Scenario A: (Amy, a high school student, posts an offer to teach violin.)

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Amy is the first chair violinist in her high school orchestra.  She has been playing violin for more than 10 years and she enjoys being with kids.  Amy is comfortable that she has all the skills needed to teach a beginner and she is passionate to teach.  She is highly motivated to teach for she earns more from what she really enjoys instead of being a sales clerk at the retail store.  For the parents, they pay $15 for a half-hour session rather than $30.  It is more fun for a young kid to learn violin from a big sister as well.  Being a member at HelpExchange.com, Amy logs into HelpExchange.com and chooses Post -> Post An Offer -> Select a category -> Music -> Music Lesson / School -> Viola / Violin Lesson / School to enter a free offer listing entitled, “A passionate and affordable violin tutor for beginners”.

Amy receives an email message (because she chooses email as her preferred mode of contact when she registers her membership) requesting detailed information about her and to set up an interview with her.  After the interview, Amy gets her first job to teach Alex, a first grader, violin.  After each lesson, Alex’s Mom, Ashley, goes to Amy’s offer page, where she finds Amy’s listing, and clicks on Make Payment.  While in Make a payment for an offer page, Ashley fills in payment amount and selects the account(s) from which the money draws.  Ashley also fills brief comments, such as "Violin lesson for July 16, 2007" at a field entitled For to remind herself.  Every time Ashley makes a payment, both Ashley and Amy receive a confirmation message in their email boxes.  Once in a while, when Ashley forgets to make payments, Amy will go to My Account ->My Listing and click on Invoice of the listing to send an invoice to Ashley.  Ashley can either click on a link in the invoice or visit Amy’s offer page to pay as usual.

Upon making payment, Ashley receives an email message to confirm her payment and a link to invite her to write a review on Amy’s performance.  Ashley clicks on the link, which leads Ashley to a review page.  Ashley spends a few minutes to evaluate Amy’s performance.  Ashley is automatically entered into the prize drawing pool after she submits her evaluation.  Ashley will receive an email message if she wins a prize at the next prize drawing.  Ashley decides to have 2 half-hour lessons from Amy every week.  Totally Ashley pays Amy $120 (= $15 x 2 x 4) as compared to $240 (= $30 x 2 x 4) if she would have chosen a music teacher.  That is a saving of $120 per month.  Every month Ashley also earns $1.20 (= $120 x 1%) in her HE Dollar account because of 1% Money Back.

Amy receives $14.14 for every half-hour lesson after paying sales fees to HelpExchange.com.  It is equivalent to $28.28 per hour and is much better than what she can make at Target or Wal-Mart as a sales clerk.  Amy decides to leave her offer listing ad at HelpExchange.com so that she can grow her business (hey, it is free anyway.)   If there are four kids learning violin from Amy, which adds up to 5 hours a week, Amy can make $141.40 ($28.28 x 5 = $141.4) per week teaching violin.  Then Amy has made $565.60 (= $141.4 x 4) after a month.  She can monitor her money by visiting My Account ->My Money.  Amy decides to withdraw $500 at the end of the month.  So she goes to My Account -> My Money -> Redeem Cash and specifies that she wants to withdraw $500 from her HE Dollar account.  In a few days, Amy receives a check of $500 in the mail from HelpExchange.com.  Amy could spend her remaining $35.35 (= $65.60 - $20.25 redemption fee) to purchase service at HelpExchange.com or she can withdraw it in the future.

Conclusion of Operations:

Every week Amy sees two sale revenues of $15, two $0.86 Sale Fee deductions (net $14.14 per half-hour session) in her HE Dollar account, two emails acknowledging the revenues and two reviews from Alex’s Mom, Ashley.  As for Ashley, she sees two $15 payment deductions in her HE Cash account (or any other accounts, including HE Bonus account, HE Gift Card account or HE Dollar account) and two $0.15 (= $15 x 1%) of Money Back in her HE Dollar account.  Meanwhile Ashley enters two raffle tickets into the prize drawing pool every week.

When Amy withdraws $500 from her HE Dollar account, she sees a $500 redemption and a $20.25 redemption fee in her HE Dollar account.

Scenario B: (Bill searches for an offer for a painting contractor.)

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Bill is looking for a painting contractor for his interior painting.  He follows Search -> Search An Offer and reaches Search for offers page.  There he sees Construction and a plus sign in front of it.  Bill clicks on the plus sign to expand the Construction category and proceeds to see Painting -> Contractor category.  Bill is not sure whether this is his best choice.  He decides to check it out by clinking Find Category by Keyword link on Search for offers page.  He enters “painting” as the keyword and gets the following results:

1. Art->School / Lesson->Chinese Painting / Calligraphy
2. Art->School / Lesson->Painting Lesson
3. Construction->Painting

Bill is absolutely confidant to go with Construction -> Painting -> Contractor now.  He sees 474 within a pair of parenthesis following Constructor category.  He understands that it means that there are 474 contractor offer listings currently.  Bill clicks on Contractor and is led to Search for offers->Step 2: Set searching criteria page.  There he enters his ZIP code and selects within 20 miles of radius.  After hitting Searching button, he sees 12 painting contractors meeting his criteria.  Bill browses through these 12 contractors and chooses three contractors with the best performance reviews.  He calls each one of them (they all set up to list their phone numbers at HelpExchange.com) and asks them to come in to give free estimates.  Bill chooses Rainbow Painting after finishing their interviews and comparing their estimates.

Bill realizes that he does not have enough funds in his accounts for this painting project.  He sends a check of $3,000 to HelpExchange.com by mail to P.O. Box 674, Wayne, PA 19087-0674 (as listed in Contact Us page.)  Three days later Bill receives an email from HelpExchange.com to acknowledge the check.  The next day Bill receives another email to inform him that his check is cleared and is ready for purchase.  (Please note: HelpExchange.com is setting up an online fund transfer with the bank so that our members can send in funds on line in the future.)

Bob, the owner of Rainbow Painting, gives Bill an estimate of $3,000 for the whole project and requires a $1,000 deposit before he starts.  Bob logs into his account and goes to My Account -> My Listing where he clicks on the Invoice link of the offer listing.  While in Send An Invoice page, Bob enters buyer’s username, invoice amount (i.e. $1,000), select Deposit under “Please select invoice type”, internal invoice number (otherwise HelpExchange.com will generate one for him), and a brief note at the For field.  The invoice with a link to make the payment is sent to Bill right away and a copy of the invoice is sent to Bob for confirmation.  Bill receives the invoice in his mail box and clicks the link in the invoice to pay the deposit ($1,000.)  Two email messages are sent to Bob and Bill concerning this deposit payment.  Bob starts his work immediately upon confirming the receipt of funds by going to My Account -> My Money.  Meanwhile, Bill clicks the link in the email to write a review on Rainbow Painting so far.  After submitting the review, Bill automatically is entered into the prize drawing pool.

After Bob finishes the project, he sends Bill another invoice for the remaining $2,000.  Bill pays the bill upon receiving the invoice by clicking the link in the invoice.

Conclusion of Operations:

When the deal is all finished. Bill sees one $3,000 deposit in his HE Cash account (with one confirmation email), two payment deductions ($1,000 for the deposit and the remaining $2,000, with two payment confirmation emails) in his HE Cash account (or different accounts if he chooses to pay from other accounts, say HE Dollar account) and a $30 (=$3,000 x 1%) in his HE Dollar account (for 1% money back).   Bill also generates two raffle tickets in the prize drawing pool to win big prizes.  On the other hand, Bob, i.e. Rainbow Painting, receives one $1,000 revenue, one $43 Sale Fee deduction (net $957), one $2,000 revenue and another $80.50 Sale Fee deduction (net $1,919.50) in his HE Dollar account and two emails to inform him of the revenues.

Scenario C: (Cindy posts a help-wanted listing for a plumber.)

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Cindy locates a minor leak in her basement.  Since it is not an urgent matter and she is not interested in spending time to look for and call plumbers, she decides to post a help-wanted listing at HelpExchange.com.  She can relax and just wait for plumbers to contact her.  Cindy logs into HelpExchange.com and goes to Post->Post A Help-Wanted.  She browses through the category tree and locates the Construction -> Plumbing category.  To be sure, she clicks on the Find Category by Keyword link and is led to the Find Category by Keyword webpage.  Cindy first enters “plumber” and presses the Search button.  She gets “No category was found” message.  She tries “plumb” and gets “Construction -> Plumbing” in the searching result.  Cindy clicks on the result and is taken to the Post a Help Wanted webpage.  The questions on the form are very straight-forward and Cindy does not find any problem filling them in.  To better describe the problem, Cindy takes two photos of the leaking pipes and submits them along with the posting (It is said, “One photo is more than a thousand words”, isn’t it?  And it is free to post up to four photos anyway.)  Cindy receives confirmation email from HelpExchange.com immediately to acknowledge her successful posting.

Cindy notices that she may not have enough funds to cover this plumbing job.  She has only $90 in her HE Dollar account.  She decides to earn more bonuses to finance this repair.  She goes to My Account -> My Referee and clicks on Earn more referral bonuses link.  While in Invite friends to join HelpExchange.com webpage, Cindy enters a dozen of her friends’ names and email addresses.  HelpExchange.com sends invitation emails to Cindy’s friends inviting them to join HelpExchange.com.  Cindy’s friends simply need to click a link in the invitation email and fill in the form to finish applying for HelpExchange.com membership. Cindy also receives a copy of each invitation email sent to her friends as a confirmation.  Whenever Cindy’s friends register as a HelpExchange.com member, Cindy receives a $10 referral bonus and an acknowledging email.  Eight out of twelve of Cindy’s friends register membership within a week.  Totally Cindy earns $80 in referral bonuses for her HE Bonus account.  All together, Cindy now has $170 (= $90 + $80) in her account to spend.

Sure enough, Cindy receives six emails responding to her help-wanted posting within two weeks (Cindy selects email as her preferred mode of contact.)  She goes through the profiles of all the six service providers and carefully reviews their feedback and performance ratings (if Cindy had selected phone as her preferred mode of contact, she would have received phone calls from those six plumbers directly.)  She calls two of the plumbers and both give her an estimate of around $120 to fix the leak.  She decides to use Charlie because of his excellent performance ratings.

Charlie comes and quickly fixes the leak.  Cindy is very happy for Charlie only charges her $100.  Cindy is satisfied with Charlie’s work too.  She decides to make the payment even before receiving Charlie’s invoice.  Cindy goes to My Account -> My Listing and finds the help-wanted listing under My Help-Wanted Listing -> Active Help Wanted Listing.  She clicks on the Pay link of that listing, which takes her to the Make a payment for a help wanted webpage.  Cindy enters the seller’s username, payment amount, specifies the source of the funds, and fills in “Plumber to fix leaking pipe at the basement on Aug. 24, 2007” to the For field.  Cindy also remembers to check "Yes" to "Close this listing upon making payment" so she won’t keep receiving request emails in the future.  Cindy receives an email in her mail box acknowledging the payment.  She clicks the link in the payment confirmation email and gives Charlie a perfect review.

Conclusion of Operations:

At the end of the operation, Cindy sees 8 referral bonuses ($10 each, and 12 copies of the invitation email, and 8 referral bonus confirmation emails) in her HE Bonus account, an $80 deduction in her HE Bonus account and a $20 deduction in her HE Dollar account (to pay $100) and a $1 (= $100 x 1%) in her HE Dollar account because of 1% money back.  Cindy also enters a raffle ticket in the prize drawing pool to win a prize.  As for Charlie, he receives a $100.00 revenue and a $5.25 (net $94.75) Sale Fee deduction in his HE Dollar account and a perfect performance rating which will draw in more business for him in the future.

Scenario D: (David, a college science-major student, searches in Help-Wanted for math tutoring jobs.)

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David, a college science-major student, needs some cash.  He logs into HelpExchange.com and goes to Search -> Search A Help Wanted webpage.  He clicks Find Category by Keyword link and enter tutor as a keyword to start a search.  He gets 14 items in the results but none of them is of interest to him.  He starts a new search using math as the keyword.  He gets four categories this time:

1. Education->Exam Preparation Program / School->SAT->Math
2. Education->Tutoring->Elementary School->Math (ES)
3. Education->Tutoring->Middle School->Math (MS)
4. Education->Tutoring->High School->Math (HS)

David likes the first, the third and the fourth categories.  He clicks on the first category which takes him to the Search for help-wanted->Step 2: Set search criteria page.  The criteria form is pre-filled for him (because David has already logged in).  He increases the radius from default 10 to 20 miles and presses the Search button.  He gets five listings in the result.  David calls or emails them per their preferred mode of contact.  He repeats the search on the third and the fourth categories and contacts all the posters.  Some parents ask him for a resume, more credentials and/or referrals.  David sends all the requested documents via email immediately.  Luckily David gets seven tutoring jobs.

David meets and tutors his students at the local library.  He charges $30 for an-hour session of math tutoring.  Debra, an eighth grader, has two sessions every week.  Both Debra and her Mom, Denise, are satisfied with David’s tutoring.  Denise logs into My Account-> My Listing -> My Help Wanted Listings -> Active Help-Wanted Listings and clicks on the Pay link to make payments at the end of every session (she does it at home or in the library.)  Denise checks Yes to Close this listing upon making payment when she makes the first payment (the listing will be moved to My Help Wanted Listings -> Closed Help-Wanted Listings from now on.)

Two months later, David decides to withdraw $1,000 from his HE Dollar account.  He goes to My Account -> My Money -> Redeem Cash and chooses HE Dollar account , enters $1, 000 to cash amount.  In a few days David receives a check of $1,000 in the mail.

Conclusion of Operations:

David sees two payments of $30 and two Sale Fees deductions of $1.73 (net $28.27 per session) from Denise in his HE Dollar account and two emails acknowledging the revenue every week.  He receives payments from other parents as well.  David also receives two reviews from Denise every week.  Denise, on the other hand, sees two payments deduction of $30 in her HE Cash account (or HE Dollar account if she pays from her HE Dollar account) and two $0.30 (= $30 x 1%) in her HE Dollar account.  That means Denise enters two tickets into the prize drawing pool to win big prizes every week.

When David withdraws $1,000 from his HE Dollar account, he sees a $1,000 redemption and a $40.25 redemption fee in his HE Dollar Account.