00:00:10another edition of ask Evan in today’s
00:00:12video I’m going to answer question from
00:00:14when my readers Jed it was a forum
00:00:16member who wrote in asking me to review
00:00:18his business concept and instead of
00:00:21creating the video with my face on it I
00:00:23thought it’d be easier if I did this
00:00:24quick screen capture so we can look at
00:00:26the PowerPoint together and break down
00:00:27the concept so he wrote in here hi Evan
00:00:30thanks to your feedback invariance
00:00:31here’s my prototype let me know what you
00:00:32think what you like what you don’t like
00:00:34more importantly would you use this so
00:00:37let me load up his presentation here so
00:00:39the company’s called focalized and what
00:00:41it allows you to do is find
00:00:42professionals in your area so if I’m in
00:00:45Canada and I’m looking for an accountant
00:00:47I can find one you know in my city of
00:00:50toronto and basically eyes you to put in
00:00:52different criteria so country area how
00:00:55many years of experience that person has
00:00:57what language I want them to speak what
00:01:00areas of practice what industry focus
00:01:02they have certifications the size of the
00:01:05clients that they work with and then you
00:01:07search and basically we’ll come back is
00:01:09different people who have you know
00:01:12different sets of experience different
00:01:13names and you know gives you those
00:01:15search results and then I can click in
00:01:20on each one and see their profile and I
00:01:22guess end up contacting them if I want
00:01:24so my thoughts on the surface it looks
00:01:27very interesting you know it solves a
00:01:28need finding the right professionals if
00:01:30it’s accountants or otherwise is super
00:01:33helpful for entrepreneurs the challenge
00:01:36that I see here is not so much the
00:01:38technology but the marketing you know a
00:01:40lot of these people are not the most
00:01:42tech-savvy if you’re looking at
00:01:44accountants they often don’t need extra
00:01:47marketing a promotion of themselves
00:01:49because they’re so busy with all of
00:01:51their current clients or getting lots of
00:01:53referrals and most of the accountants
00:01:56that I’ve found have been through
00:01:57referrals and that’s how I know most of
00:01:59the entrepreneur friends of mine find
00:02:01their accountants us through referrals
00:02:03and I don’t see too many counts out
00:02:05there actively marketing themselves
00:02:07because they’re so busy with their
00:02:08current clients so how do you convince
00:02:11these super busy people that go online
00:02:12and fill out these profiles and that’s
00:02:14going to be a big challenge I think
00:02:16on the flip side is how do you get the
00:02:18entrepreneurs to then leave feedback for
00:02:21these professionals so you know
00:02:24entrepreneurs are super busy as well and
00:02:26how do you convince them that once you
00:02:27can use the service assuming you do get
00:02:29the accountants on board too how do you
00:02:31convince the entrepreneurs are going to
00:02:32want to leave this feedback so it is
00:02:34nice to help people but a lot of a lot
00:02:36of times people won’t take the time to
00:02:38do it so that’s the biggest challenge
00:02:40and you may have figured some of that
00:02:42out I don’t really see the marketing
00:02:43plan on here but I think that’s gonna be
00:02:45your biggest challenge so I would
00:02:47probably look at it I would use it it i
00:02:49would also still talk to my friends but
00:02:52i would only use it here if if there
00:02:55were people who serve my market right i
00:02:57wouldn’t want somebody who’s in my city
00:02:58who had all the experience that I was
00:03:00looking for and had some good reviews
00:03:02and finding that might be a big
00:03:04challenge so my recommendations I would
00:03:08first start with a niche so if you look
00:03:11at every major successful web based
00:03:14business if you look at facebook you’d
00:03:16look at even before that myspace you
00:03:18want to start with a niche so myspace
00:03:20started with musicians right they
00:03:22started targeting bands and made the
00:03:24entire website around promoting your
00:03:26band and that work for them there were
00:03:29to expand facebook started with
00:03:30university students college university
00:03:32students and they made something really
00:03:34good for them and then I was able to
00:03:35expand to hit everybody else so same
00:03:38thing for you I try to focus in on one
00:03:39area and even a geographic market as
00:03:43well so target a certain state or target
00:03:46a certain province and just start around
00:03:49that and then slowly expand now from
00:03:51there focus your efforts because you
00:03:53want people to get good results that
00:03:55have a good experience so target a
00:03:57smaller market make sure it works for
00:03:59them and then slowly expand I also don’t
00:04:01know what your revenue model is
00:04:02presumably there’s gonna be some kind of
00:04:04fee for either doing the search or for
00:04:08the accountants to be listed on here or
00:04:10maybe there’s a free listing and is
00:04:12upgrade to a paid membership lots of
00:04:14different opportunities for business
00:04:16models again not including the slide so
00:04:19can’t really get my comments on that but
00:04:21overall again i like i like the concept
00:04:23it’s about can you get the people on
00:04:25board you know can i find my sean
00:04:27roberts here who fits all the criteria
00:04:28that i’m looking
00:04:29for and I want to then go out and hire
00:04:32so Jed I hope that helps if you guys
00:04:34liked the video please give it a thumbs
00:04:36up below and I’d also love to hear your
00:04:38thoughts and feedback if you want to
00:04:39leave a comment below this video and
00:04:41stay tuned to next episode
00:04:53you
00:04:56you
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