Help Needed - New Recruitment Service

[CAB]

I have taken a good look at the site under discussion, including registering so that I had access to the important stuff, i.e. how it works. I found the interfaces easy to use, and was even able to download the site terms and conditions, an important area that is neglected by most websites.

I don't think that all the contributions actually help Viking, nor do they answer his original request, which was related to marketing.

Yes I agree that the look and feel of the homepage is a little basic, but I think it is aimed at the recruiter market (HR) rather than the techie guru's who populate this site.

Viking I believe you may have hit on an interesting business opportunity that could benefit both recruiters and contractors, and could provide a step forward for direct Internet recruitment. Although, there could be a lot of obstacles.

Contractors, what do you think of the referral scheme? As a contractor I get blasted with calls from Agencies trying to get client names for free, and Viking apparently wants to reward us for this information.

Viking I will send you some information direct regarding marketing opportunities.

[king contractor]

Is CAB really...

Viking in diguise???

A bit suspicious that CAB has 1 posting and it's blowing hot air up Vikings rear end.

[CAB]

Re: Is CAB really...

Most definitely not. I'm a frequent visitor to the bulletin boards, and finding a few areas which I wanted to respond to (still in progress) decided to register.

Why so cynical?

[thunderlizard]

Re: Is CAB really...

The sentences on the front page are too long.

[rebeccaloos]

Re: Is CAB really...

I kinda agree with CAB - and anyway when all contractors on this site pull in one direction, it is suspicious. Maybe they don't like it not because it is a bad idea but because it would change the way they work. It's a bit like the flat tax rate. It is probably a good idea but I don't like it cos' it hasn't got any exploitable loopholes

I agree the site doesn't look great but the look of the site doesn't affect the concept. It is a good concept I think, but it will only work if you've got the numbers - i.e. a large number of companies using it, which will attract a large number of contractors. But companies will only use it if you have a large number of contractors signed up. So which one will come first? but if you have the numbers on both sides, then yes - I like it.

[nobody here but us chickens]

cvb

I have to say the web site is one of the worst ive ever seen. Throw it away, burn the graphics and background..

your t&C wont get past ANY corporate system. I didnt look at the payment page but I assume you take PO ?

As several people have said - Lots of attempts have been made to break the agent model for recruitment - they all fail. The 'successful' ones morph into agency or consultancy models pretty quickly.

you dont explain where you are getting the cv's from but a company isnt going to be very impressed at spending £300 just to see it pop up on a couple of sites and get a long list of cv's back.

How are you going to build a relationship ? Recruiters have agents continually ringing them offering things, it makes it easy .

I dont see anything to grab me on the 1st page - just a site that the FD will claim that his 6 yr old neice could have built in exchange for a copy of 'Horse & Pony' Magazine and a packet of smarties.

and finally I am not convinced that you can make money even at £300 a pop without being huge - and that means that you need a slick marketing operation and a suitably large budget.
You dont - they wouldnt have let you get away with wording like that.

Did you *really* spend money on trademarking 'Buddytron' ?

[TreeHugger]

GULP.de

I actually came here looking for some site based on this model (look, first posting). CVBuddies.com is in its first iteration though, judging by the graphics.

Viking - if you want to get CVs on board, you should spruce up that website and make it look slick. The very best reaction to your current design IMHO is going to be one of indifference.

Perhaps you should check out www.gulp.de/ which is a German operation working successfully (5 years old or more) along the same lines as your model. It is beginning to move into recruitment consultancy as well using its own database.

[oaksoft]

It's a shame you avoided my questions

Viking, I was genuinely interested in how you were going to answer my questions and disappointed that you chose not to do so.

It seems to me that your idea fails at the "so what" hurdle.
There is nothing genuinely new or exciting here.

In fact, what you propose is more expensive than that available elsewhere.

Why would you be able to filter CV's better than an agency?

[Viking]

Response to Oaksoft

Oaksoft: I did put out quite a lengthy response to all the comments I had received because no-one seems to have understood what our business is, including you. For this reason it seemed pointless trying to answer individual questions which pertain to a business model which is not ours.

Also, I am still waiting for an answer to my original question, namely, where and how to advertise our service to contractors, as yet I have received a lot of advice about my site and my business, most of which is irrelevant as the business model is not yet fully understood.

And although I am disappointed with the general comments about the site, I am pleased that someone out there understood that the site is at present a prototype. It is the service behind the site which is important, not the site itself.

No matter how much market research you do, you always need to setup a prototype to fully understand the markets reaction to your product or service. We do have a flash enabled site in the wings, but we will not bring that out until we have fine tuned the business model and the services associated with it.

[nobody here but us chickens]

Hmm

Well, If we 'dont understand' maybe you need to give a clear explaination rather than waffle about research and business models. You are not making clear either here or on the site what the benfit of your service is. Oaksoft asks some sensible questions which would clarify what you are doing and you snub him!

Plenty of sites will publish PR fluff, and there is plenty of advertising available. It has to be said that any sales org needs to do lots of marketing to get of the ground, but I am confident that you have done the research and know better than anyone on here.

As a hint though, sites like this one only have ads from companies selling to contractors.