Eric Yim · Problems · 20 answers
Help local owners tell their stories, so the people who would value their work have a way to find them.
Explore questions 21–40 ↓
I want to help service providers find their people. That begins with the story behind the service: who the owner is, what they care about, the people they serve well, and the work that supports what they say. Someone choosing a business should have a chance to understand those things.
The bigger vision is a world where more people can find the option that fits their needs and values, even when they have little time to research. My part is to help the local businesses that are missing from that picture explain themselves. I want to carry the care of a good conversation into a system that can help many more owners.
I keep seeing a difficult choice: pay for more support than a small business can afford, or take on a second job learning tools, writing, editing, and scheduling. Protocol is my attempt to make a more practical option, with personal help and technology doing the repeated work.
I also want to take responsibility for explaining that this option exists. Adding more marketing jargon makes the problem worse. The owner should understand what we need from them, what we are preparing, and what they are approving.
Problems · 21–40 of 100
Question 21
It bothers me that someone can do thoughtful work and still never reach the people who would value it. I want to help local owners tell the story behind their service, so a customer with a real reason to care has a way to find and understand them.
Question 22
People have limited time to research, and businesses have limited time to explain themselves. Between those two limits, a good fit can stay undiscovered. I want Protocol to help close that gap by making the owner’s experience, values, and work easier to understand.
Question 23
Running the business already takes the owner’s attention. Meanwhile, the customer has to make a decision with whatever information they can find. The details that would connect those two people often never get written down or shared. I want to make capturing those details part of an ordinary working day.
Question 24
There are useful tools and good people working on parts of this. The difficult part I want to address is the handoff between them: getting the real story, shaping it clearly, making review easy, and keeping it going. That whole experience needs to feel manageable to a busy owner.
Question 25
A business can keep relying on a small circle of people who already know it. The owner’s best work may be visible to one customer and disappear from the wider picture. Someone nearby could need exactly that service and choose another option because they never understood what was available.
Question 26
It costs time and attention on both sides. The owner spends evenings trying to market, and the customer spends time comparing options without enough context. There is also the opportunity cost of a useful introduction that never happens. I want the process to make those introductions easier.
Question 27
The work gets done, but explaining the work keeps getting postponed. An owner can know they have something worth sharing and still feel stuck staring at a blank page. I want to make the next step smaller: send what happened, and let us help turn it into a draft.
Question 28
I’m focused on service business owners who care about their craft and have limited room for another job. They may be out on appointments, managing a team, or doing the work themselves. They need marketing that can work with that reality instead of demanding an entirely different routine.
Question 29
Some owners do everything themselves. Some ask a family member for help, use templates, or buy separate services when they have time. Those can be useful starting points. What I want to offer is a more continuous relationship, where the real work can keep becoming clear, useful material.
Question 30
The choice can feel like paying for more help than you can afford or learning how to do everything yourself. I want a more practical middle ground. Protocol combines personal understanding with software that helps with preparation, so the owner can stay involved without carrying every step.
Question 31
The hard part is staying with the conversation long enough to understand what is specific. It is easier to collect a service list and start producing. I want to ask why the owner makes certain choices and who benefits from them. That understanding gives the content somewhere meaningful to start.
Question 32
I’m willing to take responsibility for helping the owner get the story out of their head and into a form they can use. That means asking useful questions, preparing the next step, and making it easy to correct us. Protocol should make participation feel clear and manageable.
Question 33
I’m willing to have the conversations, go meet people, and work through the details that make the experience easier. I also want to build something that can help beyond the people I can meet myself. The challenge is carrying that care into a repeatable product and service.
Question 34
Storytelling helped me become more comfortable expressing myself. Now I get to use that skill to help somebody else explain work that matters to them. I also enjoy building software and thinking about design. Protocol brings those interests together around a problem I care about.
Question 35
A person’s work can carry years of experience, care, and learning. Helping that reach the people who need it feels worth spending time on. I like thinking in decades because it encourages me to build relationships and useful systems that can keep improving, rather than chasing one quick campaign.
Question 36
More people would find businesses they are glad to support. An owner with a specific strength would have a better chance of reaching someone who values it. Choosing a service could feel more like a thoughtful introduction from somebody who understood both sides. That is the future I want to help build.
Question 37
I would feel good seeing an owner recognize their story, share it confidently, and connect with someone who understands why they are a fit. Then I would want to make that experience repeatable for more people. The point is to build something useful that can keep doing that work.
Question 38
Come to me when you know your business has something worth explaining but cannot quite get it into words or keep sharing it consistently. I want to help connect your work, your story, and the customer you serve well, then build a practical way to keep that visible.
Question 39
I want my name associated with helping good service businesses be understood. That includes the work, the person behind it, and the reasons someone might choose them. If people think of me as someone who listens carefully and helps them explain something real, that would mean a lot.
Question 40
I want Protocol to be known for making it easier for service businesses to be found and trusted for the work they actually do. The owner should have a simple way to share that work, and the customer should be able to understand the fit.
The future I want to help build starts with a more thoughtful introduction.
What I would tell a service business owner staring at an empty posting calendar.
How I’m learning to balance a long view with the work that needs to happen today.