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ABOUT US |
In 2001 Chris Preen, a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and part-time freelance financial journalist, experienced the dot.com bubble first hand with his investment clients. He recognised early on that despite the sharp decline in tech stocks around the world, the actual underlying physical demand for internet usage continued to accelerate, regardless of financial sentiment.
From then onwards Chris was on the lookout for an internet business opportunity. In 2004, in a much-needed move to increase transparency in the South African Financial Services Industry, the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services (FAIS) Act came into being. This required that financial advisors disclose certain minimum prescribed information about their representations, remuneration structure and liabilities. The timing was perfect for an online directory of Financial Advisors where extensive information on each Advisor was show-cased rather than just a name-and-number type entry as was the format with so many other directories. Thus FindaProfessional was born.
The Financial Advisor website proved to be a highly successful model. Shortly after its launch the official Proudly South African website featured FindanAdvisor.co.za on its front page as an example of local innovation. It was soon recognised that it could be applied to other professions, and in 2007 FindanAccountant.co.za was launched. As with the FindanAdvisor site, South African internet users valued the extra information that they could peruse from their office or home, when seeking the services of an Accountant.
This too proved so successful that in 2008 the third directory in the group was launched - FindanAttorney.co.za.
The Findaprofessional websites are run out of offices based in the tranquil seaside village of Kommetjie just outside of Cape Town (one of the many advantages of not having to be located close to your customer base). The websites themselves are hosted on dedicated servers the US, administered by GoDaddy, a leading host provider and partner with Google. All 3 websites are monitored from different locations at 10 minute intervals 24/7, and any time there is a problem SMS's are sent directly to FindaProfessional personnel (fortunately these instances are very rare).
Four years later and the world finds itself in another financial meltdown. Once again financial assets across the board are sharply lower. Once again internet usage continues to rocket. It is therefore with great confidence that FindaProfessional faces the future.
The view from Kommetjie across the Atlantic to Chapman's Peak and Hout Bay.
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