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JobShare App Links People, Odd Jobs

3 min read

The new JobShare smartphone app, launched in November, isn’t just a way to hire people to do your odd jobs. It’s also a business opportunity, owner William Jones tells Arkansas Business.

Here’s how it works: Clients fill out descriptions and post jobs in one of the 10 categories available. The handymen — providers — who selected that category and are within 25 miles receive a push notification. They respond with a rough quote, called a bid, and the client accepts one of the bids.

The categories are yard/outdoor, home improvement, cleaning, moving, delivery/errands, groceries, assembly/furniture, temporary help, business and general.

After a client selects a bid, the client and the provider arrange a time for the work to be done. Once a job is completed, the client pays the provider through the app using a secure payment system called Stripe.

A client can also track the provider’s location when the provider is traveling to a job site and post a review when the job is finished.

JobShare is headquartered in Little Rock, and the service is available in Little Rock, North Little Rock, Conway, Jacksonville, Benton, Roland, Cabot and Beebe.

Jones’ company makes money by charging a 15 percent commission on bids the clients choose. Although Jones declined to disclose his profit, he said it’s been higher than he anticipated and JobShare has taken off sooner than expected.

His job is to manage the marketplace, Jones said. He has Checkr, a San Francisco company, run a background check on every provider. Providers aren’t allowed to bid on jobs until that’s done.

Jones isn’t a tech expert. He said he taught himself the basics and hired freelance developers to fine-tune the app, which is being hosted through Amazon Web Services.

He has always wanted to create something, and that entrepreneurial drive runs in his family. Jones’ grandmother, Sissy Jones, is the founder and CEO of Sissy’s Log Cabin, the jewelry store. His father, Bill, is the company’s president.

William Jones also works for Sissy’s. He earned a finance degree from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway in 2012 and graduated from the Gemological Institute of America in 2013.

As of last week, according to Jones, 360 clients and 114 providers were signed up for JobShare and more than 100 jobs had been completed through it.

“I think the best thing about it is it gives people the ability to work when they want to,” he said. “It’s just really done a good job of connecting people, and, once people use it, they really figure it out and enjoy it.”

Provider Donovan Mcfadden agrees.

Mcfadden has completed 15 jobs through JobShare and said they paid his rent for two months, although he declined to disclose his total earnings.

“I really think that [Jones] has a really good idea. It’s as good as it can be, and it’s as good as the worker. The better the worker, the better time they’ll have with the app,” Mcfadden said.

His advice for clients is to be as specific as possible when posting a job. He also said providers should include a disclosure stating that the bid price is not final and contingent upon an in-person assessment and how many hours the job takes to complete.

Mcfadden said the app is great, and his only suggested improvement would be to make it easier for clients to re-post jobs they’ll need done more than once.

He also said JobShare is available by computer, but the website version needs more traffic and could be more user-friendly.

Mcfadden would also like to see providers able to log into a restricted area of the site where they can store documents for tax purposes and communicate with each other, in case a provider is unable to do a job or needs help.

Both he and Jones said they hope JobShare will go nationwide.

Jones is working now to bring the service to Hot Springs and Jonesboro within the next few weeks. Then he hopes to expand to northwest Arkansas.

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