Teens Cash In

Millions of American teens are set to earn extra spending money by using a new web-based scheduling service to promote their baby-sitting, lawn mowing and other neighborhood-services."

SilentFrog (www.silentfrog.com) gives teens and their customers a way to schedule their neighborhood services" at any time of the day or night. And theyre learning valuable business and marketing skills at the same time.

CHEVY CHASE, MD. March, 29, 2001—Millions of teenagers across the country earn pocket money by doing odd jobs for neighbors and friends of the family. Theres nothing new about that. Theres a new twist on how they can do it, though. SilentFrog (www.silentfrog.com) is an on-line reservation system that allows them to sell" their time via the Internet.

The main advantage of the SilentFrog system is that it allows teens to sell time on their own time," says SilentFrog co-founder Asher Epstein. Their customers can get on our system and reserve a teens services whether the kids are in school, at the mall, or sleeping. SilentFrog means making a baby-sitting, lawn-mowing, errand-running or any other sort of odd job appointment is now a simple point and click operation."

Using the SilentFrog system is very straightforward. People log in as either TimeBuyers" or TimeSellers." When the teen (TimeSellers) logs on, theyll immediately know whether or not there are requests for their time. If one of their friends or neighbors (TimeBuyers) wants them for a job, there will be a request notification. All the teen needs to do is click yes, and an appointment is then made. If the TimeSeller is not available at the requested time, all they have to do is click no. In either case, the SilentFrog system communicates the response.

Teens derive another significant benefit from using SilentFrog. The service teaches them how to grow their neighborhood-services" business. Once signed up for SilentFrog, the teen has access to business tips and suggestions to increase the range of services he can provide. Typically, working teens have several different customers, and they are capable of providing several different kinds of services. SilentFrog helps these youngsters market the services they provide to a wider audience and SilentFrog even suggests new services for a teen to offer.

The SilentFrog founders are quick to point out that SilentFrog is not an employment agency. The service does not introduce TimeBuyers and TimeSellers," notes Epstein. It simply helps people who are already doing business with each other schedule their time more efficiently."

SilentFrog has tapped into a potentially huge market. Currently, there are 17.5 million teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17 doing some sort of odd jobs (Teen EXCEL survey conducted by international Communications Research www.icersurvey.com October, 1999). And when you consider that the number of teenagers (aged 13-17) who actively use the web will rise from 11.1 million in 1999 to 15.3 million in 2002" (The eRetail Report, issued by eMarketer), an on-line reservation system begins to make a lot of sense.

With SilentFrog, any teenager in America can have an Internet business overnight. And the amount of time he or she works and money that is made is entirely an individual decision. The potential for a teenager to learn about business, while making good spending money is enormous," says Epstein.

About SilentFrog
SilentFrog (www.silentfrog.com) is an Internet-based Time Reservation System that provides time-sensitive people of all ages with an easier way to schedule micro-services." â The proprietary technology behind SilentFrog provides TimeBuyersâ and TimeSellersâ who have a previously existing relationship with a simple, reliable, and web-based way to schedule appointments. Each party can buy and sell Time, the most limited resource. You can buy Time for errand running, lawn mowing, odd jobs, grocery shopping, tutoring, and babysitting, among thousands of others. The company credo is Its About Time"-- for each of us.