How To Split An Atom

Welcome to How To Split An Atom. Why not take some time out to subscribe to our RSS feed? Thanks for visiting!

Following up on my articles about “getting out there and doing it,” is this interview I had with Dan Caplan, one of the founders of MyCityFaces. MyCityFaces is a site that bills itself as an online Billboard, allowing service industry professionals to post their products and their services.

In this interview, Dan talks about the product, entrepreneurship in the real world, and putting your nose to the grindstone.

My City Fares

I wanted to tell you about our exciting new start up and a little about being an entrepreneur in the very competitive age of Web2.0. MyCityFaces.com is a service industry networking site allowing people to post profiles for free, offering products they sell or a service they perform. We feel the service industry is often ignored and people resort to advertising on social networking sites, which is not the most professional medium, and often obscures that line between business and personal. On MyCityFaces.com people can in a respectable way, have a profile, tell about what they do, recommend others on the site and post photos, coupons, and videos. Think of it as an Internet billboard and an electronic business card. This site is for all of the Hairstylists, Nail Techs, Realtors, Doctors, Mortgage Brokers, etc. anyone that is in sales or offers a service. The site is free to post a profile and is broken down by major cities, with more to come soon.

This fresh idea has never been done before, we are a pioneer in our market segment. We are not another business networking site, we are the must “have a profile” self advertising site on the Internet today! The service industry must be the most forgotten business segment on the Internet, probably because everyone thinks the Yellow Pages has it locked in. Have you looked at the Yellow Pages on the internet lately, there is not even any pictures, you’re just looking at lists of companies. There is nothing personable about that! At MyCityFaces.com you can search by business category or name and pull up a complete profile, with photos, advertising the products or services of that person and many other features. MyCityFaces.com will replace the “other” sites as the premier service industry networking site!

Being an entrepreneur today is not the easiest unless you have major backing, have sold your previous site for hundreds of millions or are willing to eat Raman and shack up on your buddies couch. I unfortunately am not that lucky and do not posses those attributes! I am though lucky enough to do it the old fashioned way, come up with a good idea and put your nose to the grindstone and make it work. You see I am not a 20 something with not a care in the world, no responsibilities yet, and a naive approach to the real world that only comes with experience, but a mid thirties, two kids, mortgage bearing guy with a full head of steam and know how to be successful. It is very frustrating seeing seed money and other Venture capital requiring you to spend the summer or be baby sat and incubated, go to start ups that just rinse, wash, and repeat. This is the real world folks, you can’t sit in a circle and dream of ways to change the Internet and live in a start up commune, you have to go out and fight for what you believe in, spend your time in the trenches and create your own destiny.

We started by scraping some credit cards together and hiring a great web developing company, and doing the necessary components to get a working website up. Right now we are on a strict budget and as we make money and grow, we will add new features and update the site. Luckily our concept is pretty straightforward, so most of my time is spent on marketing, which I feel is the key to becoming a success. When you are bootstrapping your start up you need to watch every dollar and make them work for you. I am not talking about being cheap, just paying attention to what works and what doesn’t. The neat thing about the internet in the age of Web 2.0 is that there is an abundance of marketing avenues and what seams like a limitless amount of websites to promote your business, some with costs but a lot are free if you can think outside the box. You just have too do research and not be afraid to test out whether they work for you or not, it’s not about spending thousands of dollars and shoving it down peoples throats, but If something doesn’t work, don’t be afraid to try something else.

We are currently doing a lot of viral marketing, things like Pay per Post, Pay per Click, Blogging, Social Bookmarking, and the one I like the best, forum marketing. Everyday I sit at my computer and find new ways to promote MyCityFaces.com, it’s about getting it in front of as many people you can, sometimes one person at a time. I send out promo emails to magazine editors, local newspaper reporters, I go to local entrepreneur and start up meetings, hit the streets with business cards, any thing I can do to get one more person signed up. None of these things cost a whole lot and they go along way too build a solid foundation. Just like any business you have good days and bad days, and as you gain momentum the bad days will hopefully go away.

Be patient, the Angel Investors will come knocking on your door when you have something to show them, not just a concept. It takes time to create a successful company, and if this were easy, everyone would be doing it!

Web 2.0 Roundup

I would like to thank Dan for taking the time out to talk to us.

(Image) (RSS)