Cheers Telephone Guy Here

[3z3k3l]

Cheers,

I create a new website that allows a business owner to put out for bid, programming for their phone systems. So they don't have to rely on a local phone company all the time.

I would love to get some feedback from phone system owners on whether the site makes sense to them and if they would use it. why or why not?
http://www.pbxlance.com

Basically it lets technicians bid to work for you, its like a backwards ebay in which the bidding goes lower not higher.

Say you have a Panasonic Phone System and you want to program a new line for a new employee, well if your not sure how to do it, you can post on the site, I have a panasonic xx system and we need a phone line set up for so and so. I will pay $25 for someone to do it.

Then technicians will bid on your job.

tech A Bid: 25$ I can do it in 2 days.
tech B Bid: 20$ I can do it in 1 day.
Tech c Bid: 10$ I can do it in 5 days.

Hopefully this makes sense. It is in US currency.

What do you guys think? Would this be a benefit for you?

[tomdenancy]

Interesting idea - I think it might be a hard one to get off the ground without a decent marketing budget.

[3z3k3l]

[QUOTE=tomdenancy]Interesting idea - I think it might be a hard one to get off the ground without a decent marketing budget.[/QUOTE]

Hey Tom,
Thanks for the response. I have 2 sides to this business, the Techs/Engineers/Vendors and then the business owners

Do you have any suggestions on what marketing areas I should focus on for small businesses to utilize this service? What should I emphasize to help business es to want to use the service?

Thanks

[mitov]

a bit like getacoder.com? (if you're looking for some coding, design etc...this place has the bargains!)

[3z3k3l]

[QUOTE=mitov]a bit like getacoder.com? (if you're looking for some coding, design etc...this place has the bargains!)[/QUOTE]

Yes, similar but pbxlance.com caters to a much different industry. Same concept though.

[tomdenancy]

[QUOTE=3z3k3l]Hey Tom,
Thanks for the response. I have 2 sides to this business, the Techs/Engineers/Vendors and then the business owners

Do you have any suggestions on what marketing areas I should focus on for small businesses to utilize this service? What should I emphasize to help business es to want to use the service?

Thanks[/QUOTE]

I don't believe in using spam - so completely avoid this method - but, you need to contact small businesses and the suppliers at the same time. You will probably need the suppliers first. Marketing over the internet will be the cheapest option, but it would cost alot to make an effective campaign. You might consider advertising on Job Web Sites (as then engineers looking for work would see the advert and would sign up to your site). Advertise on websites targetted to what you are offering, Matren.co.uk is offering £45 for a 24month advert - For £45 I'd try it, keep an eye on your web statistics, if they aren't bringing you any traffic/engineers then don't repeat advertising with Matren.co.uk again.

As for getting the business owners to use your site - I would utilise every possible marketing avenue you can get access to - you are in a very specialised business - I would print businesscards with the website address and details - If you have a van, I would get it signwritten. If you're in the South, there is a good company called Costal Graphics (but I've not got their phone number). An offline marketing campaign for a select city might be a good idea - have some glossy cards printed (15cm x 20cm), with some attractive text "Phone System Broken?? - Fedup with paying through the roof prices, visit pbxlance.com - have qualified engineers bid to work on your project!" (thats just an example). Send the card to local business (see MarketSafeUK.com for business addresses/information). I would do targetted Pay-Per-Click advertising, and I would advertise in Yell.com (ONLY IF YOUR IN THE UK) - About £405+VAT for a Yellow Pages Book Area - This will get people looking for telephone engineers coming directly to your website.

Just a few ideas....