Paul Marais

PROFESSIONAL BIOGRAPHY

Products And/Or Services :

Stuck in a rut of visiting the same haunts over and over again?  Want to discover new and exciting places to shop, dine or party? Do you have a desire to get to know your city a little better? Want to have access to all the special offers being launched by businesses in your neighbourhood before anybody else? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then the Zone-in website is for you – www.zone-in.co.za. A progressive and interactive new website, Zone-in offers consumers access to area-specific information about what local businesses are offering at a touch of a button.

What is Zone-in?

Zone-in is a new virtual neighbourhood service and business guide that is changing how South Africans are finding out about what’s on in their particular suburb or a specific area that they will be visiting soon. Zone-in founder, Paul Marais, says: “Zone-in is a website that has been designed to do for small businesses what Facebook did for social networking. The Zone-in team have gone to great lengths to rethink the whole process of what information consumers are looking for, what is currently missing from existing promotional sites, and what is the easiest and most effective means of delivering this information to them.”

Enter Zone-in – a website that gives users easy access to listings of businesses within any specific suburb of interest. It provides users with all the information they need on a particular business before stepping out the door – providing service and product details, contact information, special offers, social media links and even a gallery of relevant images. So whether you are looking for a place to stay, to eat, to party, ideas on where to shop or you require a particular service – the Zone-in website will offer you a full suburb-specific listing of what’s available in your neighbourhood.

What makes it special?

Zone-in Technical Director, Paul Thornton Page, explains that the beauty of the Zone-in website in comparison to other online business directories is that at its core it is a fully interactive means of communication between businesses and existing or potential customers: “Aside from the comprehensive business profile given to each listing, the site also allows for live updates, which enables businesses to input their latest specials and promotions on a daily basis. This ensures that the site is continuously relevant to the end user, which is a major advantage over other promotional sites that limit businesses in terms of how often updates can be made and what can be updated. With Zone-in, users will be the first to know of the latest specials and promotions businesses in their areas are offering.”

Other interactive features comprise the fact that users can access the company’s Facebook and Twitter pages from the Zone-in website, they can chat online with the business owners, they can access the business website, and the site also offers them a Google map location for easy directions on how to get there.

How it works

It couldn’t be easier – users can access area-specific information about businesses in their suburb of interest via their computer, or by downloading the mobi-friendly app, via their smart phone. All you need to do is to access the site and enter your choice of province, city and suburb. This will bring you to a page with a full alphabetical listing of all the businesses in that particular area – these can then be sorted by various categories, including suburb, street or services. You can also access information about all the shopping centres in a particular suburb. Under each business listing, you can access that business’s special deals, social media sites, contact information, or its Geo-tagging information. Users can also tell a friend about a specific business listing.

The Zone-in website has been designed for optimum functionality and ease of use – its super-svelte design and take-no-prisoners attitude ensures that consumers are spared all the irrelevant info, and instead directed to current information that is relevant to the needs of the discerning, value-conscious and busy consumer.

Affiliations Awards :

Always obtaining place in the top 3, sometimes 1st, sometimes 2nd but never lower than 3rd place as a student. Won a nationwide art competition as a student. Was scouted off the street for modeling, later after studying got signed up with a modeling agency. Started my own successful business at the age of 25

Attributes Success To :

Not taking no as an answer...comes naturally. Always looking at creative ways to move ahead

Future Career And Business Goals :

To become an international success with major shareholders in most countries we spread our project to and around, still allowing affordable, but, the highest of quality product and service.Launching internationaly this May.

More About me :

Paul Marais - Founder of Zone-in

Zone-in is the brain-child of Paul Marais, a strapping 34 year old with a thirst for conceptual brilliance. Paul conceived Zone-in while gazing at the breaking waves of the North Coast. He felt that there is a need for a site whereby users can search for businesses within their area or an area where they are going to find themselves. A site where if a specific contact number or service detail is unavailable it will not show. A site where users and businesses can both benefit from reciprocity. Enter, Zone-in.

Paul's interests lie in music, entertainment and entrepreneurial trade. Where does he see himself in five years from now, back in the North Coast and surfing the waves rather than gazing.