We started small in San Antonio. Within months our website was named best local website of the year by the editor's of San Antonio Magazine and we had been featured on the local NBC affiliate TV station numerous times.
The concept is simple. A combination of exclusivity for small businesses and independant contractors (we only allow 100 per city of all industries combined) and affordability (we only charge $10 per year) all on a pristinely beautiful website.
If you live in a city and want to know at a quick glance who is offering what services locally, this is the place to go. If you are travelling to a new city and want to support local, this is the quickest place to go where you can actually see pictures and their own write-up, all with ZERO ads ruining your experience.
For the small businesses or independant contractors, we know it can get tiring trying to be found on Craigslist, especially amongst a mix of spam and bogus ads. Sites like those are usually eye-sores anyhow and you have to constantly re-add your info every day and then get lost in the multitudes of competition.
Our site is maximized for SEO as well. You provide your own links, images and videos if you have them and we display it in a truly beautiful format.
So, imagine you're a hairdresser—you probably spent $10 at some point just going to the movies. Another $12 or so for popcorn and soda. Surely you've done that a few times during the year. That can equal hundreds of dollars right there.
Why not spend $10 once each year and be one of only 100 locally owned businesses that are listed in your city? Take a look at the website and see for yourself how beautiful it is and how much care we've put into how your business will be seen (visit http://whoknewcities.com/gallery/san-antonio/ for an example of stories already listed)!
Right now we have 251 cities listed. If you don't see yours, let us know and we'll add it! Got changes to your story? Send us an email and we'll make updates for us (this is first come, first serve so go easy on us :)
My business partner and I have worked for large advertising agencies ourselves before we started our own business. She worked for the city's largest agency as the senior art director and I worked for the world's largest US-Hispanic ad agency at their headquarters in San Antonio on accounts such as Proctor & Gamble, Nestlé, Reynolds, General Mills, Burger King, Coors, and many more.
We started this as a solution for the ridiculous costs of advertising. If you're independant and starting off or even a small business, we know you can't afford much, but we think you should still enjoy exclusivity and a beautiful opportunity to put your best foot forward. We use the funds received to pay ourselves what we can, but are more interested in getting our site to grow in other countries as well and will be focusing dollars toward promoting our site.
Please share with anyone you know that is a nanny, musician, band, artisit, plumber, landscaper, dogwalker, DJ, masseuse, in the beauty industry, baker, coach, instructor, fitness expert—ANYTHING AT ALL!!!