Small Business Commando News

I recorded an interview with Bobby Kalili, CEO of TollFreeYellowPages.com who owns a couple of interesting pieces of intellectual property.

Last week, TFYP announced that they had received an investment of $32.5 million from a Saudi Prince. Given that the company is a pure start up, this is a bold and audacious punch into the already crowded toll free directory asistance business.

One twist is that they also own comparison shopping sites of BidSell.com and DiscountMore.com. Bobby imagines the day that the voice activated shopping engine will put TFYP in the sweet spot between actively shopping consumers and online merchants.

Also, they own two numbers 1-877-YELLOW PAGES and 1-866-YELLOWPAGES as well as the trademark to “Toll Free Yellow Pages” which could be valuable to AT&T as they begin marketing their 1-800-YELLOW PAGES service.

Telephone services is a very tough business with many deep pocketed competitors (ever hear of Google?).

Nonetheless, raising this amount gives TFYP some oxygen to develop their niche.

Spend the money wisely, Bobby.

 Toll Free Yellow Pages Interview: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In a recent article, Entrepreneur Magazine quoted a Kelsey Group study predicting a significant decline in print Yellow Pages usage among teens.

According to the study, 28% of teens said that they would use the print Yellow Pages to find local business information. 47% said they favored search engines. Only 44% of respondents between 18 and 34 favored the printed Yellow Pages.

I’d like to know where they found ANY teens that use the printed phone books instead of search engines. I certainly don’t know any.

In my quest for knowledge, I found some college students who swear by the printed phone books.

Your Commando Marketing tip of the day:

If you’re marketing to young people, it’s probably best to buy a cover position.