I graduated from college in 1987 with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. A week later I flew to Boise from Rochester, N.Y., to interview with Micron Technology. I was offered the job that day, went home, said my goodbyes, packed up and drove across the country to start my career.

In 2001, after 14 years of exciting work, many successful projects and more than 20 patents, I found myself out of work. I quickly learned that working for a company or someone else does not allow you to control your destiny. I wanted to start my own business; however, I could not figure out what I wanted to do and therefore took a job working for a startup company called Inapac Technology from 2001 to 2006 building specialty memory chips for cell phones.

In September 2006, my wife broke both her legs in a waterskiing accident that landed her in a wheelchair for three months. We have two small children - ages 3 and 1 at that time - and I had to figure out how to manage all this along with my full-time job.

I needed to find many different types of business to help me out, such as day care, in-home care, house cleaning, medical care and medical equipment providers.

After much time, effort and frustration using the old-fashioned Yellow Pages, search engines, Craigslist and word of mouth, I found these were not efficient or effective and that I had wasted a lot of time. The amount of effort and time to find, know, verify, trust, contact and communicate with these service providers was astronomical. Even after all the research, interviewing and analysis of these service providers I still felt like I was "rolling the dice" on whether they would be sufficient for my family's needs.

This is when the proverbial light bulb went off and I decided to use my engineering background to solve this problem. I worked on Revotop10.com for two years doing research and development before launching the Web site last month to help people connect with top reputable businesses of every kind.

Revotop10.com is a business directory and utility tool to find and connect with your local top-rated businesses in the most efficient manner. Our rating score is the only way we determine directory ranking (not by who pays the most). Revotop10 encourages a positive environment and customers to give honest and constructive feedback for every transaction (not just complaints).

Accounts can be created by anyone, free of charge. They can then search, add, connect and communicate with the top-ranked businesses in every category in any location. Most importantly, using the review and vote features you can easily create a dynamic directory for your friends and community.

A micro Web site was developed for each business with built-in Web 3.0 tools. Each micro Web site has URL control, revo-rating score, reputation management, real-time feedback, search engine optimization and use of special features.

Sure, I have competition out there. But I think I've developed a better model - one that works more effectively for customers and companies. I don't require customers or businesses to pay a fee. My business revenue comes from upgraded services that businesses can receive through a platinum membership.

Since I launched my company in December, I have had great response so far from the community. I hope people can integrate Revotop10 as a valuable resource to find and communicate with businesses efficiently, thereby saving time and money. At the same time, I hope to assist businesses at the lowest cost possible allowing them to focus on their core business along with customer service.

Revotop10 might not be perfect yet, but they say "a person who doesn't make any mistakes is unlikely to make anything." I am committed to working full time on this business and feel strongly that this is a valuable resource needed by the community.

Mark Thomann is CEO and founder of Revotop10.com. E-mail him at mark@revotop10.com.

Starting Up is a series published on Thursdays. The columns grew from discussions between the Statesman and local tech and entrepreneurial leaders and are coordinated by Julie Howard, a marketing specialist for the Idaho Department of Commerce. Reach her at julie.howard@commerce.idaho.gov.