The Call of Redstone

Today was a great day when it comes to promoting my website HireMeAspen.com. I awoke to the news that my business had a pretty big write up in the Aspen Daily News; you can view the article here. Between this article and my Buzz on 82 show appearance last Friday, I feel like the snowball has finally started rolling. And, the best news? Sales are starting to trickle in.

But I'm not resting on my laurels by any means. Today, I kept true to my plan to start promoting the business and my Partner Program to potential partners. After all, my hard-working locals will need to save money too!

My gameplan led me to Redstone, CO, the "Ruby of the Rockies." Ahhhhhh...you gotta love the meandering drive to Redstone!

It's important that I reiterate the fact that HireMeAspen.com is for all Roaring Fork Valley locals, not just Aspenites. So, although I already have 23 partners signed up to date, I decided to start my sales pitches to businesses located in the outskirts. Of course, it's not hard to sell a silver partner program that lets a business support the hard-working locals and get more business traffic at the same time...all for free ;) ! I also want to make sure I take great photos from all over this valley. Photos for future reference in future blogs. Photos to help promote my partner businessess. Photos just for me.

So, with each stop I made on foot, I also took pics of the business I was pitching.

Here's a sneak peek of some cool sights to see (of course, you'll notice the first pic is of the Redstone museum that was just so big, I just couldn't make my way through the entire thing!):

It was quite a successful day in Redstone. It was such a delight meeting all the local businesses in Redstone ~ introducing myself and spreading the word.

I plan to start announcing all of my partners with a bunch of fanfare in my blog/email/facebook/twitter updates once The Hive goes live this week and all my new profiled members have their membership card in hand.

In the meantime, I suggest you plan a day trip to Redstone. It's a great escape from the daily grind!

Three Week Update

It's been three weeks now since HireMeAspen officially launched, and I hit the town promoting it.  Boy, have I already learned a lot about website launches!

Gameplan: Phase 1 ~ Filling Up Database of Workers

To date, we have about 55 unique profiles equalling 700+ cross-referenced profiles in our database.  My goal is to get to 100 uniques by the end of the month.  Agressive? Yes.  But doable if I really hustle!  I've got to keep the momentum going, and hopefully with 1. our launch press release being distributed tomorrow, 2, friends of friends finding out about the site, and 3. your continued support...we'll get there with ease. 

For a FREE profile, register here using code: CH01100. This code will be valid for a few more weeks only, so take advantage of it now!

Gameplan: Phase 2 ~Targeting Partners

Once I reach the first goal of 100 unique profiles in my database (or roughly 1250 profiles appearing in over 165 job categories), I can begin to focus new efforts on Phase 2 which is targeting Silver and Gold partners. You can view details about our Partner Program here.  We've signed up about 20 silver partners thus far which is better than awesome!  Once The Hive (the worker bee / members-only area of the website) is launched at the end of July, members will be able to see the Silver partner offers listed in The Honeycomb section.  First week of August, I'll start sending out membership cards so our worker bees can take advantage of these partner offers and start saving money! 

I've formulated an exciting gameplan for the Gold partners: creating an irresistable and valuable promotional package consisting of not only a business profile for all website visitors to see (including hirers), but unique promotional opportunities with other businesses in the valley like Qittle's Local Deals.  Plus, Gold Partners will receive display advertising opportunities on the site, preferred partner mentions on the site (ie. Partner Spotlight), social media marketing, and much, much more.  Stay tuned.  I've got more exciting things on the horizon for the Gold Partners.

And I've already met so many wonderful, interesting and supportive locals!  I'm finding that Facebook is a great way to generate brand awareness, so I've been playing around with several versions of targeted ads -- It's fun to see the results!  Lots of people come up to me indicating that they've seen my logo around town....from our gorilla marketing efforts of blanketing parking lots with info cards to community board flyers to hats and signage.  This feedback is great considering no press, no advertising, yet. 

Spread the Word

Become a fan on Facebook.  Follow us on Twitter.  And, if you're reading this post via FB/Twitter, please retreet/resend it to your friends.  Help me spread the word so I can help the hard-working locals.  Tell your friends/business partners we're looking for sponsors.  HireMeAspen is just what the Roaring Fork Valley locals need!

I'm jazzed for success, and I define success as: "locals ... getting hired, making money, saving money, being connected and having fun doing work they love!"

Thanks for being a part of the HireMeAspen community.  Let's get this snowball rolling!

Today, HireMeAspen is live!

The beta period is over.  And a new phase begins...

The website has been tested.  Changes have been made.  And now comes what will be the easiest part...selling HireMeAspen to the locals! 

Why easy?  Because I believe in my site.  I've worked hard to put myself in each user's situation, and offer an ROI that is irresistable to all 3 groups of users (workers, hirers and partners). 

WORKERS
(View our Profile Example here.)

Workers can display their detailed profile in up to 15 job categories for only $7.50/month at launch (that's .50 per category -- per MONTH -- to showcase your talents to potential hirers.  We over over 150 job categories to choose from. On top of that, they can actually save money once they become a member by taking advantage of all the local partner discounts offered to the membership.  They can join a crew.  They can connect with other locals. They can rate/recommend workers and hirers, they can access the Resource Center.  They can attend membership events.  They can and will SUCCEED when they join forces with HireMeAspen.

HIRERS
(View our Job Categories and find a worker here.)

Hirers have it made on our site!  They not only can search for workers and view the profiles for FREE, they can also access their contact information!  No charge.  For a limited time, hirers can easily post a job for all the members to view.  Hireres can send a quick email blast to a category of workers to let them know they're hiring when pressed for time.  They can hire a crew.  They can rate and recommend workers.  And coming soon, they can manage their projects by maintaining a list of workers, schedule work and manage all their pending and completed projects (this feature will be great for property managers!). 

PARTNERS
(View our Partner Program here.)

We offer 3 different levels of partners: Silver, Gold and Platinum.  Silver partners receive a listing in The Hive (the members area of the website) when they offer our members a discount for patronizing their restaurant, retail store or service business.  This Silver level is FREE.  What better way to drive traffic to your business to increase your sales!  For $300/year or $25/month at launch, the Gold partners get "preferred partner" status and receive other benefits such as display advertising, appearing in the partner spotlight, recognition in local advertising, social media mentions, and much much more.  The Platinum partner level is for sponsors.  This level is customizable to meet the needs of both parties; thus costs are variable.

Our ultimate goal at HireMeAspen is to ensure that we meet the needs of the local community.  Many resort locals need to work three jobs to maintain a life in the resort they love. 

HireMeAspen is here to help those passionate and driven locals not just survive, but thrive.

The HireMeAspen Beta Website Launched Today!

After a little more than a year of extremely hard work, I am thrilled to announce that today marks the day that my website comes to life.

It's amazing to think of all the events that transpired in order to get to this point, and I'm extremely proud that my team and I stayed the course and created a worthwhile website for the Aspen locals.

A Little History...

The idea came to life a little over a year ago...when the perfect storm occured. I had been dating a guy who needed to promote his independent contractor business, but how could he get the word out on a limited budget? With the economy tanking, commissions from my corporate job dried up so how could I earn extra money on the side? And Craigslist had just announced earnings of $100,000,000. I thought "wow" b/c that site sure is ugly, but functional.

As a former Director of Media Sales at a Fortune 500 company, I'd called on all the top media companies ranging from The New York Times to USA Today to CNN Money, licensing content which could be monetized. I learned a lot during this gig. Mostly, I learned that local content is king.

I was fortunate enough to experience a work from home situation in that position, so I moved from NYC back to Aspen where I always was happiest. At that time, I knew I wanted to bring my knowledge and expertise to the local community, but just needed to find the perfect opportunity. So after many late nights, creative brainstorms and lots of laughs, my company, Sharing Profiles, was born.

HireMeAspen is the first of many local websites planned, so stay tuned!

I intend to stay true to my vision of offering websites that connect and help resort-town locals.

Thanks to everyone who has supported me in this endeavor to date. I am eternally grateful.