One woman’s need for a leg wax may seem an unlikely reason to start a military website but that’s how Jill Woods set off on a journey which has taken several years and just resulted in the launch of www.onemoremove.co.uk.
Over coffee near her Greater Manchester home, the former podiatrist explained what had motivated her to start building what she hopes will be an essential service for forces families.
Having to move regularly to new areas (six times in as many years) for her husband’s postings with the Royal Engineers, Jill realised that finding out about local services could be a daunting task.
“The traditional way of military life was that wives didn’t work and information was passed on through coffee mornings. There are still things to go to but really the ‘wives’ club’ thing is getting diluted now, times are changing.
“Being invited to a fancy dress party really was the trigger because I was working full-time and just didn’t know where to find a leg wax” she laughed, “but the more I thought about it I also needed to find a vet and a garage and so on”.
And so the seeds of an idea were sown – a website made up of recommendations from people living in military communities, sharing their experiences and the information they’d previously passed on by word of mouth.
Having no experience in web design or technology, Jill first of all carried out some research on the ground, driving to four different military bases and posting questionnaires through letterboxes.
The responses and feedback spurred her on – just one negative response from 200 surveys – a web company was employed and work started.
That was more than two years ago and now the site has just gone live with 14 locations where recommendations have started to be posted.
“It’s strictly user recommendations and not just for businesses. There could be dogwalking routes, children’s activity classes – things you wouldn’t find in a directory” says Jill.
The site is free to the user and so will be funded by revenues from advertising, enhanced listings and some online shopping items.
OneMoreMove has also pledged a commitment to charity donation with 10% of any profits going to military associated charities nominated via the site each year.
Jill is now hoping to build awareness of the site and attract more users to register and start using the service.
“My aim is for it to be the number one relocation service for the military community.”
In addition to the website OneMoreMove is also on Twitter @onemoremove.
Dim Sum Digital 