Standard Examiner Article ft. FreshLime’s CEO/Founder

LEHI — Online marketing entrepreneur Jay Bean will launch his latest project, FreshLime, this week.  It will first launch along the Wasatch Front and in Phoenix, before expanding nationwide in 2015, he said.  In the past, Bean developed successful start-ups such as Ah-ha.com and OrangeSoda.com.  Bean, who studied economics at Weber State University, developed his startup Ah-ha.com in Ogden, before moving it down to Lehi.

 Through FreshLime, home service professionals, such as plumbers and landscapers, will have access to a business and marketing automation platform.  “We’re helping small business merchants do more with their contacts,” Bean said, by going after businesses that have not changed their process in the last 100 years.  “We want to be able to have all those consumers engage with consumers the way they want to engage.”
The service keeps a record of home maintenance, which Bean described as a CarFax for homes. It lets service professionals know what work has already been done to a home and keep track of their customers. It also helps a service professional determine when the best time is to engage with consumers.  “It really doesn’t make sense for a landscaper to schedule winterizing sprinklers in August,” Bean said. Through FreshLime, the landscaper would know and therefore be prepared to do it in autumn.

FreshLime also lets consumers know the quality of professional, as well as schedule a visit.  Bean said this will eliminate the dreaded four-hour window, of waiting at home for the plumber, or whomever, to arrive.  By doing all of this, Bean said FreshLime helps the service professionals build a solid clientele.  The company said some websites help service professionals offer discounts. Once the customer uses the service, at a loss to the provider, they never return. Instead, Bean said, FreshLime builds relationships.

Company officials said FreshLime does all of this, while prioritizing mobile first.  Their app is meant to ease scheduling, provide a maintenance report reference and offer geo-targeted lead generation tools with notification systems.  This provides convenience for consumers, who are no longer shackled to a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday schedule. Consumers can now make an appointment when it is most convenient to them.

While the website is currently only in beta, Bean said they plan to add a few hundred merchants in the next few months.  “We believe we have the core process of the platform that will be ready for them,” Bean said. “Our whole objective is to help merchants same time and make money.”

For more information about the company, visit Freshlime.com.

Contact Jesus Lopez Jr. at 801-625-4239 or jlopez@standard.net. Follow him on Twitter at @jesuslopezSE and like him on Facebook at facebook.com/JesusLopezSE.

For more insights on marketing strategy that actually works for small business, subscribe to the FreshLime Newsletter here. Connect with Jay Bean, Founder of FreshLime and Small Business Marketing Expert on LinkedIn and Twitter. And last of all, if any of these tips have helped you or if you have anything to add please comment below. We’d love to hear from you!