Thread: My Plan

In coming up with my plan, I took MJ's advice and tried to figure out what my community needs. I live in a low-income area, but what I came up with can be applied to anyone, anywhere. Everyone that I know needs more of at least two things - time and money. Everyone else needs one or the other. Those with lots of free time would often like to have more money and those with money would like to have more free time to enjoy that money.

My plan turns everyday people into employees and employers. With the slowlane job market the way it is, I think this plan could really have huge implications. The concept is similar to some of the freelance sites out there such as Elance, but offers a much wider scope. My goal with this plan is to make a noticeable impact in the quality of life of as many people as possible.

My initial plan started simply. Create a directory or classified ads based website where people could submit and browse for free. I would utilize my own branding and terminology to foster brand loyalty. I had big dreams of generating passive income from the site by utilizing ad-based revenue, sponsored banners, charging small businesses fees for positing ads, and lead-generation. All ads would be location-based since the nature of the offering is a local scope for employer/employee.

I decided that this plan was too narrow-minded and started to think bigger. I decided that a multi-faceted approach would increase my odds of success. I've come up with two avenues that this revised plan could take, both of which still incorporate the primary idea.

Idea #1: Expand the directory website to include membership-based services and take a much more active role in the employer/employee relationship. Employers have an option of browsing the site, searching for a person offering specific services, or posting a request for a specific service. Employees have the option of browsing for opportunities, searching for a specific opportunity, or offering a specific opportunity. One of the major problems I was confronted with early on in this concept was the issue of trust. My business model is dependant upon the employer having enough trust in the employee to pay him to perform a certain service prior to the service being performed. It is not viable any other way. I decided that solving this issue could be a premium income generator for the business. Premium employers could pay for the service + a small fee and my company would handle the money transaction. Premium employees would pay a monthly fee to be preferred clients and be offered these jobs.

My solution to this problem was found in another company that actually has roots as a successful startup by one enterpreneur. This business offers a pre-paid debit card solution to other businesses. You can have as many cards as you want and you have total control of the funds, spending limits, where the cards can be used, etc. Transfer of funds to the cards is insantaneous. It's almost a perfect solution to my problem. The downfall is the transfer time from the bank to the account that funds the cards. It takes 3-5 business days for funds to hit the account and that is a major stumbling block.

The flow that I would like to see is this:

Employer finds Employee via site > Employer hires Employee to perform service > Employer pays amount that the service is expected to cost +10% fee to funding account > funding account distributes service cost +5% of the fee to employee's debit card > Employee performs service and provides employer with receipt.

Unfortunately I don't have the capital to fund the account while waiting for the payment to go through so that's the solution I'm trying to work on now.

Idea #2: Take a more "physical" approach to the plan and create a structure similar to a franchise. Employees pay a monthly fee and become a mini-franchise. The obtain the right to use company branded advertising, logos, business cards, flyers, etc. and are listed as employee-owned franchises on the website. It would be kind of like Avon without the MLM. Essentially investors would be obtaining a turn-key based small business. This solves the capital problem but introduces more liability and would require much more time to operate.

Having said all that, I can see a future where the initial plan, and both ideas could be implemented. This would be a longterm goal that would be dependent upon growth that would justify the hiring of additional staff to run everything and try to take myself out of the equation as much as possible.

For a two week old idea, this seems massive now that I've typed it all out. What I'm looking for here is criticism, suggestions, other problems that I may not have thought of, etc.

I'll rep anybody that replies here just for taking the time to read all of this. I know it's lengthy but I figure other successful people in the virtual world will make a much better sounding board than the slowlane mentality of the people I'm surrounded with in the real world.

hm I read it but didnt quite get it. what exactly do you want to build? it sounded like Zaarly to me

I appreciate you taking the time to read it. I've added to your rep as promised.

My apologies, my thoughts tend to outrun my ability to portray them sometimes. I'm building a social website that will allow one sect of people to offer the availability of a service and another sect of people to employ these people for the service. Loosely based around a similar concept as the freelance sites such as Odesk and Elance, but on a more personal level and in a non-IT category. It's really a simple idea that I thought for sure would have already been done dozens of times, but scraping the net has resulted in no businesses that offer this service. It's something that just about everyone can use anywhere in the world so the scalability is immense and the marketing potential is virtually unlimited. I hate being so vague, but it really is so simple that anyone with the skills or funding could get this to market in no time. I'm learning the skills necessary to do it myself so it's taking me a bit longer.

I'm sure that every person with a plan has the same idea that "this is big", but I'm going beyond the idea. I'm going to make it happen.

ok thanks for making it more clear.

if I understand you right you want to build this: Coffee & Power "Buy & sell small jobs from each other.", but with a local focus, so only in-person jobs like painting a fence, walking a dog or something like that?

Redbeacon and Taskrabbit offer similar services, but have yet to reach out to smaller communities. I've been doing a lot of research on this myself and wanted to test the market in my area to see if there is a NEED for a service like this. Zaarly, IMO looks like it could be HUGE if it takes off. There is a huge potential for this, so I wouldn't be discouraged by the big dogs (I'm not). What you can offer above them is the personalized service that they can't offer. I know where I live, it's still very old fashioned, heck most businesses in my area still fax orders to each other o_O...

Thanks Gunmetal, I've not been discouraged at all. I've actually been busy getting started implementing the idea. I've procured hosting and a domain name and have been working on the website development, but it's gonna take me a bit to get a working prototype ready. Redbeacon and TaskRabbit were two of the big competitors I was looking at, but they are in limited markets. I figure if personal assistant and concierge companies exist and are profitable in those markets in B&M form, then there's no reason why millions of other people in other areas wouldn't be interested in those same services.

When I first posted this plan I was kind of secretive because my mindset was that since this is a site that has alot of successful people, I was swimming in shark-infested waters. The more I've thought about it, the more I've decided screw it. I'm not going to get anywhere if I'm not willing to put myself out there so if there are any specific questions or suggestions about the business model that I'm developing, please let me know.

The plan is to create a website that helps to solve the unemployment problem by removing the traditional barriers that govern employment and make it possible for anyone to be an employer or an employee. If you have an errand or job you need performed, you go to my site and perform a search which will return people offering that service within a proximity to your location that you choose. If nobody is offering that service in your area, you can post a request for it. The tagline I've come up with so far is "Helping neighbors help each other".

I've already committed to seeing the project through and seeing where it can take me so I'll update here as I make progress. Thanks again for the input thus far.

Thats a great tagline for what your plan is. Designates it as a local service. Its kinda like craigslist meets monster-jobs. I would suggest letting it build up traffic, and then applying a fee to it. may slow the ROI , but i think it will speed up the growth process

interesting idea looks like it could work on pretty large scale.

good luck, just keep it up a day at a time.