Launch: Promote your business and find others that provide flat quotes
Hey IH, I was talking to someone recently and they were wanting a way to find more businesses that provide flat quotes instead of hourly rates for predictable services. For example if a lawyer reviews a lot of employment contracts they could probably provide a fixed price instead of an hourly rate for this type of work. It isn't always easy to find these types of businesses though.
I decided to create a simple proof of concept site where people like you can go post your businesses with contact information and list what type of services you provide. Then other small businesses can search and hire you for those services.
This is a pretty barebones implementation just to see if there is enough interest to make it better. There's no cost to use it, just trying to provide something useful right now.
Any feedback is appreciated.
I've added Lakebed, which legitimately is flat quote/price although I haven't been able to put a pricing page up on our website yet.
2 Suggestions:
1.) Since your goal is flat quotes/price, submissions should need to enter a flat price, which is another measure to confirm the entry is legitimate.
2.) You ask for an email with the business listing so I suggest providing info about who will be able to access/see that email (is it opening me up to spam?). You might provide a contact form for businesses that then forwards to an email to reduce spam.
Hope that helps and thanks for setting it up,
Thanks for the feedback!
Did you have an issue trying to put up a pricing page or did you just not have time to do it yet? I just want to make sure if you're having a problem with the site I fix it.
I considered trying to do something like this but haven't yet for a couple of reasons. First, this was really me just trying to throw something up fast to see if there is interest. Second, I didn't want to eliminate people from putting up services that offer a quote after an initial consultation. For example, I couldn't give a price for building someone an e-commerce site, but after the initial discussion, a quote could be given for a site to match their needs.
That's a great point. Currently, anyone that creates an account can see the information. The main reason I require people to create an account is to try and prevent some bots just scraping the page. The contact information is also all optional for you to enter (I could make that more clear) so if you want to just direct people to your site that is an option. I'll also consider the form thing too.
Awesome.
I'm still thinking about pricing but the primary issue is that I'm on disability and its just come to light that "having a website means you are able to return to your old, full-time job" and "a website means you are earning an income from a business". So, until the lawyers are done hashing it out I can't do anything.
Just signed up, I think its a pretty cool idea!