Name of your website?Free Valuations Online
Your name?
David Annis
Your Location (city, etc)
Okemos
Please give us a short summary of your website?
Our website provides fast, easy, free, valuations for small to mid-sized businesses. The application at www.freevaluationsonline.com allows users to remain completely anonymous, with no registration process.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
We've been providing business valuations for years. Often a busines owner just needs an approximate value and does not want to spend the time and money for a comprehensive valuation.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
1994. A website for ordering pizza for a local chain. At that time it got a lot of press. Today nobody would care.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
We wanted a name that would let people understand that the valuations were of businesses, they were free, and that the whole process could be completed on the web through a simple interview.
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
We explain in detail how we came up with the valuation. Without assumptions and methodology a valuation is meaningless.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
We want to keep it forever. Perhaps one day we;ll accept advertising. We'd also like to provide other online tools to help with merger and acquisition activities.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
Well, we just went live and it's free, so I'd say it's a lot of time with no payoff in site.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
I would add some AJAX functionality and provide a prettier interface.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
The code is designed to scale pretty easily.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
None, I've been doing web development for over a decade. This was a relatively simple site.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Testing the site to make sure everything worked was very time consuming. We had to do valuations on a huge number of businesses and read each report.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
So far we've just spent money on Google Ads.
Will you create a version for users with more complex needs?
Yes, we plan to introduce a version for people who need a more detailed valuation. The interview on that site will probably take about 45 minutes to complete. We're already coding it. Eventually we'll probably charge something to use that one.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
It's only been live for about a week. I can't imagine taking it down.
What if somebody wants you to do the valuation, instead of using this tool?
We can do that. Details are at Free Valuations Online
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