Elevator Pitch: Oneflare

Elevator Pitch is a regular feature on Lifehacker where we profile startups and new companies and pick their brains for entrepreneurial advice. This week, we’re talking with Marcus Lim from local services quote site Oneflare.

In 128 words or less, explain your business idea.

Oneflare.com.au is Australia’s fastest growing marketplace for local services that connects customers and service providers together. Oneflare helps you save time and money by providing quotes and responses from interested, verified and competitive businesses. You are then able to book and schedule the job(s) online with local businesses, and provide them with online feedback based on their service quality, timeliness and communication.

For businesses it allows them to access real quality customer leads and to improve their online reputation by receiving customer feedback, and is the only site that incorporates online background and licensing checks in Australia. It provides businesses with a clear understanding of their return on investment, unlike advertising on local papers or classifieds where the readership is unclear.

What strategies are you using to grow and finance your idea?

Cost effective user acquisition: Identifying and tapping into low cost online avenues to market and acquire potential customers
Market leading product: Developing a product that is easy to use and consistently exceeding our customers’ expectations.
Drive revenue: Identifying proper price points, increase subscription base and over-provide on value
Venture capital funding: We have just raised $500,000 in venture capital funding from some high profile Australian tech investors

What’s the biggest challenge facing your business?

With any two-sided marketplace, there are three key things to consider when scaling: customers, businesses and infrastructure. Being able to scale all three components effectively and efficiently is the biggest challenge facing Oneflare.

What one phone, tablet or PC application could you not live without?

For business, being an analytical and numbers crunching person, Microsoft Excel is one application that I need on a regular basis to understand how my business is tracking. Personally, having friends in so many countries, I would feel lonely without being able to communicate with them via Whatsapp.

What’s the best piece of business advice you’ve ever received?

A parting wisdom my dad bestowed on me before I began my entrepreneurial journey: “You shouldn’t talk business but do business.”

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