If you own a small business and feel that your technology and marketing skills are lacking, you may want to add Carl Norloff and his company, Rheebo, to your team.

 

Norloff stays up late into the night to make sure that local businesses have the technology they need to stay vital. He is working on a unique technology platform that can support local businesses which want to advertise and promote them, using everything from social networking tools to email blasts.

Norloff said to think of Rheebo as a combination of online Yellow pages, Wordpress blogs, coupons, Craigslist, Constant Contact, eBay, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube all in one place. It combines the services of all these things and puts them under one umbrella.

Norloff started Rheebo five years ago when he and his wife, a small business owner, noticed how difficult it is to advertise and promote a business in a sustainable manner. Norloff said: "It's expensive and the return is unpredictable. My goal with Rheebo was to create a different way to advertise and promote based on social interactions and relationships."

He started Rheebo, which is named after his dog Rio's nickname, in 2004 with a single application - yard sales. People post their yard sales online and other people look to see where and when they are. People post their yard sales online and other people look to see where and when they are. The sales are mapped out so that you can search for them by geography, or you can search by what articles they are offering. They were, and continue to be, incredibly successful. They were, and continue to be, incredibly successful. Since then it has been expanded to include a number of community programs such as events, groups, profiles, trade/barter/free, autos & real estate for sale, auctions, business directories and coupons.

"A community is comprised of three things - community members, businesses and non-profits. So I wanted a way for all three to interact and create visibility for each other based on what they do in the community. A yard sale, an auction, eating and of course the underlying premise of Rheebo is advertising & promotion," he said, adding: "The more you use on Rheebo the more value you receive."

Because Norloff has a 'day job' as senior vice president of technology at a global health and wellness company, he has to work on Rheebo in his spare time - nights, weekends and holidays.

He is nonplussed: "Who needs sleep! Much to my wife's dismay, if I am not working at my day job, I'm working on Rheebo."

Norloff lives in Georgetown with his wife, two kids and four animals, having moved to the area from the West Coast 10 years ago. Although they are still adapting to the cold winters: "We love Newburyport! My wife works there and we spend a lot of time exploring and enjoying the never ending activities that the town offers."

Rheebo is currently in start-up/beta testing mode and is a part-time, one-man operation, but Norloff hopes it will soon be a full-time focus for him.  This year is the full roll-out of Rheebo, said Norloff, as he completes the technical implementation and focuses on community programs, which will begin to emerge next month.

Rheebo has monthly workshops for small businesses to explore how to use the service and to brainstorm and cook up new ideas that can be added. His goal is to provide sustainable value for small business and non-profits as well as a fun and local destination for people in the community.  This implies volume so the more participation by businesses, non-profits and community members, the more value for everyone.

Norloff said: "I would like to see Rheebo evolve into a full service resource for small businesses and non-profits when it comes to technology, marketing and advertising. We are exposed to so much advice - 'you need to do this or that' - but what really adds value? That's where we can help!"

Rheebo has become a bit 'viral' itself; Norloff said that there are a number of people in the community that have been evangelizing the merits of Rheebo to everyone they meet.

He concluded that, from Rheebo's perspective, Newburyport represents a wonderful place to start and grow a business that helps other businesses. "If every business in Newburyport joined us on Rheebo, just imagine what we can do together!"