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BusinessBites enables both small businesses and entrepreneurs to locate expert Business Consultants, and pay them by the minute using an innovative platform that incorporates chat and video call — allowing entrepreneurs to pay only for the amount of time they need.

So, lets say a small business owner needs to consult a business lawyer for a question. The business owner chats with the lawyer online for 15 minutes and only has to pay the expert for 15 minutes instead of an hour. We save small businesses money on consulting costs and traveling expenses. Try it out the next time you have a business question and get the first 3 minutes for free: Business Lawyers, Business Finance, Marketing Consultants, Software Developers, Business Non-Profit, Computer Support, Starting a Business, and Business Administration.

BusinessBites is founded by myself, Tina Henson and my business partner Kelsey Warnock. Both of us are entrepreneurs and have had many, many interactions with start-ups and small businesses. We found very common problems and both feel very passionately about solving them and most importantly we get the challenges that small businesses face. Prior to creating BusinessBites, I founded Plastic Jungle in 2006 to help consumers unlock the billions of dollars of gift cards that go unused each year. My company raised more than $35M in Venture Capital. While growing Plastic Jungle, I was challenged to find quality experts. And when I was able to find them, the cost often exceeded my budget limitations — something most entrepreneurs struggle with. As a result of our frustrations we created BusinessBites in early 2010.

We created BusinessBites to make the lives of small businesses easier. We want to give businesses of all sizes instant access to quality Business Consultants and help them save money in costly professional services like legal and accounting by allowing them to pay in smaller increments known as “bites.” We believe that there are many days when business owners simply need a couple answers, and they may not have the money to engage a professional for an hour, nor do they need an hour’s worth of information. Most simply just need an answer or feedback to decide which direction to take an initiative. Is this sounding familiar to you?

The business sector is an interesting one and considering the size of the market there is no “go to” destination online for help. Did you know there are 20 million single person businesses in this country? The industry is very fragmented and seems to have no real organization. So, we built BusinessBites to change the way small businesses get answers to their questions to be that “go to” destination for instant help so we can stop business from biting.

We know that business can bite, especially if you don’t have the right answers when you need them, to move your business forward. The “bites” in BusinessBites is symbolic to our business philosophy. We thought long and hard about how to grow a business- take it one step at a time. If you try to think about all the stuff that needs to be done, you just might get overwhelmed and stop. But if you break things down and do the most important things first and keep moving down the list, you will see progress. Besides that, the name is sticky, easy to remember and it helps us in SEO. If our SEO consultant had it his way, he would have called it “BusinessResources.” We liked the name because of the double meaning.

We look forward partnering with both small businesses and business consultants who want to do business in an exciting and new way. Our ultimate goal, is to help your business succeed.

We would love to hear your thoughts on the model and how you think it will help you move your business forward.