Possibilities - Buyer to Builder: Turning a Profit With TBBS/TDBS

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BUYER TO BUILDER: TURNING A PROFIT WITH TBBS/TDBS
-------------------------------------------------

*** From July 1990 Possibilities Newsletter ***
*** Copyright 1990 by eSoft, Inc.  All Rights Reserved ***

Buyer to Builder: Turning a Profit With TBBS/TDBS
by Alan Bechtold

You might not think selling paint would lead to the start of a profitable 
electronic information application, but that's what happened to Bob Snow.  
Bob has utilized tbbs and tdbs to create Buyer to Builder, a new commercial 
online service that's a profitable full-time business.  It's a success 
that's sure to be repeated often.

It started when Bob decided that researching new building permits would help 
him locate likely prospects for paint sales.  As he collected and organized 
this information, he soon found that builders themselves could use it.  "The 
more people found out what I was doing the more they wanted to get 
involved," he said.

Snow quickly knew he was on to something.  He realized that if he could 
organize this information and present it properly, he would fill a need in 
the marketplace.  Fortunately, he also found the tools needed to bring his 
idea to life.  As a result, Buyer to Builder is a clear statement that, with 
tbbs and tdbs, high-grade commercial online information systems are not only 
possible, but also easy to set up and manage.

Based on the tbbs Information Manager, Buyer to Builder is primarily an 
online database, consisting of every building permit for a new home issued 
in the state of Wisconsin.  Snow made extensive use of the tdbs Expansion 
Module's dBase language to make the information they offer easy to access, 
search and retrieve.

Snow had some past experience as the operator of an Atari-based hobby 
bulletin board system.  He also took advantage of an experienced dBase 
programmer's help when setting up the system.  Still, Snow says that tbbs 
and tdbs are what made Buyer to Builder a reality.

"We bought two other boards," Snow said.  "One was too involved.  There were 
too many versions floating around, and too many chances for problems to crop 
up.  The other was a dating-type board.  We had it for two days, and it's on 
the shelf now."

A service like Buyer to Builder might seem difficult to set up, but Snow 
said the tbbs/tdbs combination made it easy.  "The two of us were meant for 
each other," he said.  "tdbs made this system extremely easy to put 
together.  We actually set up the system within a day of receiving the tbbs 
and tdbs software.  I love it, I really do."

Buyer to Builder's extensive search and report capabilities have all been 
designed to fit customer needs.  For example, contractors can create reports 
that detail all the homes any builder is currently building, or plans to 
build in the near future.  These reports include the actual location of each 
home, total square footage (broken down by living area, basement and garage) 
and the suggested retail price.  Armed with this information, contractors 
using the system can easily find which builders will be needing their 
services in the near future.

Reports can also show year-to-date totals for each builder, and project 
future earnings, based upon past performance.  This allows contractors to 
offer discounts on their services to selected builders who might be able to 
provide them with a lot of work in the future.

Information on new homes can also be retrieved by the homeowner's name.  
Builders can make use of this information to determine if a potential buyer 
has already purchased a new home, before wasting time and energy trying to 
sell him one.  Builders can also find the price range, size and location of 
the home a prospect has purchased.  This can help indicate why a builder's 
offer wasn't of interest.  For example, the prospect might have purchased 
another home in a completely different part of town, or one that was much 
larger or smaller or more or less expensive than one the builder had 
offered.

Buyer to Builder can also be used to keep an eye on the total new home 
market, throughout the state or in any given county or municipality.  With 
this report option, a user can list all builders that build homes of a given 
size, the overall prices they charged for these homes, and the average price 
per square foot charged by each builder listed.  This information can help 
builders stay competitive in their bidding.

In the near future, Snow also plans to add information on the length of time 
each builder spends building each home listed, and to offer users the 
ability to determine the average length of time it takes for each builder to 
complete a home.  "This way, a homeowner wishing to build a new home can 
find the builder who charges the fairest square-foot rate and who is capable 
of completing a home on schedule," Snow said.

"There are a number of businesses who sell their products to new home buyers 
and builders," Snow added.  "Anyone building a new home is a potential buyer 
of carpet, heating systems, storm windows, furniture, appliances...the list 
goes on and on.  We can provide these resellers with prospect lists, based 
on proven information that each prospect has purchased or started building a 
new home."

The number of vendors in an area who can buy prospect lists will be limited, 
Snow said, so people on the lists aren't deluged with sales calls.

Buyer to Builder has only been online since November, but more opportunities 
are already opening up.  Snow plans to add a "Sales" option soon.  This will 
allow builders to list the homes they have for sale.  These will be 
advertisements (NOT commissioned listings), and will be searchable by style, 
area, city, subdivision and more.

Needless to say, Buyer to Builder is constantly changing.  New features are 
being added and the information on the system is constantly updated.  "We 
often refer to the system as 'the latest metamorphosis'", Snow said.

Access to Buyer to Builder is sold on a subscription basis, and subscribers 
are also charged an hourly connect-time fee.  Builders pay $895 per year and 
$49 per hour and contractors pay $495 per year and $49 per hour.  Buyers of 
the system's contact lists (qualified lists of potential buyers of home-
related products) pay $495.00 per year plus 50 cents per name.  Homeowners 
will be charged $189 per year, plus $20.00 per connect hour, for limited 
system access.

Snow stresses that these are the initial prices that have been set for 
access to Buyer to Builder, and they may fluctuate slightly as he takes 
better stock of the market he is serving.  But he points out the service is 
already selling well.

One reason Buyer to Builder is so successful is its simplicity.  Despite the 
wealth of available information, the main menu is uncluttered and 
straightforward.  There is a <S>ubscriber Registration and <E>-Mail option, 
but <B>uyer to Builder is the option that leads to the heart of the system.  
Selecting this option allows the user to tap into the incredibly complete 
database of information on Wisconsin's $400 million-plus building market.  
Options on resulting sub-menus link the user to Buyer to Builder's 
impressive tdbs dBase programs, to manipulate the database, search for 
requested information and present it in attractive on-screen reports.

In fact, it's all arranged so intuitively there isn't even a User Guide to 
the service.  "We might put one together sometime," Snow said, "but right 
now we just go online with every new user and take them step-by-step through 
the system."  The one-on-one introduction, and a free hour of connect time, 
is usually all users need to start using the system and obtaining the 
information they need.

It was tdbs that allowed Snow to create Buyer to Builder's unique dBase III 
programs and bring them online.  "When we enter a permit into our system," 
Snow said, "it's purged against every record in the system, to find any 
duplication of addresses or telephone numbers."  The software also searches 
for figures that are far out of line with normal averages, and changes them 
to zeros.  These zero figures are then omitted when calculating averages, 
making the system much more accurate.

In fact, the accuracy of the Buyer to Builder system has been attested to by 
THE BUSINESS JOURNAL MAGAZINE, which publishes an annual list of the top 
builders in Wisconsin.  In the past, they gathered their information from 
the builders themselves.  When a recent list was compared to the figures 
that are available on Buyer to Builder, there were more than a few 
discrepancies.  According to Snow, the magazine will be using Buyer to 
Builder to put together their next list.

Like any good online database, it's the database software that makes the 
system what it is.  Because tdbs is a compiler, however, he can release 
operational systems without compromising his development efforts.  This 
allows him to make Buyer to Builder a "turnkey" system which can be easily 
franchised to other operators in other states.

Bob Snow has combined the tbbs Information Manager with some powerful tdbs 
dBase language programming to set up a profitable business.  It's obvious 
he's on to something.  He's found a need in the online information 
marketplace and is filling it, now that he has the tools to make it all 
possible.  It's a good bet his efforts will continue to be rewarded.

- END -
PS0790-5
Rev. 7/90

Copyright (C) 1994 eSoft, Inc., All Rights Reserved.  Permission granted
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