New Venture Lab: Equipping Christian Entrepreneurs

Being an entrepreneur, means creatively thinking about how to bring a new product or service to market, how to meet an unmet need or how to challenge an existing paradigm or business model.  One of today's business headlines was all about bringing a new, creative model to an old business.  The story highlights how marketers are now offering free directory assistance to callers and selling audio ads that play while the caller is waiting to be connected to their party, resulting in a new "no cost" directory assistance service for the consumer and a highly-targeted advertisement for the advertiser.  The story on BusinessWeek.com reads as follows:

 

911 for 411

 

Google's new free directory assistance is sure to be popular with consumers, but it means trouble on the line for the big phone companies

 

The days of paying north of a buck for directory assistance over the phone may be coming to an end - at least if Google and a gaggle of startups have anything to say about it. One little-known company has already grabbed 5% of the business by offering free service. Now, the Web search leader is going public with its own version that lets callers search for business listings from a land-line or mobile phone. Google will even connect the call and text the number to the user's cell phone, all for no charge.

 

That's likely to be music to the ears of the millions of 411 users who, according to consultancy the Pierz Group, pay an average of $1.28 a pop for assistance over a regular phone and a whopping $1.57 for each such call via a cell phone.

 

Full story: Article at BusinessWeek.com