All That Slithers Get the lowdown on news, trends, programs and more.

As a girl, Coby Steffani didn't concern herself with typicalgirly things. While her friends were playing with Barbies, youngSteffani was out catching reptiles and spiders--and hoping for anopportunity to put her longtime love for all things scaly to gooduse. "I've always been a little different," she sayswith a slight laugh.

Steffani's unique ambition has paid off: She just celebratedtwo years in business at Reptropolis, her San Clemente, California,reptile store. Steffani spends her day surrounded by monitorlizards, frogs, turtles, tortoises, chameleons, geckos, boas andpythons--and she's loving every minute of it.

"Most people think only mammals are good pets," saysSteffani, 20. "But reptiles are the same. It's cool to seehow they're a lot like mammals--they give affection to eachother and take care of their young."

It all started when Steffani met her now-husband, a lizard guruand former Petco employee. "Anyone who came into Petco with asick reptile they didn't want--my boyfriend would take ithome," recalls Steffani. "Our collection got up to around45 reptiles."

Then came a settlement check for an injury she sustained at age12--and soon after, Reptropolis.

Steffani, a musician who hopes to one day hand over her store toa trusted employee and do foreign ministry work, is quite contentwith her 2,500-square-foot store. In fact, she's so dedicatedto her cold-blooded friends that she doesn't even keep track ofher sales. "I don't think about that kind of stuff,"she says with sincerity. "Every day, I just work my hardestand make as much as we can."

She admits, though, it's not easy working around certaincity regulations. Nor is it easy to be a young business owner whomight not immediately appear proficient in lizard care. "A lotof customers don't take me seriously," she notes.

Yet the self-educated BIZ Experiences, proud owner of two junglecarpet pythons, does know her stuff. "I tell them `This iswhat I know from experience," says Steffani, "notbooks."

I Want My MP3!

By Laura Tiffany

Stop pinching yourself--it's true. You've become afamous musician. You've sold millions of albums. You'renumber one on the Billboard charts. And your accountant justtold you you're broke.

A strange scenario, but a familiar one if you watch the sobstories on VH1's "Behind the Music" or keep up todate with bands like TLC. How can something like that happen?Between record labels that give a very small cut to artists, badmanagement decisions, and paying for "necessities" liketheir personal publicist, management and lawyer, artists are oftenleft with little to show for their creative efforts.

For most musicians, something seems wrong with thispicture--very wrong. Leave it to the Web to once again eventhe score. Enter MP3, a file-compression technology that allowsusers to download CD-quality music from the Net--and has thepotential to benefit both musicians and BIZ Experiencess."It's going to create a middle class of musicians,"explains Michael Robertson, 32, leading MP3 advocate and founder ofMP3.com Inc., a Web site that lets musicians distribute their musicand make a 50 percent profit. "[It will] allowindividuals--the content creators--to be successful businesses bythemselves."

Artists sign a nonexclusive deal with Robertson's service,offering one song for a free download. If customers are hooked,they can buy a Digital Automatic Music (DAM) CD that MP3.comcreates and distributes. The kicker? The musicians, who remain soleowners of their creations, transmit their songs electronicallythrough their home computers. "We do all the hard work. Theartist simply fills out a form, clicks a button and they're inbusiness," says Robertson, whose San Diego company distributesmusic from 10,000 musicians.

At press time, the Recording Industry Association of America(RIAA) was spearheading a movement to create a secure digitalformat that would filter pirated songs from consumer electronicdevices. That's despite an unsuccessful effort earlier thisyear, when the RIAA lost a suit against the manufacturer of aportable device that lets users pull downloaded MP3 files fromtheir computers and listen to them on the go. "It's thesame as [using] any intellectual property," Robertson says."If you didn't create [the music], you need to getpermission from the [person] who did."

Arguably, it may be difficult to become well-known without themillions of dollars record labels spend on publicity, but formusicians who can't or don't want to get signed, or forentrepreneurs who want to distribute music in a new way, MP3provides a unique alternative for sharing tunes with the world.

Use It Or Lose It

Feel like there's never enough time in the day? You probablyhave more time than you think. Maximize it by using those sparemoments that typically go to waste. Here's what you can dowith:

Five Minutes

• Enter the month's appointments in your calendar.
• Send a fax.
• Return a phone call. if the other person isn't there, youmay be able to return several calls. leave detailed voice mailsabout what action you need the other person to take, and you'reone step closer to finishing the task.

10 minutes

• Write a letter.
• Open your mail or check your e-mail. even if you don't havetime to read it, you can immediately trash the obvious junk, thensort the rest into "urgent" and "regularpriority."
• File the papers cluttering your desk.
• Delete old files from your computer.
• Skim the newspaper or your favorite web site.
• If your office location allows, go outside for a 10-minute walkto energize yourself and clear your head.

30 minutes

• Work on a small chunk of a complicated project.
• Skim a magazine or two and clip relevant articles for later.(read them next time you have a spare five, 10 or 30 minutes.)

Last-Minute Loan

So you've been putting off making sure your business isY2K-compliant? Well, procrastination might pay off. The SBArecently announced a new loan program to help BIZ Experiencess protecttheir computer systems from the millennium bug.

Y2K Action Loans provide loans to help qualified companies buyand repair computers and software, hire consultants and pay forother steps needed to ensure their systems are A-OK in Y2K. Theloans are made through qualified lenders; the SBA guarantees up to90 percent on loans of $100,000 or less.

To find out if you're eligible, or for information on how toapply, contact your local lender or SBA district office, which youcan find by calling (800) 8-ASK-SBA.

Perspiring Minds Want To Know

Whether you're making a sales presentation, giving a speechor holding a crucial meeting with a big client, as an BIZ Experiences,there are plenty of situations that can make you sweat. How do youkeep your cool when the pressure heats up?