Former NFL Star Nolan Carroll Now Helping Mom and Pop Businesses

 

There’s always a new app on the market that’s been designed to help small business. It’s not everyday that you find one that’s the result of a combined effort between a former NFL star and an international human rights lawyer.

Still that’s what YOOTROO is.  This incentive based advertising app is bringing users and small businesses together by offering more incentives than competitors in the same space like Groupon and branching out in a new direction.

YOOTROO App

Small business Trends talked with joint partners former Miami Dolphin’s NFL star Nolan Carroll and an International Human rights lawyer turned successful entrepreneur Jean Paul, about what YOOTROO is and why small business needs to pay attention.

The  new app was built on Paul’s experiences developing others.

“I’ve developed a lot of different apps over the years,” he said. “Last year I was researching how to create an app that gives incentives to users for watching different ads. That’s where YOOTROO come in.”

How It Works

Here’s how it works for small businesses’ customers. The apps charges the advertiser every time someone looks at the ad and deposits money in their wallet. The incentive is partially because it’s more direct than competitors—there’s no points to accumulate and no credit.

More research led Paul to refine this unique approach to incentivizing clients to look at what you’ve got to sell. He explains:

“I did some more research and realized that a lot of businesses spend billions of dollars sending coupons to people’s houses just to get tossed away.”

New Twist

The concept that he created was around that same kind of coupon and advertisement with a new twist—they get ten cents for looking at each one online. They don’t need to buy anything just stay for 10 seconds.

That makes it an attractive place for small businesses looking to cast a wide advertising net.

“It’s a community where a lot of different businesses go to register and market themselves,” Paul says.

Small businesses can decide on the number of users they want to reach and pay accordingly. Paul says the cost is similar or less than what you might pay to actually snail-mail ads to homes. One of the big differences is YOOTROO shares profits with these users and alerts them to the goods and services your business highlights on the site.

Business Plan

It’s a solid business plan based on some of those incentives that have always attracted people ( getting payed) and some new ones like digital engagement.

“It’s a win-win situation for everybody. The users get paid to find things they were looking for  and the businesses get exposed.”

Another thing that makes YOOTROO unique is the business partnership that’s brought a former professional athlete and international lawyer together.

The other partner in this unique enterprise, Nolan Carroll, told Small Business Trends how the two got together. It started when the former  Miami Dolphin started looking down the road past his playing days.

Marketing Resources

“I starting talking with Jean Paul about life after football and he started teaching me about business, Carroll says. “We were having breakfast one day and he brought YOOTROO  up.”

Carroll saw quickly how the new idea could help small businesses to pool their marketing resources so they could compete with the bigger players and their larger advertising budgets.

“I immediately liked the concept and the way it could help small business reach people they might not otherwise be able to.”

Parallels

He also saw how the parallels between playing football and the business world made the transition easier.

“The two biggest things are you need to have patience and work hard,” he says. “In football and business what separates you from everybody is your work ethic and your mental aptitude and that includes how well you know the game plan and your opponent.”

Image: YOOTROO

This article, "Former NFL Star Nolan Carroll Now Helping Mom and Pop Businesses" was first published on Small Business Trends