FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November, 2008
Respected Names in Ophthalmology Notice Local Eye Site’s Unique Approach
(Published on the Carolina Newswire)
(Published on Business Leader)
Local Eye Site (LES) launched in April 2008, as an online networking community for all eye care professionals. Local Eye Site originally started with a regional focus, but management soon realized the national need. Seven months and tens of thousands of site visits later, LES has customers from Chicago to Miami. The website’s attention and early success results from a unique approach – adding viral networking to an online presence.
Brad McCorkle, founder of LES, comments, “Our clients understand what we understand: Recruiting needs to be targeted and all year long. So, we pull from our experiences and relationships in eye care to manage a site that consistently refreshes with content and activities designed to attract our target audience. We offer eye care related contests, forums and information as a way to attract new visitors. With our focus on gathering this group of networking eye care professionals, organizations receive the benefit of recruiting opportunities in multiple formats all year long. The result is better access to quality candidates, better patient care with fully-staffed clinics, and less stress for the organization.”
Local Eye Site’s growing client base is gaining the attention of many in eye care, including respected names at universities that have teaching programs in Ophthalmology. Although many of LES’ customers are private practices, 5 universities with Ophthalmology programs are already using Local Eye Site, including 2 of the top 10 rated programs in the nation.
McCorkle adds, “We’re excited to have the opportunity to work with these highly respected institutions and medical practices. We are dedicated to making sure our client base has an overwhelmingly positive experience so that results are the primary driving factor behind our continued growth.”
Local Eye Site’s mission is to improve the quality of eye care through improving communication, promoting educational opportunities and fostering professional development across all positions and specialties of eye care. LES provides online resources for eye care providers and enhances the internet presence of eye care practices and teaching institutions. Media contact: Brad McCorkle at brad.mccorkle@localeyesite.com or (919) 301-8539. Website: http//localeyesite.com.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 2008
North Carolina Startup Blog Features Local Eye Site
(Published On North Carolina Startup Blog)
I’m a big fan of niche startups. It allows you to offer something that is very specific to the needs of a small group and people will find you if you make sure you can be found (think SEO). One such startup in Raleigh, NC, is Local Eye Site (www.localeyesite.com), an online community for eye care professionals. We spoke with Brad McCorkle, the President of Local Eye Site, to learn more about his new venture.
NCSUB: What is your 30 second elevator pitch?
Brad McCorkle: Local Eye Site is the premier online community for all eye care professionals. Our mission is to support educational opportunities, foster professional development and enhance communication across all positions and specialties in eye care. In the process of executing our mission, we’ve developed a significant following of eye care professionals. The result for our customers is an outstanding place to raise the online awareness of your practice and it’s recruiting needs.
NCSUB: When did you start planning? When did you launch?
Brad McCorkle: I started planning Local Eye Site(LES) in the summer of 2007, and left my previous job to go full time with it April of 08.
NCSUB: What is the background of you and your team?
Brad McCorkle: I spent 13 years in sales, the last 5 in the Ophthalmic and Optometric industry.
NCSUB: How are you funded?
Brad McCorkle: We raised private funds by selling equity shares in LES.
NCSUB: What is your revenue model? Are you ad-funded?
Brad McCorkle: We use a recurring revenue model. We sell annual memberships to eye care practices and organizations. Members are allowed to post as many positions as they need during the year, as well as, access our database of potential “eye care job seekers.” We do also sell advertising via banner ads.
NCSUB: How did you determine that there is a demand for the service you provide?
Brad McCorkle: During my time in eye care sales I observed the need for a more effective and efficient way to recruit the kinds of specific training and experience needed in eye care. Sales reps are often leaned on for recruiting help because the traditional methods aren’t as effective as they need to be. This experience made it clear to me that a resource like LES could be successful.
NCSUB: How many members do you so far?
Brad McCorkle: Site traffic so far is roughly 16,500 visits by about 10,200 individuals.
1,100 professionals in 33 states have registered for free accounts to our site. We have 25 paying customers so far.
NCSUB: Is the plan to go national?
Brad McCorkle: Yes, we’re slowly expanding into other states and our plan is to go national.
NCSUB: When do you expect to be profitable?
Brad McCorkle: Our goal is to be profitable in year 2.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 2008
Responding to Aging Baby Boomers, NC’s Local Eye Site networks across the U.S.
(Published On Carolina Newswire)
(Published on Raleigh-Durham.com Business Leader)
(Published in The News & Observer, Raleigh, NC)
Local Eye Site (LES), http://localeyesite.com, launched in North Carolina this year as an online networking community for all eye care professionals. The website announced its expansion outside of NC beginning in August of 2008. LES provides online resources for eye care providers and an internet presence for eye care practices and teaching institutions. The website specializes in recruiting with a unique, targeted approach focused on eye care.
Brad McCorkle, of Raleigh, NC, founded LES with the mission of improving the quality of eye care through enhancing communication, increasing educational opportunities, and fostering professional development. LES builds its client base by providing practice memberships that offer innovative recruiting tools designed specifically for eye care providers. Local Eye Site services the entire recruiting needs of the eye care practices using a unique combination of job opportunity announcements, pro-active emailing using the LES database, practice advertising, and specialized involvement of the LES networking specialists.
LES President, Brad McCorkle, expressed, “Based on our background in eye care, and awareness of the US’ aging population and limited talent pool to serve the aging boomers, we know there is a need for Local Eye Site. However, we expected that it could take a full year to get the site noticed. The response surprised us due to the high volume of traffic and the number of eye care professionals registering to the website this quickly. We definitely struck a chord.”
By following the mission of serving the eye care community, LES helps practices, like Charlotte Eye, Ear, Nose & Throat (CEENTA), recruit and share their educational offerings. Tara McAlister, the Staff Development Manager at CEENTA, responds: “Since 1923, Charlotte Eye Ear Nose and Throat, Associates (CEENTA) has strived to meet the increasing ophthalmology and otolaryngology healthcare needs of the population. By partnering with Local Eye Site (LES), we hope to continue to provide opportunities for regional ophthalmology professionals to receive continuing education opportunities[…]Since joining together with Brad McCorkle and the staff of Local Eye Site, we have been so impressed with their dedication to providing a professional and informative site to meet the needs of eye staff in the area. Within just hours of posting a new opening we were thrilled to locate a possible candidate.”
Brad reached out to an old friend and previous coworker, Lee Ann Harrison of Charlotte, NC, to help LES expand and respond to the eye care community’s welcome. Lee Ann is onboard as the Regional Sales Manager with the express intent of helping LES network outside of NC. Lee Ann replies: “I believe in Brad’s vision of a community and his business integrity. We share in our excitement for this new concept of efficient and cost-effective practice administration at the very basic level: recruiting qualified candidates in a highly specialized industry.”
In addition, Nicole Papworth-Jones of Raleigh, NC, joined the LES team to drive marketing for the firm. Brad met Nicole while making a presentation to the Duke University Ophthalmic Technician Training Program. Nicole completed the Certified Ophthalmic Technician (COT) program at Duke, but has been with Local Eye Site ever since. Brad responds: “What an asset to have someone on the team with an Ophthalmic/Optometric clinical background, and experience in marketing. Nicole is a tremendous resource.”
Brad shares, “Our database of jobseekers and eye care professionals is national already. We value every state as contributors to this powerful community, and as members benefiting from our networking efforts. Our vision is that someday Local Eye Site will be recognized as the home page of eye care.”
For further information, contact Brad McCorkle at (919) 301-8539 or brad.mccorkle@localeyesite.com. Website: http://localeyesite.com.
