Canterbury Entrepreneurs Take On The Big Names

Canterbury Entrepreneurs Ready To Take On The Big Names With New Online Jobsite

Two Canterbury businessmen, frustrated with the escalating costs of online job ads, have launched their own jobsite.

MYJOBSPACE.CO.NZ is Gary Collins and Pete Glen's answer to what they describe as the unjustified fees being charged by other sites.

To celebrate its launch the site is offering free job advertising to businesses until 15 November. After that employers will pay a flat fee of $89 per six months to advertise as many jobs as they want to or $149 for 12 months full access to most site benefits.

Mr Collins, who owns local publishing house A-Mark, and Mr Glen, an ex-advertising executive say they were driven to develop the site out of sheer frustration.

"Kiwi businesses are being ripped off. If we can deliver a service for hundreds of dollars that others are charging thousands for, there's something wrong with the picture."

"Our mission has been to develop the most affordable and effective job marketing platform in the world for the benefit of all employers and job hunters in New Zealand," he says.

Mr Collins says his experience in publishing prompted him to start exploring the online job site model about two years ago.

"The greatest costs associated in publishing are editorial content and printing. Once you have the content, replication is actually not that expensive - and it gets cheaper as the numbers stack up. We started thinking about how that might apply to an online model, and quickly realised that there was room in the market for a realistically priced, quality online job service."

Mr Collins and Mr Glen invested a great deal of time in researching the wants and needs of the market - starting with those of recruitment agencies.

"What we heard was, that with the market being so tight for candidates, many businesses are currently competing for the same candidates and as result are having to advertise these jobs over a period of months, costing them thousands of dollars. The real gap in the market was for an online service that catered to the repeat nature of the process, but from a client-centric perspective - not just to line the pockets of the provider."

Many of Christchurch's leading agencies have signed up with MYJOBSPACE.CO.NZ, attracted by the low rates, the entrepreneurial spirit of the site, and the added features set to attract a high proportion of job hunters.

"When we looked at what candidates were looking for, it became readily apparent that traditional sites weren't adequately catering for them, either. So we've included features that give job hunters the sorts of things they really want - for example, with MYJOBSPACE.CO.NZ, job hunters can create their own 'work wanted' ad - allowing them to profile themselves and pitch themselves to potential employers - all the while remaining anonymous. It's the sort of consumer empowerment and customisation that the web does so well - and it's one of the things that will really set us apart."

Mr Collins says he hopes that MYJOBSPACE.CO.NZ will, in addition to providing a dynamic space for employers and job hunters alike, give online job site prices a real shake up.

"Prices have been kept artificially high because these sites are owned by multi-national corporations with an agenda that has nothing to do with Kiwi business. Their driving force is the maintenance of revenues as traditional classified advertising is replaced by the online market."

ENDS

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