Drawing of Itzhak Schier
BS”D
The cyberentrepreneur Itzhak Schier, who brought the world The Million Word Site is back better than ever, with two new open source based sites about to launch, and a completely redesigned Million Word Site in the works for late October.
Schier’
Pplinvest.com is billed as “The People to People Investment Exchange”, and it is a peer to peer site that lets new and existing business owners sell shares or other means of investment in their businesses online. It attracts seasoned investors as well as private individuals who are looking to get in at the ground floor of a new or expanding business, as it applies principles of a well-regulated and well-organized stock market to private, grass roots investment. Schier describes Pplinvest as “the virtual, yet very real, answer to NASDAQ for new or expanding small to medium businesses”.
He expects to launch Pplinvest.com by August 31, 2008 at the very latest, followed very soon after by Cybfirm.com. Cybfirm.com is project management taken to the maximum degree, as it literally lets business owners set up a virtual firm online. Cybfirm.com makes it simple for a business owner to hire employees and consultants, buy freelance services (and products such as software and office supplies as the site progresses), and set up and assign tasks as well as sell and market products and services that his or her firm produces. While it would seem as if the site is made for Web programming and design, software programming, and other virtual services, Schier says: “I can easily see a manufacturing firm using Cybfirm.com to get a new product designed in Italy, produced in China, and then being able to sell it to retailers, wholesalers and individuals alike via the site.” And it also allows job seekers and freelancers to apply for jobs and assignments and to make themselves known to business owners who have specific tasks waiting for them.
Both sites have similar business models - reasonable membership charges and commissions for investments sold on Pplinvest, and reasonable membership fees for business owners along with free signup for job seekers and freelancers on Cybfirm. This “lets people feel they are really a part of a professional organization, while weeding out the scammers and spammers and not distracting users with ads”.
And as always, Schier, a devout member of the Chabad Lubavitch Chassidic Jewish community, does not forget for one moment who he is. Whenever he can, he prefaces every page and post on his sites with the acronym “BS”D”. A link to an explanation page reveals that it stands for “With The Help of Heaven”, a reference to his credo that his businesses must reflect his core beliefs by providing value and maintaining the highest standards as per Jewish law and teachings pertaining to business.
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
