz will be effective for their customers. There are many individuals and companies that offer similar services that do not always provide the most effective and up-to-date SEO and SMO services for their clients. The online marketplace changes rapidly and marketing strategy must keep up with the changes.
Bizzibiz Franchise
The Bizzibiz business model will be set up as a franchise allowing franchisees the ability to market digital marketing solutions for clients nationwide. A recent press release written by Gail Gust from Bizzibiz discusses why Bizzibiz has chosen to utelize the franchise model to role out Bizzibiz’s services:
“The franchise model is simple: franchisees sell digital marketing services to small businesses and all of the digital marketing services are fulfilled by BizziBiz; thus, allowing the franchisee to rely on the expertise and the economies of scale that BizziBiz can offer the small businesses. To facilitate the sales of BizziBiz franchises, Jim Piccolo created a franchise sales organization, known as Extreme Franchise Marketing (XFM). Through its Independent Business Consultants, XFM locates qualified franchisee candidates for BizziBiz and is also poised to offer additional franchise businesses in the future (see ExtremeFranchise.com).
The franchise model is simple: franchisees sell digital marketing services to small businesses and all of the digital marketing services are fulfilled by BizziBiz; thus, allowing the franchisee to rely on the expertise and the economies of scale that BizziBiz can offer the small businesses.To facilitate the sales of BizziBiz franchises, Jim Piccolo created a franchise sales organization, known as Extreme Franchise Marketing (XFM). Through its Independent Business Consultants, XFM locates qualified franchisee candidates for BizziBiz and is also poised to offer additional franchise businesses in the future (see ExtremeFranchise.com).”
The Bizzibiz franchise is being marketed through a direct sales channel called Extreme Franchise Marketing, or XFM. XFM business consultants will recruit franchisees and earn commissions for selling the Bizzibiz franchise to the new business owner. XFM business consultants will have the ability to promote themselves to higher commission levels and leverage the earnings of teams of consultants.
A true Bizzibiz review would not be complete without a review of the individuals that work with the company. Jim Piccolo is the Founder and CEO of both Extreme Franchise Marketing, XFM, and Bizzibiz Franchise, Inc. Jim Piccolo is a venture capitalist with a long history successful businesses under his belt. Good practice with small businesses selling ed drugs online. To focus completely on XFM and Bizzibiz, Mr. Piccolo has decided to divest his interest in his other businesses, namely Nouveau Riche (a once flourishing real estate investment school).
The Extreme Franchise Marketing website also lists five Vice President positions: Andre and Tami Popa, Jeff Hooks, Don Lapre, Phil Lechter, and Ross Denny.
- Andre and Tami Popa have been long time associates of Jim Piccolo’s and were top sales associates with Nouveau Riche.
- Jeff Hooks is a long-time entrepreneur and leads leadership and sales trainings worldwide.
- Don Lapre is a lifelong entrepreneur and was once crowned the King of Infomercials, for products such as Money Making Secrets and The Greatest Vitamin in the World.
- Phil Lechter is the son of Sharon Lechter, co-author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, and has worked for both the Rich Dad Company and Nouveau Riche.
- Ross Denny is a serial entrepreneur and real estate investor and also served as in an executive position with a Fortune 5 company.
This Bizzibiz review serves not to persuade or dissuade any individual from involvement with Bizzibiz or it’s consultant network. Our job is to simply provide you, the reader with facts, about the company and their leadership.
Copyright 2010 ~ Black Box Social Media ~ Bizzibiz Review
Admin, I got mad when your first few responders were calling this a Scam. They referred to not being able to see what is being offered from the website. They need to order the FTC Franchise Offering Documents to see that kind of detailed information. This is a franchise offering and secondly, I do not have anything to do with BizziBiz or even know what they do but to allow your first responders to call this a Scam because of Jim Piccolo or Don Lapre’s involvement is wrong. Admin, I would recommend you order the Franchise documents and take a look at this throughly if you really want to comment on how or what something is or isn’t for your thousands of readers. Jim and Don, both have had successful operators in all of their other business offerings. They have also had operators of their business offereings fail also. What company hasn’t? I was approached by BizziBiz as a “cleint” not as a marketer of a MLM marketing plan. Most MLM’s market their great compensation and oh by the way we have this great product. I was shown the product line and approached to become a client. That’s why when your first commentors were very indignant toward this business and the leaders, I thought I should say something. I’m still looking at using their services. Isn’t it funny with all of the great “other” companies out there offering these services, none of them have ever contacted me to become a client. Maybe Jim and Don have something here.
Hello everyone!
I have been keeping my eye on this post and many others here over the past couple of weeks and I just wanted to personally chime in from the BizziBiz side. Not to mention, this may be an example of how we do leverage and embrace open communication on social media channels to build our brand and create great experiences for anyone that comes into contact with BizziBiz. Not to mention, we like to keep it real and be 100% transparent, so here goes.
I am certain you don’t want me to throw around any credentials so I will skip to the point, but feel free to Google me (or anyone on the BounceFire team). I like to think I really don’t have much to hide. However, I do want to set the context with my alignment and personal commitment to BizziBiz. I’m just an avid entrepreneur, just recently a college graduate, and an internet marketing guy that built a small company in Ohio and caught the eye of the aforementioned Jim Piccolo. I met Jim at the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (www.gsea.org) final round later in 2010 where he was a judge as part of his philanthropic efforts in giving back to the young entrepreneurs around the world. The way that we pitched our little company called BounceFire (www.bouncefire.com) caught his attention and he specifically liked our process and integrated digital marketing service offering. Jim was interested in connecting and potentially acquiring BounceFire and our whole team. BounceFire was my college startup business with a great reputation, great process, and rockstar employees. As you can imagine, I did MY due-diligence before packing up ship and moving everyone that I care about to Arizona from Ohio.
Since then Jim has acquired BounceFire under BizziBiz and he has brought me and my entire team out to Scottsdale, Arizona to integrate the BounceFire process and manage the entire product fulfillment division of BizziBiz. It has been busy but it is a freakin’ blast. Our crew has been given the autonomy to stay on top of the continuously changing digital marketing world in terms of fulfillment and process refinement and since we have gotten started it is working really great.
This last note sets a very important point that is crucial to understand. BizziBiz is doing the fulfillment for digital marketing projects that the franchisees sell in-house. So, the franchisees don’t need to be trained to that technical level of detail in the different digital marketing service offerings.
The engineer in me will hit each point separately and one at a time to address all concerns.
Lightspeed
“Bizzibiz is just YET another multi-level marketing scheme indulging in selling franchises to people claiming that it’d help them make money.”
-BizziBiz is not an MLM company as explained throughout this comment thread.
“The digital marketing space is cluttered with agencies offering services at just about every price point for small businesses. There is nothing that any Bizzibiz franchise owner can offer than will differentiate from the services that these digital marketing agencies can offer.”
-The differentiators for BizziBiz are the same ones as we had for BounceFire because we are using the same process and service offering (just tweaked to be a bit better). Our differentiation lies in a few key points: our process, our integrated service offering, and our culture.
After doing some quick Google searches it seems that you have been very active in discussions about BizziBiz and Nouveau Riche (Jim’s previous business). I had no affiliation with Nouveau Riche but I would really be interested to having a quick discussion with you on the phone if that is at all possible. My contact information is at the bottom of this thread. I will go above and beyond to do anything that I can to make things right with you.
Digital Expert
“This is a scam at the highest level. There is NOTHING specific online or anywhere else that describes the actual services, pricing, competition etc. that would be offered to a merchant buying something from a franchise owner. “
-I’ll be blatantly honest here. We are in super-startup mode. This is the shoemaker’s shoe dilemma, where the guy that makes shoes wears bad shoes because he is too busy making everyone else’s shoes look great. We have made some revisions recently to our product/service package on the website and you can find it here: http://www.bizzibiz.com/services/bizzibiz-services. We had this same problem at BounceFire. However, you point out that our process is NOT on the website yet and it needs to be. We will be getting this done soon, I promise!
“There are hundreds of Internet marketing companies letting anyone sell and market their services on a commission basis. WHY BUY A FRANCHISE? This is a SCAM….”
-The franchise model was not how we did it at BounceFire but after reviewing how it all worked it made perfect sense to me as an entrepreneur. The franchise model works great for quickly penetrating large markets and minimizing startup cash flow issues. However, in order for a franchise to succeed, it has to have ROCK SOLID process. I’d recommend reading Michael Gerber’s E-Myth Revisited to see my train of thought on the importance of process and the potential of franchise companies.
Admin/BlackBox
“a) what is it you are really offering to clients for the price”
-Here is a quick overview of our process and our product service package. Franchisees are armed with a little web app called the BizziBiz Quick Assessment. They take an iPad into a business owner with this app and work with the business owner to fill out a 20 minute questionnaire. After it is filled out it uses an algorithm that we wrote to come up with a digital marketing grade by analyzing the input and tapping into a few API’s. This generates a Quick Report right on the spot that the franchisee (or their sales reps) can review with the potential customer. The Quick Report gives them some information on their websites search engine optimization, social media mentions, klout score, cross-browser screenshots, and much more. Next, the business owner sees the report and commits to a $297 SRP BizziBiz Roadmap. The Roadmap is a custom integrated digital marketing solution that lays out a strategy for each relevant digital marketing service (bucket). The idea here is that we can’t start doing digital marketing efforts without putting together a sound strategy. If they commit to the Roadmap process then they fill out a Project Intake Form (PIF) which takes a little over an hour and asks longer answer questions about the business, their customers, their products, their brands, and their current marketing efforts. At this point the PIF is sent to our internal fulfillment team here at BizziBiz and an agile project team selects the project and taps their ‘bucket’ experts to build out the Roadmap. The Roadmaps are typically around 15-20 pages and are detailed enough that they could be taken to another provider and executed on if they don’t want to use us ongoing. At the bottom of the Roadmap are three pricing packages customized for the needs of that business after the thorough review and strategy creation. If they decide to move forward they get to continue to work with the SAME project team that did their roadmap and review with their dedicated project manager (catalyst) from that project team monthly on key performance indicators and ROI estimates from each of the ‘buckets’. The catalyst will determine how to best allocate the dollars each month for optimal return. So, our actual buckets are: Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Optimization, Conversion Rate Optimization, Mobile Marketing, Email Marketing, and Web Development. BounceFire has successfully delivered this product suite since 2007 and started using this process specifically in 2009. It has generated some great results and helped us grow to where we are today.
“b) how can a novice that happens to purchase one of the franchises really offer a valuable service to a customer (we’ve been working in internet marketing and social media for years and there is a pretty steep learning curve for newbies)”
-I think I already hit on this earlier but the franchisees are not delivering the services to the customer. They are simply tapping the market and building the relationships from a sales perspective. It is VERY typical for the franchisees to sit in on monthly review calls and stay very active with the projects. In fact – we encourage it and work with our franchisees daily to get them up to speed on digital marketing trends.
“c) as for ‘a company that sells RESULTS not Features”
-By saying that we sell results and not features we are implying that we are not an out-of-the-box digital marketing ‘tool’ that will solve all of your problems. These simply don’t work and many that claim to work are blackhat. We aren’t selling a product but rather we are selling ongoing results for our customers. Hence our month-to-month contracts that can be cancelled anytime. Our catalysts work with the business owners to set up systems to track their return on investment from digital marketing efforts. If we aren’t delivering results, fire us.
“how is Bizzibiz justifying the thousands of dollars that are paid out, up front, to the salespeople and management when a sale is made (shouldn’t some of that money be put towards the clients’ social media solution)?”
-BizziBiz itself is NOT paying any salespeople at all for anything. BizziBiz is, however, affiliated with Extreme Franchise Marketing (which is not owned by Jim Piccolo) that is basically a lead broker for franchises. BizziBiz buys leads from the lead broker for franchise sales. This also has nothing to do with actual digital marketing service sales as only the franchisees are selling the digital marketing services and they simply buy at wholesale and sell at retail (no commission). This lead brokerage is very similar to that of other franchise lead brokers like FranNet and FranChoice which typically take around 50% commission on franchise sales and sometimes even royalties. The XFM commission on lead purchases is much less and does not take any sort of royalties.
“There are tons of companies out there charging exorbitant sums to customers for these services because it is difficult to quantify what the service is worth (no benchmark has been set). What about if you charged half of the monthly and worked with client on a pay for performance model?”
-Bingo! This is a GREAT point! At BounceFire we considered this model but found that we were “sleeping with too many people at one time”. So instead of performance pricing we have implemented a compensation model that incentivizes the project teams and their catalyst based on the objective key performance indicators and the ROI they are able to show for their selected customers. Also, important to note here, our pricing is very competitive in the market but we are not looking to be the lowest cost digital marketing company.
“If your services are as good as you claim then a pay for performance model will be much more profitable for you in the long run than the flat fee of a high priced program.”
-We considered this at BounceFire and have worked with web development companies in the past that have done this. After a while it gets difficult because you feel like you are “sleeping with too many people at one time” and can’t be fair with all of your customers. We felt that the compensation model made more sense but I’d love to hear your feedback.
“Our hope is that Bizzibiz will contribute positively in the social media marketing arena. There is enough room in the sandbox for us to all play nicely, make money, and provide value to customers that use our services. Provide value for your customers, under promise & over deliver, and bring a positive impact upon the industry; that’s all we can ask.”
-We completely agree! In fact, we are partnering with many other digital marketing service providers from around the country and the world to help us continue to deliver great products together. Our focus is on delivering value and keeping our customers happy. We feel that our monthly reports do just that as the catalyst really gets to know and understand the businesses they are working with.
“There are thousands of other Social Media and Digital media companies out there. Can you please list on our site the features and benefits of how a small business can benefit from BizziBiz’s services? There are thousands of different offerings out there, what makes BizziBiz new and unique? We would like to hear the features that clients will receive and the benefits they will reap from your digital marketing campaigns. Can us give us a few examples please?”
-I think I hit on lots of this already but I will add some more here. Small businesses can benefit from our services because digital is becoming more and more crucial for their success. Most don’t understand it and those that do can’t keep up with it as it changes so quickly. Most don’t know what they need and don’t know what they are paying for. We offer an integrated digital marketing solution through a streamlined process that is results focused. Our goal is to create long-term relationships with each and every customer that comes in the door. No commitments so if we can’t deliver value – nix us!
“This has a lot do to with leadership but at the end of the day its someone’s personal work ethic, drive and fortitude that will make them break the 6 figure a year ceiling.”
-You are 100% absolutely correct here. I will be the first one to post to the social space that BizziBiz is NOT a get rich quick opportunity. Franchisees that are buying in will have to go through close to 30 hours of training and stay on the ball with digital marketing if they want to succeed. Not to mention we provide all sorts of great resources for ongoing education. We typically have around six webinars a week for franchisees and at the beginning of April we are having a two-day live training workshop in Arizona. They are buying a real business that takes real time and energy to run. However, we are always doing everything we can to make it as easy as possible for them.
“We are more interested in the services you are providing where the margin is so think that you can pay all these “contractors” out while still working with a small business that will want to keep you around for the long term at what appears to be a high monthly reoccurring charge. Can you please help explain how it will be possible to gain market share with small businesses that are forced to pay $2,000+ a month in online exposure? Marketing budgets in this economy are much tighter than they were just 24 months ago.”
-Our pricing starts at $300/mo SRP right now. Very affordable options for small businesses. We have no problem starting small and showing value and then moving up if it makes sense.
“No free lunches and I’m sure the others who followed these same people in the past and failed, missed that part. Now they comment on the web.”
-Completely agree here. The leaders in the company are definitely talented individuals. I have learned SO much since I have been out here in Arizona. However, it is all how you use the insight and knowledge they share.
“The problem that we really have is that these “leaders” are not doing for themselves what they are teaching, consulting, selling others on. How can you sell a digital online presence when you don’t participate online in a social media or digital world?”
-Again I will defer to the shoemakers shoe problem! BizziBiz was started because of a large market opportunity and not because Jim Piccolo or any of the other leaders are exactly digital marketing experts. I once read from Guy Kawasaki that to build a great business you have to hire a bunch of people that are smarter than you. Also, in Good to Great by Jim Collins he mentions that you have to have the right people in the right seats on the bus. They acquired BounceFire as the digital marketing guru’s and we are fairly active in the space – time permitting. On a side note, we are trying the get the “old guys and gals” of BizziBiz on social media too so watch out! Just kidding on the old thing! 🙂
“We have looked over many of the leaders Facebook pages, Twitter Pages, personal blogs more and to be honest…very few of the leaders are even doing what they are “selling others” We are not seeing the personal branding, blogs, local listing, videos, syndication, commenting, fan pages, articles, and more.”
-We have told them specifically to stop on their social media efforts until they receive the proper tools and training. They will be tweeting soon enough! Also if you find anyone in our organization that is promoting other peoples products or services please advise as we discourage this type of activity completely.
Eddie
“For someone getting into the internet services business, you really need to improve your web design bud, it’s really bad. It’s almost as bad as your other one, IMGoingBananas.com. LOL, did your 8 year old niece make that for you? “
-LOL! Tell me about it! I have been on Don for months to get that website fixed but he is just a character! I will send him a note with your comment personally. Also please note that Don is not an employee of BizziBiz but rather he is a franchisee and was contracted to help us with some video/audio work.
Soat
“I think GM has the same format in selling cars. Grow up and smell the coffee, these people know how to sell, why wouldn’t someone who wants to enter this business want to follow someone who knows what they are talking about.”
-You are correct Soat but what you are describing here is not BizziBiz but Extreme Franchise Marketing (our lead broker). XFM takes on an insurance agency sales model and is not MLM.
Ray
“Just Look up Don Lapre and the rest of the Top Brass of bizzi Biz on ripoffreports.com, scam.com or just a google search you will find out all the people that lost thousands of their hard earned dollars from these people!”
-Being around the offices here I have also got to connect with lots of people that had their lives changed by Don and Jim. They are great individuals in my opinion and haven’t done one thing shady to me or anyone on my team. Feel free to research anyone on the BounceFire team and you will notice that we have a very positive reputation.
Gene
“I invite you to my personal web page to learn more about this company, and WHY it was Born… MeetPlanA.info”
-Hey Gene, I appreciate that you are siding for BizziBiz here but let’s try not to use comment threads on social media channels to promote your landing pages. That is typically considered a bad practice unless you are referencing a link that is very relevant.
Conclusion
Done rambling now! 🙂 Finally, I would be MORE than happy to personally entertain a DIRECT phone call from anyone on this comment thread. We really appreciate your feedback and want to use it to make BizziBiz better for its customers, its franchisees, and its employees. I will field any additional questions and if I cannot answer them myself I will connect you with someone that can. Direct line of contact at BizziBiz is 480.991.8888 – ask for Zach Ferres.
BlackBox – thank you for your time on writing this post and fielding questions. Let’s work together to use social media and the rest of digital marketing to help small- to medium-sized businesses around the world to succeed.
See ya!
Zach
Well said Zach. I look forward to working with you as a sales rep and soon to be franchisee.
Tyler B
To each its OWN. caveat emptor: as in many (ad)ventures…”until the next best thingy comes…makes more cents…uhmmm, sense”.
glte & all 😉
If you ever follow the companies that Jim Piccolo has been involved with he gets people to invest anywhere from $15-250K and then either spins it off into a shell company or spends it and then says he is divesting himself of business after he finds something else and raises other money from informed investors! Stay away or get in line for trying to collect! Just check out one of their VP’s that was just called to court for wire fraud and money laundering as well as his suit by the state of Arizona for securities fraud. This is not perception but fact!
https://blackboxsocialmedia.combizzibiz-review-what-is-bizzibiz/
http://www.azcentral.com/business/news/articles/2011/06/15/20110615biz-TV-pitchman-infomercial-accused-scam.html
Don Lapre is a Franchise owner and has nothing to do with corporate office and has to follow the rules set by the Federal Trade commision who approved are Franchise agreement and as for Mr. Piccolo’s only failed business ventures were real estate related which the whole entire industry has been its worse in years so cant see how you can hold that againest him .
If you look at how huge the numbers are and growth of the Digital Marketing Industry and the fact this is a Franchise with very strict rules and we already have over 300 satisfied clients for our services on the books speaks for itself.
Chris,
I don’t think it’s fair to say that Don Lapre is only a Franchise owner. The Bizzibiz website lists him as a Vice President with the company and has been touting his name since inception (that is until his recent indictment). Don Lapre was also given credit for the Bizzibiz movie style infomercial in Press Releases released by Bizzibiz back in February.
As for your statement about Mr. Piccolo’s only failed business venture being in real estate, WRONG. Prior to Nouveau Jim started a travel MLM that crashed and burned. I think this is the pattern that ‘D’ was referring to.
Lastly, 300 satisfied clients looks great until you realize that there are what 75-100 franchisees (maybe more). So each one has found 3 customers in the last 7 months? How are any of you surviving?
Its very fair to say Mr. Lapre has never been part of corporate he bought a Franchise and also was contracted to do some video work
he wasnt the Official ” Vice President” of the Corporate office he was a Vice president because he sold 7 Franchises and had 7 account managers promoted to General Managers Because of the compensation Plan he became the Job title Vice President anyone that sales 7 Franchises that builds a team and 7 of there account managers get Promoted so anyone can Become a Vice President “classification” by doing the same .
we have around 75 Franchises sold yes but the size of accounts do vary one Franchise owner gots 1 client paying $13,000 a Month Depending on what a client needs so you found a travel MLM that Mr. Piccolo had that Failed to not surprised either Travel Business Just as bad as Real estate.
so in the case of Bizzibiz You have to look at the facts !
Fact number #1
Franchise Industry Expert and Franchise Attorney from San Francisco, Kevin B. Murphy, known in the industry as Mr. Franchise, has reviewed over 500 franchise companies and has personally owned and operated a very successful franchise. He says “A BizziBiz franchise offers the hottest franchise Opportunity I’ve seen in my 30 years in the industry.”
he also served on our council
Now why would the Number #1 Top Franchise Attorney Expert Make such a statement is this is a scam or be part of our ???
Fact number #2
Kurt Ohlson has worked in the wholesale financial services business for the past 24 years, raising capital in many industries.
Kurt was instrumental in the phenomenal growth of ING Annuities from 1997-2008. He participated in the remarkable rise of ING through the digital world, which grew the ING brand from nothing to a value of over $3 Billion. This experience is what motivated Kurt to seek out this opportunity at BizziBiz.
Kurt purchased a BizziBiz franchise in March 2011 as he saw the great opportunity to help small businesses expand. He formed a partnership with a very experienced individual in the digital marketing world and now offers BizziBiz services. In addition, he works closely with the BizziBiz executive team to ensure the success of the financing program for franchise sales.
and the Growth of Digital marketing itself is huge the numbers there speak for themself
Besides These Facts who ever heard of a Franchise Scam ?
The Federal trade commission have very strict Guidelines to approve a business as a
franchise and are Totally Regulated by them.
Facts is what you should be focusing on
Wow, 1 client paying $13,000 a month for your service. I guess P.T. Barnum was right “there’s a sucker born every minute.”
Here are some facts:
Your Fact #1 is based on someone’s opinion.
Fact #2 We’ve never claimed that Bizzibiz is a scam, though some of our commenters have. [In my opinion I think these folks see the Bizzibiz ‘Franchise’ model as a thinly veiled MLM]
Bizzibiz is definitely in a great industry at a perfect time and if they are providing the service that they claim to be able to provide it’s a brilliant model! That being said we recently took on a former Bizzibiz client that paid Bizzibiz $1000s of dollars for a service that was never fulfilled (we’re not saying that Bizzibiz is to blame, it very well could have been the franchisee).
The inherit flaw in the Bizzibiz model is the same one that existed with Nouveau Riche. Franchisees are more incentivized to recruit other franchisees than to go out and actually provide a service to customers. To prove my point, you stated, that there are 75 franchisees and 300 customers. This equates to 4 customers per franchisee over the course of nearly 7 months now.
Seems like Jim Piccolo got sued, fined, and shut down by the State of Arizona for violating Securities laws. Read the docket for yourself, especially prior to signing on with his newest company:
http://images.edocket.azcc.gov/docketpdf/0000116150.pdf
Throughout History Entrepreneurs have failed many times and learned from those failures a fact of life only thing i see brought up here is a Failed real estate biz and travel biz 2 of the worst industries to be in last few years but somehow some people seem to be Ignorant of these facts and not looking how huge digital marketing industry is and all the other strong important facts so nick where is your Harvard Business degree you seem to be so smart and what business are you in and how is it doing im willing to bet not that good and as for Jerry laws are very complicated and pretty sure at the time Mr. Piccolo did consult with attorneys at the time but again a real estate related venture !! and you must be in the same boat as nick with your life
Chris, your complete lack of punctuation, eloquence, and ability to compose a worthwhile argument humors me. I agree that Entrepreneurs do fail and learn from their failures and I am not immune to this, I have failed in several ventures myself. There is a lot more that could be shared here about Bizzibiz and the management team that I haven’t brought up because I don’t want to drag anyone’s name through the mud. There are others with a much bigger axe to grind that can do that instead.
Secondly, no one has ever said a negative word about digital marketing here. We’ve only questioned the Bizzibiz model; mostly for selling franchises to ‘Experts’ like yourself that can then go out and sell their ‘Expertise’ to
ignorantbusiness owners.You want to know about me and why we have posted the things that we have? My business partner and I were approached about Bizzibiz in December, before the official launch. We took a look at it, decided it was not for us, and left it at that. For the several weeks we were approached numerous times by other ‘Franchisees’ that wanted us to take a look at this AMAZING once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We were already servicing clients in the SEO and SMO world and saw no use in paying for a franchise to do what we were already doing We soon realized that the focus of Bizzibiz was not on clients or servicing clients, but rather on recruiting other ‘Franchisees.’ [This is surprisingly similar to what happened to Nouveau Riche. You can argue this with me if you would like but your last comment confirmed this when you stated that there are 75+ Franchisees and only 300 clients that are being serviced by the company. I have seen your presentation and your compensation plan and it makes it a whole lot sexier to recruit other sales people than clients.] So I wrote a blog on it, which as it turns out gets some decent traffic and ranks well for the term ‘Bizzibiz.’
Moving on, I do not have a Harvard Business Degree and I have never claimed that that I do; though I do have a Business Degree from one of the top business schools in the country. As for my business, in case you missed it, you are looking at it. This is my website for my company that I started alongside another ‘Real’ digital marketer, and we are doing just fine thank you. While I’m not one to boast I will tell you that we do internet marketing (SEO and SMO) for some rather large clients including several TV stars, an Internationally recognized motivational trainer/speaker/author, several national real estate speakers, an author that is currently at 6 weeks on the NYT Bestseller’s list, and several others. We do not advertise and we charge a ton of money, but because we are GOOD, we have more business than we can handle.
Quick question for you, since you seem to know so much about Bizzibiz and Jim. Why has Mr. Piccolo deleted his Facebook Page and the Popa’s no longer promote Bizzibiz on their social profiles or website either?
Not trying to argue at all just pointing out facts if your company doing so well how do you have the time to come pick on other peoples company Jealousy perhaps who knows?
sure he invested $45 Million dollars in starting bizzibiz and walked away from other business ventures to put all he gots into this company as a matter of fact Mr. Piccolo Himself has done a lot of the training personally with Franchisees I dont work for corporate nor do i have exact numbers but with all these facts on top of all the other stuff mentioned earlier and how strict the federal trade commission is Never heard anyone Investing $45 million of there own money into a scam so you were approached more than once to buy a franchise how many other companies ever approached you more than once ?
An American serial entrepreneur, Jim Piccolo, has not only jumped into the world of franchising (for what seems the first time), but he has also leaped into the ‘new’ fandango world of digital marketing. Digital marketing is a relatively new field which has grown off the back of the rise of social media and all the channels that it opens up for business owners in marketing their businesses online.
Piccolo reportedly expects to invest $45 million in starting the Bizzibiz Franchise
business, with the franchisee paying $18,000 for a franchise with two employees and $25,000 for a franchise with unlimited employees. The franchisee will in essence be selling localised digital marketing – i.e. encompassing social media, search marketing, free and paid media, and blogging.
As ever, I am more than pleased to hear of new and innovative franchise models, but I do still hope that certain rock solution keystones are in place:
The Franchisor can recoop what he has invested in building the model
The franchise model is sustainable long term
The Franchisee can recoop his investment within a relatively GOOD period of time
The franchisee’s profitability is secured (i.e. the model isn’t based on a loose wing and a prayer)…obviously matched with a hardworking, amibitious franchisee!
The Franchisor makes money in the long term success of the franchisee (and not in the upfront fees and/or a wish for a quick exit at a high return)
Chris- you may not be the best spokesperson for Bizzibiz. Were you drunk when you wrote those last two posts? They’re rather incoherent.
Also, you claim that Nick, who appears to be the owner of this website, is jealous because he is commenting about Bizzibiz. However, you don’t seem to realize that you are on HIS website. Of course he’s going to reply to comments made.
Anyways, I’ve done more research on Jim Piccolo and his history as an entrepreneur, and the only trend I can see is that he gets rich off of other people while his business ventures ultimately fail. In addition to the state of AZ fining and suing him for millions (bad sign), I heard from other Nouveau students that he apparently tried starting an International Online Education Company, publicly traded it, took all the money and shut it down. I guess that’s where the $45 million came to play.
Then another person who recently purchased the Nouveau program just about 8 months ago found out that the only instructor involved quit due to non payment. Here’s the e-mail from John Dessauer, the trainer:
I wanted to write you this email to inform you the status of the program. A few months back, I was approached by Nouveau Riche, and in particular Jim Piccolo, to take over the program. At that time, Nouveau Riche stated that the program was idle because of the absence of its first person handling the program, Mike Biglain. It had been idle for a while and that you the customers, were growing impatient. (I later found out that Mike B. was not paid and that is why he left.)
Nevertheless, I agreed to take on the students as an independent contractor, as long as I would be compensated for my time in doing so, and if Nouveau Riche would cover all my expenses in traveling to your investment areas. As of today, I have not been paid in six weeks. They also have not, and will not be covering any travel expenses to spend three days with you in your training environment. I cannot continue to participate in the program as currently structured. As much as I love to teach and assist in your investing goals, I simply cannot spend the time away from my own businesses and portfolio without proper compensation from Nouveau Riche.
As of today, I am announcing that I believe the program has been cancelled. I cannot speak for Nouveau Riche or Jim Piccolo. You will have to take that up with them individually or collectively as I have cut my ties with Nouveau Riche. Again, after several requests to be paid what was agreed I have had no success. I understand that you have paid a lot of money for this program that will not be fulfilled and for that, I am truly sorry. Nouveau Riche, or at least the personnel that made them up, have moved. They are a bit hard to find so I thought I would let you know their contact information. Their new office location (BizziBiz) is: 85255 East Princess Drive, Scottsdale, AR 85255 480-991-8888.
I am available for you with regard to helping where I can in working to achieve your investing success. I just will not be able to participate as to the detail outlined in the program. You have my contact information if I can assist you at all. Please reach out to me to let me know how your doing and what I can do to help.
Again, I regret that this program had to work out this way. I believe in what a lot of you are doing and wish you the best moving forward.
Chris- while I think that Internet marketing is great, there are just too many red flags surrounding the ownership and management of Bizzibiz to feel good about.
I dont agree Jerry with that Letter you posted either but again its Nouveau Riche real estate related but these other business ventures werent Franchises rules are much more strict for Franchising I never heard of a Scam Franchise before if anybody has heard of a Scam franchise please let me know ive researched for months on this issue last thing i want to be part of is a fly by night company claims ive seen on this website i cant find any solid proof only see about Nouveau and that travel thing what i come to realize this week Owner of this website is a competitor and they go to the extent of actually being on the 1st page of google for Bizzibiz which is pretty ridiculous and pathetic for any company to go that far to trash there competition
Bizzibiz founder James Piccolo has been charged with defrauding 105 investors by the Arizona Corporations Commission. You’d think that would be enough to scare off franchise investors. Read about it here:
http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com/bizzibiz-franchise-jim-piccolo-fraud/
The Bizzibiz franchise looks like it’s based on multilevel marketing model. There are a ton of seemingly bogus “franchise reviews” popping up all over. Wonder if these digital marketers are aware they’re required by the FTC to disclose if they are paid or have ties to the company? I wonder how many allow negative comments like this blog does?
It seems Bizzibiz had a legitimate franchise attorney on board but they now have a lawsuit against him for legal malpractice:
http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com/bizzibiz-franchise-jim-piccolo-fraud/
Just about everyone on the Bizzibiz franchise team formerly worked for the infamous Nouveau Riche University. Looks like they are ready to work their magic on franchise seekers now.
Chris Hendley writes:
“I never heard of a Scam Franchise before if anybody has heard of a Scam franchise please let me know ive researched for months on this issue last thing i want to be part of is a fly by night company”
Chris, you researched for months and never came across a scam franchise? You obviously missed http://www.UnhappyFranchisee.com. There you will read about many scam franchises.
Read about Cuppy’s Coffee. They sold 200- 300 franchises and accepted $45K deposits from many more then folded, leaving some poor franchisees saddled with $350K SBA loans, leases, no eqpt or support.
How about iSold It ebay drop off store that kept selling franchises aggressively when none of their stores were profitable and the company was teetering on collapse?
How about Cork & Olive Wine stores that took $60K franchise fees then disappeared, the week their 8th franchisee was having his grand opening.
Most franchises are good but many aren’t. At UnhappyFranchisee.com we report on the stuff everyone else covers up, and we ask the hard questions that should be asked during due diligence. Like, should you buy a franchise from a company with no track record with a founder who has been fined $6M for fraud?
Perhaps you can address that a little more thoroughly than “the fraud was real-estate related, this is franchising”
Chris Hendley writes: “Owner of this website is a competitor and they go to the extent of actually being on the 1st page of google for Bizzibiz which is pretty ridiculous and pathetic”
Chris, do you really want to publicize that a digital marketing company can’t control the first page of Google for its own name? Perhaps Black Box Social Media should be the one franchising 😉
Chris,
How’s business? A little slow? You have time to troll other people’s websites?
My concern with a company is the people involved and the product offered. There are plenty of red flags regarding Bizzibiz. I guess the owner only has fraud against him in travel and real estate, so no reason to worry about a Franchise.
Jim Piccolo has multiple lawsuits and actions against him. He’s apparently started up companies to raise money, took the money, and then shut them down. How does this not concern you!?!?
As unhappyfranchisee.com pointed out, there’s plenty of opportunities to scam people in a franchise. How did this not concern you?
It appears that the original members have either quit or are suing each other now. How does this not concern you Chris?
I checked out the social media presence for Bizzibiz to see if they practice what they preach. The company has a Facebook Page with 8 people? Jim Piccolo hasn’t made a post on his Facebook page since 2009? The Bizzibiz website has a total of 4 blogs? The Twitter site has 29 followers? It doesn’t appear that Bizzibiz utilizes social media for anything.
Finally, you are upset that the owners of this website go out of their way to trash Bizzibiz? The article doesn’t trash Bizzibiz at all. Some of the comments on this site may trash Bizzibiz, but Nick doesn’t seem to be trashing it. Besides, if you’re their competitor and you’re hanging out on their site trashing them, what does that make you?
Why did you decide to join Bizzibiz? What was it about the company that appealed to you?
Jerry & Chris:
I also find it amazing that this social media company doesn’t use social media. I think @bizzibiz has 4 tweets, 41 followers and follows 29. My goldfish has more followers than that.
The Bizzibiz story is just bizarre and getting crazier. The franchise sales arm of Bizzibiz Extreme Franchise Marketing touted “tiny little ad” infomercial king Don LaPre as a Vice President. Don LaPre was just indicted for fraud of more than 200,000 people. He was hiding in a health club locker room for 2 days and stabbed himself repeatedly by the time they caught him.
BIZZIBIZ: VP Don LaPre 2nd Exec Indicted for Fraud
http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com/bizzibiz-vp-don-lapre-2nd-exec-indicted-for-fraud/
I also posted on their new questionable client.
Yet there are people buying this franchise? What a circus!
All that Really Matters more than anything is the Customers are Happy quit trying to make up fairy tale stories dirtbag and sure bring up Don Lapre again if though earlier on this blog its explained hes was a Vice President because he sold 7 franchises and seven others on his team sold 7
so even yourself Mr disfunctional unhappy Franchise could be a vice president NOT IN anyway he was ever the Official vice president of the Corporate office he just happened to but a franchise so i guess if Don Lapre picked another type of franchise the Pathetic unhappy franchise dipshit could write crap about that franchise to bad Don lapre didnt do the world a favor and stabbed you
Buyer Beware!
If Bizzibiz comes knocking on your door trying to sell you one of their smoke & mirrors programs, make sure you have them sign an NDA prior to sharing ANYTHING with them. If they can’t sell you, they will take all of the knowlege they have gleaned from you, turn around and sell it to your biggest competitor……I know because they just did it to us! I know only too well about their business model and it is the same as the last one, Nouveau Riche…sucking off hard working people who have a dream of someday being successful. Bizzibiz is ALL the same people -just skinned in a different outfit. While their name has changed, their ethics have not…they have NONE!! And to the point that others have made on this blog, why< if they are the masters of online and social media, do they only show up as franchise opportunities. Goolge social media, digital media companies in Arizona and see what comes up!
Mr. Burn Victim do you never look at your competition to get ideas on how you can make your offer more better to get more market share?
point is we all get ideas from others thats business so whats so horrible or unethical about that ??
NOTHING like Nouveau Riche Bizzibiz acquired Bouncefire marketing http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/5/prweb8453568.htm Experts already Involved with Digital Marketing they all have good reputations they do all the digital marketing work itself
and IMPORTANT thing i like to point out why havent anyone who bought a Franchise coming forward yet after spending $25,000 to buy a franchise and it doesnt work like they claim saying its a scam and there unhappy ???
everyone who has bought a Franchise is happy the customers are happy
Corporate doesnt advertise heavy to try to get customers direct that would cut out the Franchise owners and they are responsible for getting clients
all services have to go thru a Franchise owner thats why if that answers your question
@ UnhappyFranchisee.Com:
I’m reporting you to the ASPCA for exploiting your goldfish.
I can’t say I’m interested in purchasing a franchise for $15,000 when I can secure the same services on a shared fee basis.
I do think it IS significant that the web and social media presence for Bizzibiz is amateur to non-existent. Bouncefire’s presence is better, but not sufficient to inspire a $15,000 vote of confidence
Nonetheless, I’d probably advise anyone contracting with a potential vendor to secure customer references and do a test with that vendor, to see if the work gets done in reasonable time frames and shows up in terms of improved visibility and rankings.
Who cares what you think who the hell do you think you are Bill Gates ?
your just another low life asshole nothing better to do but talk shit about someone elses company
There is no Customers coming forward from anywhere saying they not happy with services and there isnt ant franchise owner coming forward saying they got screwed buying a franchise
i think thats what people really would want to know not all this speculation stuff just real hard facts
WSI is a Digital marketing Franchise that cost over $60,000+ dollars and has tons of complaints thats a company that deserves to be picked on much more than BIZZIBIZ at this point i know lots of business brokers wont even sale WSI franchises because they have bad reputation
the facts are what are important so the day someone buy a BIZZIBIZ franchise and they get screwed then at least you have evidence but so far seems like a bunch of Jealous competitors acting childish at this point with no real substance
Chris Hendley, Account Manager at Bizzibiz, left this comment on my blog (I have added the asterisks). The “Don” is their former VP Don LaPre:
“To bad Don didnt break out and come Terminate your f*cking *ss before killing himself you c*cksuckers will write about anything on here just to get attention and still to this day not 1 person coming Forward saying they got screwed buying a Bizzibiz Franchise and thats the only Focus you should have had from day 1 but what do you expect from Lowlife d*uchebags to write about i guess”
I can’t believe ANY company would tolerate a representative or employee representing their company like this online… but a company that claims to be social media experts? To me this indicates Bizzibiz management not only doesn’t participate in social media, they don’t even read it.
As to why you don’t see complaints from Bizzibiz franchisees, I can think of 2 possible reasons. First, their franchise agreement forbids any disparagement by franchisees. Second, Bizzibiz franchisees never learned how to post comments on blogs 😉
What’s really funny about this is that the original review here was actually quite generous. I think Chris Hendley, the silver-tongued social media guru he is, has represented the professionalism of the company quite strikingly.
Note: No goldfish were harmed in the posting of this comment.
admin:
I’ve linked back to this post and conversation in the blog post below:
BIZZIBIZ Chris Hendley Social Media FAIL or Murder-Suicide as a Social Media Tool
Thanks for indulging me and my links. I’ve think this lively exchange has been very instructive. I’d be interested in hearing what the social media gurus have to say.
Dear Unhappy Franchisee,
I would like to respond directly to your post and to the post by Chris Hendley. I apologize for the delayed response but, as you know, BizziBiz prefers to answer in a professional manner with verifiable facts.
First, I would like to clarify that Chris Hendley is not a BizziBiz Account Manager. Mr. Hendley is associated with Extreme Franchise Marketing, Inc., an independent company that does not share any ownership with any of the principals of BizziBiz. Extreme Franchise Marketing, Inc. currently has the exclusive rights to marketing the BizziBiz franchise opportunity in 2011. This contract ends on December 31, 2011. Mr. Hendley works for Gary Curtis, a vice president of Extreme Franchise Marketing, Inc. When Extreme Franchise Marketing, Inc. attempted to contact Mr. Hendley to discuss his post, he did not respond in time for this writing. Mr. Curtis responded on behalf of Extreme Franchise Marketing, Inc. and his team member, Chris Hendley. In a statement to the company, Mr. Curtis reported that “Mr. Hendley has had success in selling BizziBiz franchises and is a very passionate man who truly believes in the BizziBiz franchise product.”
Second, BizziBiz does not condone the use of profanity, nor do we believe that making threats is a proper way to respond to statements made about the company. As stated above, Mr. Hendley is not a BizziBiz Account Manager, nor is he a franchisee or a DMC (Digital Marketing Consultant) of a franchisee. Therefore, he does not have the authority to speak on behalf of BizziBiz. Furthermore, BizziBiz does not condone or endorse Mr. Hendley’s opinions or his actions. We hope that these facts help to clear the air on the posts from Mr. Hendley.
Lastly, you are probably wondering why this response is not from BizziBiz Founder Jim Piccolo. Due to Mr. Piccolo’s severe medical condition requiring a major emergency surgery on June 26, 2011 and several additional surgeries and hospitalizations afterwards, I was appointed CEO of BizziBiz on July 18, 2011. As many people know, Mr. Piccolo is a caring, charismatic, energetic, and philanthropic entrepreneur who is dearly missed by all staff, franchisees and DMCs of BizziBiz. We all pray for his full and speedy recovery.
If anyone wishes to discuss the items addressed in this forum, I encourage you to please contact me, Kurt Ohlson, directly at 480.991.8888 extension 120.
Respectfully,
Kurt Ohlson
CEO, Bizzibiz
I was introduced to
Bizzibiz last year. I was reviewed and given a plan…paid my amount of money and waited….and waited. I checked on my account and was directed to a new manager who ensured that I needed a new site. I did this and my design was nice. However I was upset with the way I was treated. They charged me by mistake 3 times. When I did cancel the account I was charged for an extra month of unauthorized service I never received. I was completely appalled that they could not be a reputable business and simple not take advantage of a small business owner. I was very disappointed in the way things were handled. I only suggest caution as this has been 6 months of complete hassle with them.
Good luck
Does anyone know what BizziBiz is up to today? Seems like Bizzibiz.com is way different than before.
BizziBiz has filed for bkrp June 6th and appears to be shutting down while letting folks go. They even have the nerve of trying to get their franchisees to send them new business while not performing on their current clients! Jim Piccolo bailed on BizziBiz and is beginning the suckers game again with REWW.com, be very cautious. Also see http://www.facebook.com/MyREWW.
Jim Piccolo and his merry band of misfits and thieves are at it again. Check out https://www.facebook.com/RebuildAmericaREWW, 4162 likes since June 24, 2012…not likely! They already shut down https://www.facebook.com/REWW that had 16 likes as of July 16th. Now their FB page directs to a lead generation site; http://www.rebuildamericareww.com – Don’t fall for another Jim Piccolo scam!