If my son were any more overdue for a haircut, I'd have to contact my lawn guy instead of the girl who has been chopping his locks since kindergarten. What has prevented me for booking an appointment sooner? Sheer laziness in reaching for the phone.

Now, if Lori were only as adept with a computer as she is with a pair of scissors, she'd be using GenBook so her customers could book their appointments online.

San Francisco-based GenBook was founded by Rody Moore, who spent the '90s working as an investment banker before joining the board of an Australian telco that since went public. In 2004 he had the idea for an online scheduling tool aimed at small businesses. "I could not understand why I could book a flight or a hotel online and get a real time e-mail confirmation, but I couldn't book a local service like a haircut or a visit to the chiropractor or dentist and have the same level of convenience," he told me.

Moore engaged the help of an engineer he knew to work on his project, "then bit by bit I constructed a team through contacts and did some headhunting for a CTO," he said. "It was really just piece by piece, like putting together a jigsaw [puzzle]."

After developing the tool and test-marketing it, first in Australia and then here in the United States (he also moved to California), Moore launched GenBook in March. Customers include health and wellness businesses, such as chiropractors, massage therapists and hypnotists; beauty-related businesses like hair salons, spas and cosmetic surgeons; consultants, including tax and financial advisers and computer and IT repair; and real-estate agents. "We even have a guy who does pony rides for kids on the weekends, and someone who is using GenBook to rent aircrafts to student pilots," Moore said.

True to his mission "to democratize online schedule and make it simple to use," I found GenBook a breeze to set up for my faux company: GK Beauty, which employs eight people specializing in hair, nails and massage. The site walked me through these steps:

• First I named my company and provided such basic details as address and phone number.


• Next I entered the services my company provides, such as cut and blow dry, color, perm, manicure, acrylic tips, Swedish massage and facial, along with how much each one costs and how long the appointment lasts.


• Then I plugged in my employees' names and specified which services they provide.


• I customized my business hours, with different operating hours for each day.


• I booked a test appointment. I was prompted to choose a service, then the person I wanted to perform said service, then the appointment time and my contact info. Once that went through (seconds), notification of an online booking appeared at the top of my GenBook page and in a calendar under the booked employee's name. I received confirmation as the customer and notification as the company via e-mail, as well.

Of note, if you already have your own Web site, GenBook provides you with the code to place a "Book Now" button on your page. Otherwise, GenBook gives you the ability to choose a URL (gaylehair.genbook.com), which will take customers to a basic page for your business and enable them to book an appointment. You can also send invites to your page via e-mail.

GenBook follows a "freemium model," according to Moore. In other words, it's available in two versions: free, which does everything I described above (and then some); and premium, or Standard, which costs $39.95 per month and also includes text-message alert when an appointment is booked, the ability to capture your customers' credit-card information, and some basic analytics that helps you understand each customer's booking history and preferences.

"We're adding a whole new dimension to the way small-businesses service providers promote themselves on the Web," Moore said. "To a certain extent, they have been left behind a bit from e-commerce, which has traditionally been thought of shopping cards and merchants selling widgets. At a fundamental level, that's why I think there is a lot of interest. We are enabling services businesses to catch up for e-commerce."