"So What's Next?"

“So what are you doing now?” & “Then what’s next?”  These are the two most common questions I have been asked …  Let me start by saying I am developing an idea on how to quickly & efficiently refer you, the consumer with the best and most reliable businesses in your local area!  
Most of you that have done business with me in the past probably remember something I used to offer to everyone: “If you need something done, let me know. If I can’t do it at a professional level, I am more than happy to help you find the right person for the job.” These are the words that I have stood by for my entire career. I only recommended someone if I was willing to stamp my name on their work. And I was happy to help too.  
As a consumer it is hard enough to find someone reliable to do good work, but also just as hard for a dependable small business to market to the general public. I am currently and aggressively trying to develop an idea to bridge that gap. When you are a consumer looking for an honest contractor or business, it can feel like throwing darts at a dartboard. You do a Google search, go on Yelp or go to your local Facebook group & even go on Angie’s List.  These are all great starting places, but do they really give you the answer(s) you’re looking for? The problem I see with it is, you still have to take a decent amount of your time to comb through all these opinions, and you still have to decide whose opinion is the most credible. After you spend all that time reading & sifting, you are still guessing in the end. When you are a small business & only have so much in the advertising budget, where do you turn? For me it was always kind of the same theory (as above) for where to market my business. It was a crapshoot because you only really have one shot at it. If you go on Google or Facebook, you only get so much exposure unless you pay more. If you use newspapers, does anyone actually read them anymore? Direct mailing is very expensive & statistics show you will only receive a very small percentage of return. So for both customers & business owners, where do you turn?
My advice was always to start with me. I am a pretty handy guy, but also did not want to be known as a “handyman.” I had my limitations with what I could do professionally. That’s where I developed my above referral method/slogan. Over the years I established many professional contacts I would highly recommend, but there were occasions I did not feel comfortable recommending a business just to recommend someone. As I said if I gave a referral, I was stamping my own reputation on it. That’s when I would recommend going on Google/Yelp/Angie’s List, but to me that is like conducting a long interview and you still might not know who to choose …
So for the last handful of months I have been thinking of a better way. Right now I am in the middle of building a website to solve the above problem. I don’t want to go into too much detail yet because we are still in the early production phase, but I will give away some of the general idea. The site will be FREE to use. The entire process is designed to take under 60 seconds, and there will be NO EMAIL SIGN UP required. Does all this sound good so far?  Great! On top of all that the site will be designed around local business & the idea is to get you in touch with the best businesses in your area.
That is all the info I can give for now. I am hoping to have this website launched by late spring/early summer.  As we achieve milestones in the building process, I will release more detailed information. I am very excited about bringing this new & innovative idea to life.  
PLEASE CONTINUE TO FOLLOW MY BLOG POSTS ON WWW.POWERWGL.COM FOR UPDATES. ONCE THE NEW SITE IS LIVE, THE BLOG PAGE WILL BE TRANSFERRED TO THE THAT SITE AS WELL.
Thanks so much, Peter Robert Wengerski -

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