I have to give credit to my wife. After all, she " volunteered" my services on the home school association of our daughter's school, St Ann's. That was four years ago.

Over these four years, I witnessed and learned a lot from a very dedicated group of faculty and parent volunteers (All moms).

Their energy, passion and pride to make their school the best it could be was contagious. I was glad to be a part of this group. Now, I wanted to help where I could.

I started by coordinating the effort to paint the school hallways on two floors as my first task. After all, guys know painting. I was also the only dad on the board.

There were other small projects (garden club volunteer-I love gardening) before I volunteered to take over the role of "flapjack Master" cooking over 500 pancakes for our annual Christmas pajama breakfast the past three years. Just the look of pride on my daughters face seeing her dad at her school was enough for me.

It was during a regular Monday evening Home School meeting, that the subject of putting together a school directory came up. Nobody even suggested it as a fundraiser. Wham! That hit me like a cement block.

Have you ever thought about it? Can we do it? How do we do it? Who's going to do it?

But, you see, I happened to be an expert on yellow pages and the directory business, with 18 years experience under my belt. I pioneered the concept of teaching small businesses the secrets of saving money on their yellow pages and how to create more powerful ads for greater results.

I also learned (and this is key) how the Big Yellow Page Publishers sold and published their directories. I knew what was extremely profitable and what the biggest complaints were from advertisers.

My " Brain Storm ". Yes, I could put together pages of phone numbers. But it wouldn't be anything special and it would cost money. What I wanted and immediately began to envision was something bigger…much bigger!

Our own school "yellow pages" that incorporated the best features of the big profitable publishers and more importantly, gave the local business community a viable reason to support my school.

A new school asset (a school & business directory) that could NET between $3,000 and $15,000 a year. Every year!

So I bit the bullet and went to work developing my dream school directory. That was 2 years ago. My goal was to issue our first school directory for September 2004.Then suddenly; something happened that changed everything.

Have you ever had one? It's that brilliant flash of inspiration, that Big Idea, that one special personal creative moment that breaks through all the daily clutter bombarding your brain as you focus on your tasks at hand.

When it happens, you just can't get it out of your mind. 24/7. You go to sleep thinking about it and wake up even more excited. It keeps festering in you until you are forced to ask yourself one question.

Do I act on it?

Fortunately for me, I am a stubborn, passionate optimist. I was the little engine that could! I knew it was going to take a lot more research and effort but I saw the big potential and I wanted to do a good job for my daughter's school. A little ego was also in play.

So…. what was my "Aha" moment? The simple answer is the first thing you saw when you visited this website.

A community. My community of school, families and businesses connected, all helping and serving each other.

I then compared the benefits of a directory to our other fundraisers, including current marketing efforts.

Does this sound familiar?

Getting more families to volunteer - Deciding what fundraisers to do - Keeping more of what we raise - Not relying on the same key people all time (you know who you are) - Getting new businesses to support our school -Just the time it takes to contact the regular supporters- The ongoing marketing of our school - PR benefits from current programs - Any marketing crossover benefits.

When you add up all the time, effort and expense to do the little fundraisers, is it a good return on our investment? Are we maximizing our efforts and energies?

So, for these reasons I decided to hold off the year 2004 and create a school directory program for all schools, supported by a proven system and promoted by a spirited grassroots effort. To create a national community of member schools all benefiting as a whole.

On October 15, 2005, the first MySchoolDirectory™.org directory was finally published and delivered to rave reviews at no cost to our school.

I think we created something very special and I hope you can be a part of it. We can raise millions of dollars for our schools and bind our family, school and business community together at the same time.

And here's how we're going to do it.



The People
Gene Haba, Jr is a small business marketing consultant specializing in yellow pages. 18 Years ago he pioneered a new service that focused on helping small businesses decipher complex yellow page programs, save them money and design and manage programs that produced superior results.

He has helped hundreds of businesses save hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In addition, Gene has the entrepreneurial bug and has designed products that have sold successfully on Home Shopping Network, QVC, and in the promotion and fundraising industries for companies such as Coca-Cola, Readers Digest and Walt Disney World.

Gene Haba, Jr. CEO & Founder

Yellow Page Secrets Revealed and How To Turn Your Yellow Pages Into Gold Pages™, is the definitive program written showing businesses step-by-step how to take back control of their programs and budgets. * Gene's perseverance & self-taught knowledge of the industry gives him the unique insight, skills and resources to make it happen for schools with this innovative program.

The MySchoolDirectory™.org community wouldn't be complete without a talented team of tight-knit professionals with the diverse skills, knowledge and creative minds to take the complex world of those big yellow page directories and make it simple, fun and profitable for our own school "yellow pages" nationwide.

Imagine a group of inspired people that are parents and volunteers too, active in their schools and communities and energized by this new way of getting our communities connected together.

The Passion
We love what we do. It's a great feeling to have created something new and helpful. It's the greatest feeling when you deliver on your promise. We are committed to our community and yours.

The single most important bit of advice I give my daughter and other kids is to become "very good" at one thing…to be the best you can at that task. Become so knowledgeable and passionate in that pursuit because you will be able to serve others well.

For me personally, MySchoolDirectory™.org is my "very good thing". It only took me 18 years.

And I have surrounded myself with people that share the same passion.

The Idea
School Yellow Pages- The ultimate way to bind your school, family & business community together as one.

There are regular big yellow pages, African-American yellow pages, Hispanic yellow pages, Asian yellow pages, yellow pages for professionals, yellow pages by country, by state, by county, by certain geographic areas. There are big directories, medium directories, small directories and now mini-directories. And even separate white page directories.

And what do they all have in common? Profits. Yup! A lot of profits.

Did you know that the big yellow page publishers generate 25 billion in revenue each year? And that approximately 80% of that is pure profit.

Except now, some of those profits will come to our schools. It's a good thing!

The Leverage of A Community- A national community of "my" school communities. When you're part of this community, all of our individual efforts when combined, benefit the whole.

A Simple Program…with powerful tools, like our "neighborhood" community landing page, that make it easy for school volunteers and the business community to enthusiastically support your school.

The Experience
Everything above is all talk unless you can back it up with results. And that takes the experience, resources and knowledge to make it happen. It's not enough to just be the creator or developer of something new, or perceived to be. As the pioneer, we have developed a new way to generate much needed revenue for our schools creating a powerful communication resource that helps bind our school, family and local business community together as one.

We are committed to our cause and welcome you to it.


Loyally,