Archive for July, 2009

Why do I do this?

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

This world is critically unbalanced. I truly believe that GoHuman.com has the power to help rebuild local economies by rewarding the businesses who perform the best work and work to develop worthwhile relationships with customers. Large corporations can’t compete with the individualized and specialized service that a local service provider can provide, yet communities all over the country are feeding these huge entities with seemingly no way out.

GoHuman.com is a way out. But it’s more than that. It’s a way to collaborate and empower individuals who desire a flexible work life and higher quality of life. People with multiple skills and services can use GoHuman.com to represent themselves without creating multiple businesses or renting office space. As we build the site, we we construct tools that allow all independent businesses and service providers to convey their administrative and sales activities as professionally as they complete the quality work performed. We will help people form ad-hoc work groups as needed to perform any number of flexible tasks and projects. We give businesses a way to express themselves and build reputation unlike any other site.

GoHuman.com encourages a culture that doesn’t expect perfection, but understands we are all human and we all make mistakes. What matters is our willingness to make it right when things go wrong. To support each other and progress together. Those who provide value to this site and their community will be rewarded for their integrity, skill, and effort.

My entire life I’ve done what I can to fight against the prevalent greed in our society, believing that we can’t just chock it up to “human nature.” Recently I’ve become convinced that Web technology holds the power to re-distribute some of that wealth among people who need it the most. Finally I found a group of people who not only share this vision, but are willing and able to work with me to develop technology and culture to make a real difference.

Each of us has the power to change the world. I’m trying to do that through GoHuman.com, and I challenge each of you to do the same. Join us in the movement towards change and help make the world better for everyone.

Andy Swindler
GoHuman.com Co-Founder

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How to Get Better Testimonials

Monday, July 27th, 2009

A good how-to on getting good testimonials and putting them to use for your business. Remember you can request endorsements right here on GoHuman.com easily to build reputation in your community.

Increase Word of Mouth In Your Community

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009

Some practical advice about how to involve your community in your products and services. Bottom line is that you can increase word of mouth by creating social experiences for people to see your products and services in groups.

Finding Your Raving Fans

Monday, July 20th, 2009

Some good advice for building a community of raving fans. Go above and beyond no matter the cost, and you’ll reap the rewards of customer loyalty and increased word of mouth.

The trick is to make it harder, not easier, for your raving fans to get involved. “They want other hardcore fans with whom they can share their passion.”

How the World Became a Corporation

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

Last night Stephen Colbert interviewed Douglas Rushkoff, author of Life, Inc. Rushkoff makes a compelling argument for how the world has become a corporation and how that’s not a good thing. We tend to agree! Keep it local for the economy and environment.

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Douglas Rushkoff
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Protests

Transition Towns

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

Here’s one model for banding people together in local communities to effect change. A Transition Town begins with a Transition Initiative, which is a community (lots of examples here) working together to look Peak Oil and Climate Change squarely in the eye and address this BIG question:

“For all those aspects of life that this community needs in order to sustain itself and thrive, how do we significantly increase resilience (to mitigate the effects of Peak Oil) and drastically reduce carbon emissions (to mitigate the effects of Climate Change)?”

Get Lost, Human

Friday, July 10th, 2009

Get lost easily? You’re not alone! Apparently we get lost because we’re thinking of too many things at once. A little focus goes a long way.

The Story of Stuff

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

If you haven’t seen this yet, check out Annie Leonard’s Story of Stuff. An insightful animation tells the story of the global supply chain.

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Declaration of Independence – 2009!

Saturday, July 4th, 2009

In 1776 The U.S. of A. established itself as an independent entity.  Arguably, what has made this nation great, is the balance of power vested in three seperate branches of government.  This enabled the human resources of this continent to govern themselves without one person or group gaining undue control and influence.  Today the corporations of this planet are larger than governments, and their enormous wealth and power has usurped this balance.

In the last 18 months, even those who believe in “free markets” have become painfully aware of the extent to which greed and corporate influence  dominate the planet.  People are seeing through the “free market illusion” created by those in control, like the Vegas operators who paint the sky on Casino ceilings to keep players gambling day and night.

It’s time to declare economic independence and establish a new financial order.

Background!

Between 2004 and 2007 I headed up Strategic Planning for Countrywide’s Administration and Real Estate, writing approved plans for over a Billion dollars in capital and operational budget so the company could grow from 30,000 to 60,000 employees.  I left in disgust in February 2007, writing an MBA paper comparing Countrywide Culture to the Mafia.

In the February 23, 2009 issue of Time, Angelo Mozilo – former CEO of Countrywide, is listed as the #1 person to blame for the financial systems meltdown. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil lawsuit in Los Angeles federal court, accusing Mozilo of making more than $139 million in profits in 2006 and 2007 as a result of exercising 5.1 million stock options.

This is by far not the only example I’ve personally seen of how executives abuse their position to extract value from  companies and shareholders they supposedly serve.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Global Capitalism, as practiced today, creates pyramid structures from which the rich and powerful at the top suck enormous amounts of value, at the expense of the disenfranchised workers at the bottom.

Here’s another example.  I have invested in a few single family rental homes in an inexpensive part of the country, and have a FICO score in the 700s.  One of these houses is worth twice the current loan amount,  and I need $25,000 in cash to pay down debt related to relocating to Madison, WI and the birth of our daughter. For 3 years I’ve been applying for an $80,000 refinance loan, submitting reams of documentation, tax returns, etc. to accompany four applications in excess of 15 pages, all of which have been denied.

With the recent tightening of credit I’ve given up, as banks keep raising the bar on what it takes to get a loan. Along with millions of my fellow Americans I am now paying credit card rates because banks will not perform their historical function of lending money against assets.

In contrast to this, the February 16 issue of Fortune magazine explains that 300 banks have received $314 Billion dollars of taxpayer bailout money, (TARP funds) by filling out a two page application. These funds were intended to be lent to people like you and me, who are negatively impacted by greedy and foolish business practices of financial institutions and the resulting tightening of  credit.

Having been rescued with tax dollars, banks are desperately trying to pay the funds back early, because TARP rules limit the amount of pay to executives.  They say these rules make them non-competetive.  They say they are doing us a favor.  Words fail me!

What are we doing about it?

GoHuman is a dot com that focuses on the individuals that form the economic backbone of our society.  A zip-code based deployment and business model enable an interconnected, integrated marketplace at the local level, so small business owners and their customers can “just say no” to the powerful elite that seek to control and dictate each local transaction while siphoning off value through the top of obscenely large corporations.

GoHuman.com leverages the grass roots power of Web 2.0 Social Networking to correct inequity from the ground up.  We have inverted the pyramid structure, and are keeping big players out of this community until you, the businesses and consumers operating at the GROUND LEVEL, stake your claim to a more equitable model.

Our platform helps working people focus more of their time and energy on the areas where they create value, while benefitting all stakeholders in an equitable, sustainable community.  GoHuman.com’s business model pays the people who create the value, and its growth model is to give itself away to those who build it.All who help build it share in the enormous value created.

What does GoHuman.com sell?

GoHuman.com is Software as a Service, (SaaS) delivered via the web. The scale of our platform, coupled with the Internet, and the effectiveness of our business model, provides inexpensive solutions that increase the ability, profitability, and viability of our customers, the small local busineses across North America, that are run by real people serving real people.

Individuals and the smallest of small businesses use the site for free.  As businesses grow with the community, GoHuman.com offers the tools needed for continued excellence, growth and sustainability for a monthly software subscription fee.  Other products are under development to be rolled out at Launch.

How will it gain momentum?

Our Pioneer Program allows you to share in the success of GoHuman.com and rewards you along the way. The program is built around the concept of turning this giveaway into a viral growth platform.  Pre-launch on Independence Day leads to our Launch on the 100 Year anniversary of Labor Sunday.

Where do you start?

Join GoHuman.com for free right now.  Or just spread the word about GoHuman.com to others near and dear to you.

The GoHuman.com team can’t wait to have you join us in making the world work better.

Welcome

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

Welcome to GoHuman.com! We’re excited to be two months from our Labor Day launch and kick off the blog to provide you with updates from the GoHuman.com team.

GoHuman.com is an online marketplace connecting consumers with small, local businesses. We believe the strength of America lies with individuals who use their diverse talents to provide localized services and aim to provide a low-cost platform for local online marketing and business growth.

Easy to use, GoHuman.com allows individuals and small businesses to create their own customizable ‘pages.’ You can search for these local services by zip code and category. GoHuman.com also provides advanced reputation features that represent the quality of service offered over time so you can make educated decisions.

Stay tuned as we work together to change the way your world works.

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