Interview with the founder of SwapaSkill: Nicole Wehden

in Entrepreneurship Interviews Tech News by Francis Simisim — March 20, 2009 at 12:00 PM | 0 comments

I’ve had a great chance to interview the founder of SwapaSkill, Ms. Nicole Wehden. Her passion to help others has really reflected thru her website, with her inspiration coming from the movie “Pay it Forward“. The website is similar to my idea that I’ve posted here called Service Barter. I’ve also reviewed her website before here. So here’s how the interview went:

So Nicole, Who came up with the idea of Swapaskill?

I did.

How did you come up with the idea for the website?

I had a belief that the internet could do some amazing things for mankind if we use it in the right ways. I spent a lot of my time thinking of ideas to do this and came up with many ideas but none of them was quite right. The idea came to me one day when I wanted by bathroom floor tiling and found that tilers were very expensive. I thought to myself ‘ I wish I could find a tiler who needs a business coach’. Something then came to me. When I was young, back in the 1960s I lived in a small community where people in the street used to use their skills and hobbies to do favors for each other as a natural part of community life. As a result, everyone was better off than they would otherwise have been, in terms of what we gave each other, and also in terms of the personal satisfaction that comes from making a positive difference to someone elseâ€™s life. Those memories came back to me which triggered the idea that we could bring back this community spirit with the added benefits the internet can bring. My mind started to think about how great it would be to be able to go to a website and find people who want to swap favors who have skills I need and who are looking for my skills. Many skills can be swapped online so the opportunities are worldwide as well as local.

How long did it take you to do so?

I spent a good year or so trying to come up with the right idea. I had very specific criteria which I would highly recommend to anyone wanting to start an internet business. They were;

The idea will make a positive difference in some way
The idea has PR potential – a story that the media will be interested in. This gets you free PR and gives a great start to the business whilst building the brand.
The business can be financially sustainable in its own right without having to rely on advertising. The jury is still out on whether or not advertising as the only form of revenue is a sustainable model and I think it’s wise not to rely on it.
It was a cause I personally believed in and that I could get personal fulfillment and enjoyment out of.

For the first year or so every idea I came up with met some of these criteria but not all. Swapaskill met everyone and more!

How much investment have you invested in Website (From Scratch)? (Time and monetary value)

This is an interesting one. I have personally spent very little money. Why? Because I swapped skills with a web developer. That developer and his colleagues now own shares in Swapaskill and we have a fantastic partnership with skills that complement each other. There are many web developers registered on Swapaskill so lots of opportunity for budding internet entrepreneurs. People can join up for free and find web developers and designers from around the world who may well be interested in collaborating. It’s a fantastic way to build an internet business. I would recommend you give the developer shares in the business. If they have a vested interest they will make it a priority. If you have a great idea you can keep down your costs down by collaborating instead of buying the web design and development skills, plus getting some great PR stories to market the site. Also, nowadays there are some great viral ways of marketing your business which are relatively cheap. Like plugging into Facebook so members can invite their Facebook friends automatically in just two clicks. If your members believe in you, they will recommend you.

How would you monetize Swapaskill?

I can talk generally on this. The obvious one is always advertising but as I mention below I don’t think any business should rely on this. The best way of generating revenue totally depends on your business but I think in principle the important thing is to make it free to join and then show the real benefits of paying. Smaller charges for services seem to work best. I like the dating site model where you can search and find someone you like and then have to pay to small fee to make contact them and other members. It is made very clear what you’re getting for your money and at that point you know you want it! At Swapaskill we want to keep everything free for members if we possibly can.

Are you currently working Full time for Website?

Some days/weeks I work full time on it others part time. In time I expect to be working full time on it. Be prepared to work all hours all days! People expect the help they need even if it’s in the middle of your weekend!

Any success story from Swapaskill?

Yes we have numerous lovely success stories. You can read about some of them here.

What features can we expect in the future? Where do you see Website in the next 3 years?

Well this is highly confidential I’m afraid but we have some very serious plans which are currently being invented by highly skilled technical people that will make Swapaskill totally unique in what it can offer the world. Ultimately as a team we are very altruistic and we would one day like to be able to set up a Swapaskill charity which donates a percentage of any profits we make to what we and our members believe to be worthy causes.

How do you see web startup’s perform during this time of recession?

I think there will be some real opportunities in a recession. The world is changing and with those changes comes opportunities to make it a better place. For example the world will have to become more concerned about saving the planet, so what internet business might help this?

How much funding does a web start-up need to build a website?

It all depends on what the business is. A website that is simply used as a vehicle for selling goods can be created very cheaply nowadays. $500 perhaps, whereas a highly interactive website with complex searching and matching capabilities would obviously cost a lot more. Server costs again vary as some sites are highly interactive and may have many thousands of people using the site at the same time like Facebook. It’s important to use the newer ‘elastic’ server services that now exist which means you only pay for the capacity you’re using at any one time. The old, more expensive way was to provide capacity that coped with your maximum usage which meant you paid for that capacity regardless of how much of it used. I go back to my original point though. Find people to swap with and you could get it all a whole lot cheaper, if not for nothing!

What Lessons have you learned when starting up websites?

The biggest lesson I have learnt is KEEP IT SIMPLE AND USER FRIENDLY. Make registering a really quick and easy process. Check out Twitter and see how easy they make it or Facebook. In the early days we made it far too complicated. Think of a great name for your site as soon as the idea comes to you and register the URL and the Ltd company name straight away! Once the idea is out in the cosmos you need to protect it. We have numerous competitor but none of them have a name as good as our and it counts for something. If the name you have thought of is taken, think of another.

The importance of making sure you’re ahead of the game before you start. You can do this easily by going to Google adwords and checking the daily charges for coming to the top of google when people search the appropriate key words. So for example, when I keyed in ‘skill swapping’ or swap skills’ into google adwords it told me that it would cost around 0.01p per day to get to the top of google if people searched for those key words. That told me that no-one else was doing it in any big way yet. If you key in ‘dating’ to google adwords it tells you it will cost around Â£20,000 per day to get to the top of google when someone keys in dating! This tells you there is massive competition in this market.

What’s your advice / suggestions / recommendations to other tech entrepreneurs out there who are wanting to start something online?

Think of an idea that you are passionate about. Visualise what the world will be like when it’s successful. Ask yourself, will it make the world a better place and how? If you have all the right answers to these questions you will be committed to it and you will get great pleasure and personal fulfilment out of it.
Make your site very user friendly and simple. Get friends to do lots of testing and give you honest feedback.
Collaborate with people who have the skills you don’t to keep costs down. So you might be a business person who collaborates with a technical person.
Build your business team with people who have complementary strengths and weaknesses. So for example, you may be very creative and always thinking of new ideas which is great. You also need someone in the team who can turn those ideas into reality and do the ‘slogging’, detailed work that a more creative person may not be so good at.
Understand your market and what their main drivers are. Make sure your site gives them what they want and need.
Have someone on your team who understands viral and viral loop marketing.
Put together a strong marketing plan that highlights the skills you will need and the steps you need to take to make it successful.

—- End of Interview —-

Having a similar website idea,Â SwapaSkill really got me inspired. With successful stories of skill-swapping members, being able to help out others while running a business is definitely a great personal satisfaction. Nicole has done a wonderful job in doing what she preaches, by making the website the first success story of SwapaSkill (collaboration with developers to create the website). I think, sooner or later, people are going to start seeing this as an alternative to paying expensive classes. With the market on online tutors / directories increasing, it won’t be long before they get a big slice of the market. I admire what they’ve done, and I hope to see more success stories in the future. Thank you very much Nicole for the opportunity and I hope you all the best with SwapaSkill.

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Author: Francis Simisim

Founder of TechFilipino, Tech Enthusiast, Internet savvy, and Gadget Explorer. I blog for what I enjoy and love doing. To know more please read more About Me. Twitter & Facebook or my other blog Menllionaire