Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

This year alone we have seen more than 760,000 jobs lost. It`s during times like this we need to explore new ways and strategies to put average Americans back to work. We need to find alternatives that would quickly allow for the unemployed to get back on their feet, pay their mortgages, and provide for their families. 

BidWilly believes that having a social marketplace is part of the answer to our growing economic problems. We believe that if we create a website where everyone(the unemployed, entrepreneurs, small businesses, and freelancers)can fight for the jobs of everyday consumers,  talented Americans can quickly get back to earning great wages.

Question: How would a social marketplace, where everyone(including you) can fight for the work of consumers, affect you and the economy?  

Profits are a good thing. I would rather give a tax reduction to those greedy oil companies than spend $700 billion of taxpayer money (cash for trash) to bail out mismanaged financial companies.

Don’t construe this to be a political statement but rather a reminder that competing on price is never a sustainable strategy unless you can effect a structural change like Wal-Mart. I think most businesses are looking for ways to differentiate their services in order to prevent price erosion. Also, most of the businesses you mentioned require significant investments.

Sites like Craigslist.com already provide no-cost way for business to promote their services.

soloex: Think of such cases where a consumer may need a mechanic, a lawn man, or even  a tutor. Think of ANY service or need! Would more people become entrepreneurs in order to bid for these jobs?

I don`t think this idea makes sense for one simple and obvious reason... Standardization.  How exactly is a mechanic going to quote work, or except a bid, if he hasn`t seen the vehicle to diagnosis the problem?  Furthermore, if he has seen the vehicle, why on earth would he turn around and post a quote on your website when he could just give the quote straight to the person?

The same goes for lawn-care.  How could a lawn care person except a bid without seeing the job that needs to be done?  Furthermore, no two lawns are the same, so how could people competitively bid on the work without Standardization.

This goes for all services.  Very few services, especially for residential consumers, can be quoted without seeing and evaluating the desired work to be done.  Consumers can bid on services on your website all they want, but no service provider (unless their completely insane) would except that bid without seeing the work.  And once again, why would people use this site if they ultimately have to meet in person anyways for quoting purposes?

The reason that ebay, priceline, and other free-market sites work is because of Standardization.  A hotel room is a hotel room.  A flight is a flight.  There’s no variance on one Nintendo Wii from the next on ebay.  That’s why consumers and businesses exchange bids and offers on these sites…because of Standardization.

And I hate to burst your bubble, but if you think your site is going to turn around this economy or create jobs in anyway, you clearly need to spend some of that R&D money on some economics text books.

I think it is a good initiative. There are too many people losing jobs by the hundreds of thousands every month.

How are you going to do that?