Here's a nifty startup I recently came across, based in Auckland, New Zealand, called iJump.

It's got a sweet little business model which I thought you'd find really interesting, so I wanted to tell you something about its founders, husband and wife team Simon and Marie Young.

iJump is growing player the burgeoning field of social media coaching. The firm helps small- and medium-sized entrepreneurs planet-wide -- from its humble perch in the Pacific -- to leverage the massive power at their disposal of social networking on the web; more commonly known as "Web 2.0."

Among other tasks, iJump assists its clients to establish their online presence at popular sites like MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Twitter, YouTube -- the usual suspects in the social networking pantheon. They demystify things like RSS feeds, podcasting, videocasting, and blogging for companies that don't have a clue where to start -- or, in their words, where to "jump in" -- by encouraging them to develop good social networking etiquette via fantastic proprietary innovations like "habitualization."

In any event, swing on by their site and have a look at things for yourself. iJump's videocasts are really sticky, and Simon and Marie have developed a comfortable, unassuming interviewing style which totally places their various subjects at ease. And they've also been interviewing some rather large players on the New Zealand media scene; a major kudo to them, for a startup, that is. All this is proof positive of the democratizing nature of 21st-century technology. Who would have thought this sort of thing possible 10 years ago?

I know Simon for about ten years now, and he's quite the legendary blogger. These days, he clocks in under the clever moniker of "Creative Instigator" at iJump, but as you'll notice, he does have other "alter egos," all painstakingly established during the decade or more that Simon's been involved with online business.

Then there's Marie, whom the camera positively adores. A charismatic kiwi Samoan lady, Marie hosts iJump's popular weekly videocast, JUMP IN. I'm also curious to know if Czechs will be able to grasp Simon and Marie's accent, because it's a great one and once you get used to it, you'll -- as me -- want to get your daily dose.

Why is iJump important for Czech small- and medium-sized businesses?

It goes without saying that the SME sector will be the main driver of the local economy once the Koreans, the French, the Taiwanese, and the Japanese uproot their physical plants and FDI bounties to Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Ukraine, and Turkey.

Sure, Bohemians, Moravians, Silesians, Czech-Slovaks, trans-Carpatho Rusyns, and Roma (collectively referred to as "Czechs") are living the lives of Riley today, but at some stage -- because such things are perfectly cyclical -- the wrath of Cain will rain down on Bohemian society courtesy of the lofty Economy Gods. We'll have to lurch along for a bit like an RAF Spitfire mottled with Wermacht anti-aircraft fire over the skies of Prague during WWII, like lepers, while our economy makes its eventual comeback.

But our fearless leaders (not to mention His Supreme Worship, Santa Klaus) are aware of this, taking every possible precaution to prevent such a calamity from ensuing. They have our best interests in mind, as always.

We need companies like iJump in Cesko because:

** Cesko, with its sparkling masterpiece of Prague, has demonstrated its potential as a CEE Centre of Excellence. Why not in the online services sector as well? Not just call centres, anti-viral software firms, and solar panel technology.

** corporations need to leverage their technological platforms to encompass more than just email, blogs (if any), and server-side applications.

** Czechs are a naturally gregarious people. The viral nature of social networking can be pressed into service as a revenue-generating business function rather than viewed simply as the dolce far niente waste of time it is today.

** the Czech economy needs to prepare for the eventual day when heavy industry doesn't dominate our GDP. We need to plan for this now, rather than later. And good plans are meant for fulfilling. Czech citizens shouldn't relegate this "ounce of prevention" to their so-called "leaders," (mostly) men who likely don't have the citizenry's best interests in mind.

** what works here, works further east. If we can establish a solid track record for CEE social networking, who's to say it's not possible to win markets in Slovakia, Ukraine, Poland, the Baltics, and elsewhere?

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That's why we need to jump in.

In the words of the brillant Ike Piggot from Occam's Razr:

"If you think a blog is the only thing you need, then good luck cutting your steak with a spork."