I was searching the net for presents for my best men and came across www.pipesforless.com. The name is somewhat generic, so it took a few clicks around the site before I noticed the logo and realized that it's the e-commerce presence of none other than Knoxville Cigar Company. Cool.

I'm the e-commerce manager for a Knoxville firm, so this kind of thing interests me. It also reminded me of a question I've had for a while. How many companies in Knoxville are involved in e-commerce?

Here are the ones off of the top of my head, mostly from personal contacts or reputation. I'm extending this to the metro Knoxville area, and not strictly Knoxville. So for instance, Norris-based Sunlight Gardens is on the list, even though they're in Anderson County instead of Knox. (They're also clients of mine. Ask me about the time I went from working on their FileMaker Pro database to helping one of their cows give birth.)

Company	County	Catalog	Products
ACN TV	Knox	unknown	jewelry
Earth Traverse Outfitters	Knox	unknown	outdoors equipment
Knoxville Cigar Company	Knox	unknown	cigars, pipes, men's gifts
Power Systems	Knox	yes	fitness equipment
SecureHQ	Knox	no	Internet and network security
Smoky Mountain Knife Works	Sevier	unknown	knives, cutlery, lighters
Sunlight Gardens	Anderson	yes	nursery-propagated plants

Adding a company to the list
Do you know of an e-commerce company in the Knoxville area that isn't on the list? Email me at blog atsign lesjones dot com. I expect the list to grow dramatically. In fact, I'd be surprised if this first version is 10% complete, but you have to start somewhere. The only criteria is that the company's web site must take orders online using credit cards (PayPal doesn't count).

How to easily find this page
To make this page easy to find, I've added it to the Best Of LesJones.com. Just click on the Best Of link from any page on the site.

Goals
I have several motives for assembling this list. One is purely academic. I want to see how extensive e-commerce has become locally. I suspect that even local government doesn't know. I also suspect that almost everyone will be surprised by the numbers. The e-commerce revolution has been extraordinarily swift.

Another reason is purely selfish. I want to assemble a list of potential clients for my consulting services. Once the wedding chaos is over, I plan on doing some outside consulting. I've been in this business for four years - which is an eternity for an industry this young - and all modesty aside I've been very successful. I also see a lot of companies repeating the same mistakes, not only in terms of web page and shopping cart design, but in marketing and search engine positioning.

A final reason is that I'd like to create an organization for e-commerce professionals in the Knoxville area. Amazingly, with all of the information on the Internet, it's hard to find useful information on e-commerce per se. Sharing information with non-competitors in your niche is almost always a smart idea in business. (And I promise that SecureHQ won't sell cigars if Knoxville Cigar Company won't sell firewall and VPN appliances.) It's also a good idea in terms of lobbying and legislation, should that be necessary, and sooner or later it will be.

A new Cooking Like a Guy (TM) recipe from financial advisor and Democratic National Party Treasurer Andrew Tobias: "Banana Bliss: Open can of chilled Hershey’s chocolate sauce. Unpeel banana.. Dunk. Mmmm, MMM!" Ya gotta love recipes that are 25 words or less.

For more succinct advice - this time on personal finance - I highly recommend his immodestly-titled "The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need." I've bought two editions now, and it's worth the money several times over. Give old editions to a loved one whose finances need help.

Regular readers of his free email newsletter will know that that is an old picture of Andy. In reality (according to him), since that photo was taken his chin has gotten much bigger, but his skin has become much less green. Since the Bush administration, he's been more political (occasionally shrilly so), but sometimes he's right about the politics and he's almost always right about the finances. Subscribe to his newsletter or buy his book. Your portfolio will thank you.

From WATE-TV via SaysUncle:

Starting Thursday, the 2,300 parking spaces in the Civic Coliseum garage will be free. Motorists can a free shuttle from the coliseum to most areas of downtown. The wait should be no longer than 10 minutes. It's part of the city's "Unparalleled Parking" program, lasting through the end of September.

Beginning October 1st, parking at the Civic Coliseum garage will cost $15 a month. It will be open weekdays from 6:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m.