Internet show aims at solve small-business problems

It's not CNNMoney.com, or the "Suze Orman Show," and it certainly isn't Jim Cramer's "Mad Money." But "Basso on Business" is a business show on the Internet, and a Long Island business show at that.

Unlike the national shows, it aims to help local small-business owners solve the problems that give them fits and starts and keep them awake at night.

The star of the show is 37-year-old Rob Basso, founder and owner of Advantage Payroll Services of Freeport, which serves 2,500 companies, most of them on Long Island.

Basso, always the entrepreneur -- he stuffed his resume in the sandwiches he made at a Melville deli frequented by businesspeople after graduating from Hofstra in 1994 -- decided he wanted to do webisodes in which he would interview company owners, discuss their business problems and offer solutions. Since January, Basso has taped seven shows, which are on his website, bassoonbusiness.com.

The shows are a way to help small businesses and a marketing tool for Basso's company.

"You watch the show and you see something that might help you," Basso said. "The end result is you will come back to my site."

On camera, Basso is animated. In May he did a show with Matt Silver, founder and president of Hicksville-based Matt Silver's Ultimate Class Limousine & Ground Transportation Worldwide.

Basso asks Silver, who started the company 22 years ago, about his time management. Silver admits he writes down all of his appointments in a notebook that he carries with him, not in the calendar of his BlackBerry. Basso suggests the BlackBerry calender instead.

Now, Silver said, he is more efficient. "I can see everything right away."

Basso's guests are not charged money to appear on the show. Some, like Silver, are clients of Advantage Payroll. Others are not. Basso's website includes paid advertising.

Basso may never be Cramer or Orman. But he's happy just being Basso. "I learned to be a small-business expert," he said.