Feedback on new business idea

[BizLondon]

I'm considering a consultancy business pitched to tradespeople. The premise is essentially that tradespeople have little time to run their business beyond the core activity on the tools. My consultancy would be a virtual business partner of sorts allowing the owner to run their business from their phone.

The genesis is of this is that I have previously run trade firms using an app I developed myself. It had a number of bespoke features particularly around how subcontractors were managed/ paid which was a USP when recruiting team members. Additionally, I put a lot of other automated an semi-automated processes in the business. It's a sector I'm really interested in and have somewhat of a unique perspective coming from a career in operations and actually having a trade business.

There are now plenty of field management apps off the shelf so that market is saturated; serviceM8, Tradify, Jobify to name a few. Likewise, there are lots of digital marketing/lead gen companies pitching to tradespeople.

My idea packages the services provided in an white label app including job management at a minimum i.e. all the features that the apps currently provide BUT offers more of a bespoke service join top. I'm thinking some of these would be optional and can be presented as a tiered pricing model. Yes, nothing is stopping an indivual tradesperson arranging all of these activities themselves but in my experience they simply don't or aren't sure where to start. As result, their business either doesn't grow despite ambition or they are not acheiving the income they could be even as a sole trader.

• Call centre
• Emergency call out system (based on above)
• Advanced subcontractor management
• Payroll (potentially?)
• 1 click workwear ordering
• "" "" vanlivery
• "" "" business cards
• Lead management
• Lead generation
• Detailed advice/training blog
• Trade industry discounts
• Additional bespoke features
  

I can fairly easily put this all together, the question is demand. Clearly there is a market for the other business models mentioned but I feel this is a more difficult pitch. Just to pre-empt some of the comments, I am conducting market research elsewhere, this is just one item on a long list.

Looking forward to everyone's insights.

 

[Porky]

Route to market will be very expensive, to market the App to secure traction would be a killer IMO. Also, you risk being an app of "all things but master of none" why might I specifically want your app, what's the killer item i really want and moreover why would I pay for it? especially with tradespeople already under massive financial pressure in the UK right now?

A USP of all things under one roof i dont see as a strong enough USP in its own right - it needs something to really draw tradespeople in.

 

[fisicx]

A number of the items on offer are one offs or already something a business has outsourced.

And not sure people really want to rely on a single supplier for everything.

 

[BizLondon]

Route to market will be very expensive, to market the App to secure traction would be a killer IMO. Also, you risk being an app of "all things but master of none" why might I specifically want your app, what's the killer item i really want and moreover why would I pay for it? especially with tradespeople already under massive financial pressure in the UK right now?

A USP of all things under one roof i dont see as a strong enough USP in its own right - it needs something to really draw tradespeople in.

To clarify, I am not a marketing an app. This is not something available on the marketplace to download and just start using. This is a consultancy service with an onboarding process, face to face calls etc. The goal is not to compete with field management apps. Hence route to market is not expensive, this is more akin to a marketing agency finding inividual clients, not chasing app downloads.

To your point about master of none, the operational process design is actually extremely detailed. It's quite hard to convey over a message here but some of these processes simply wouldn't be put in place by tradespeople themselves. Plus the job management apps (not the main competition anyway) don't go into enough detail in this area because they are trying to offer a generic solution.

 

[BizLondon]

A number of the items on offer are one offs or already something a business has outsourced.

And not sure people really want to rely on a single supplier for everything.

True to an extent but a tradesperson who is on the ball and has outsourced numerous services isn't my target audience.

To give an analogy, there are plenty of people who purchase trade franchises. Can people not just start a business on their own? Of course they can but those aren't the individuals that franchise brands recruit.

 

[fisicx]

Even so, most people would still be wary of giving one person control of everything.

And they may only need a couple of your services. Maybe you plan for businesses to only pay for the things they want from you as they need them

 

[BizLondon]

Even so, most people would still be wary of giving one person control of everything.

And they may only need a couple of your services. Maybe you plan for businesses to only pay for the things they want from you as they need them

I'm not sure what you mean by the control element?

Yes, as you say this could lend itself neatly to a tiered pricing model.

 

[fisicx]

I'm not sure what you mean by the control element?

Where you look after the website, marketing, payroll, answering the phone etc.

Does your average plumber need all this? The bloke who does our boiler has a FB page and GBP. He answers his own phone and uses quickbooks.

 

[BizLondon]

Where you look after the website, marketing, payroll, answering the phone etc.

Does your average plumber need all this? The bloke who does our boiler has a FB page and GBP. He answers his own phone and uses quickbooks.

I'm not going after the average plumber. Using my franchise analogy again, most tradespeople are not interested in franchising - those brands only a fraction of the tradesperson population who are interested in pursuing that particular model.

Your example of the plumber you know, I'm not going to trying to convince them to purchase my service. This is better suited to an individual who either wants to make more money in their current operation or expand to grow a team.

It's a bit like the worn out addage - a good tradesmen doesn't need lead sites if they are good, it's all word of mouth! Great if it's just you and you're content but if you have a team and want to grow rapidly, very different story

 

[fisicx]

So who are you targeting?

 

[Mark T Jones]

As the cliché goes, most ideas can work, every idea can fail. The difference is in the execution.

My personal view is that the biggest challenge in execution here is selling - you rightly say that most of 'doing the work' is pretty straight forward.

Personally I'd invest in some quality, targeted research before you invest in the product

 

[BizLondon]

So who are you targeting?

tradespeople who want a turn key solution and don't have the time/understanding to sort all these individual peices on their own.

 

[BizLondon]

As the cliché goes, most ideas can work, every idea can fail. The difference is in the execution.

My personal view is that the biggest challenge in execution here is selling - you rightly say that most of 'doing the work' is pretty straight forward.

Personally I'd invest in some quality, targeted research before you invest in the product

If I pursue it, I'll just start with a landing page and see how many bites i get

 

[fisicx]

tradespeople who want a turn key solution and don't have the time/understanding to sort all these individual peices on their own.

Such as a newly qualified plumber perhaps?

I understand the offer, just not sure it’s something many trades will be that interested in paying for.

There was someone here a while back did something similar and just couldn’t get enough traction to make it viable. I’ve tried to find the thread but no luck.

 

[BizLondon]

Such as a newly qualified plumber perhaps?

I understand the offer, just not sure it’s something many trades will be that interested in paying for.

There was someone here a while back did something similar and just couldn’t get enough traction to make it viable. I’ve tried to find the thread but no luck.

Yes that would certainly be one profile to target.

Interesting, I doubt it was exactly the same as what I'm proposing - it's quite hard to explain the nuance here. I'd have to create a landing page as well as a detailed prospectus that can be downloaded as the devil is in the detail.

 

[fisicx]

Yes that would certainly be one profile to target.

But as I said before, they probably need very little of what you offer. The few things they do need can easily be found with a Google search. Or for a tradesman, they will ask their mates.

 

[BizLondon]

But as I said before, they probably need very little of what you offer. The few things they do need can easily be found with a Google search. Or for a tradesman, they will ask their mates.

Yeh again, not trying to convince every single tradesperson. Just need a small fraction.

 

[Porky]

Confused : Sorry I just dont see the pull - what exactly is the key USP that would drive me to using your service? A basket of offers just doesnt cut it IMO.

Your market research is going to be key to this for sure.

 

[BusterBloodvessel]

I'm not 100% sure what you're offering here, but would I be right in saying it's helping your average small tradesperson essentially get more professional, more organised, and geared up for expansion and/or to make more money?

If so, then it's 100% what a lot of small traders need and should use. I know quite a few, my best friend in particular is one doing a lot of work now for estate agents (reactive maintenance) but also some private work too and small amount of subbying. He's doing alright for himself, but he doesn't half drive me up the wall at times. Because he complains about things that I absolutely know can be resolved. He gets in a tizz with payments and what he's owed when. He doesn't prioritise or plan jobs correctly, doesn't buy materials in advance, drives from one side of town to the other to do a job only to drive back to do another job 200 yards from the first one etc. He took a lad on to help him expand but didn't actually really have a plan how to do that or how to make sure he was earning him money as a boss, not just enough to cover this lads wage.

I have helped him a couple of times, once when he was really struggling with cash flow I lent him some money but only on the proviso that he let me help organise his jobs, prioritise things and also work based around when he was due to get paid (as with the estate agency that revolves around the tenants rent pay date). That all helped for a while but gradually the bad habits crept in. He's essentially a tradesman and that's what he enjoys. The "admin" side of it and long term strategy he just can't do/has no interest in.

And therein lies the problem I think - whilst I genuinely believe this kind of thing could be a godsend to many, getting them to understand that and pay for it will be an extremely difficult job, I would imagine. And I guess the issue might be you either go hands on and do everything for them - but your renumeration for that needs to be big enough to make it worthwhile. Or you're less hands on, deliver all the tools for them, show them how to do it. But then, like in my example above... they just don't.

 

[Mark T Jones]

I'm not 100% sure what you're offering here, but would I be right in saying it's helping your average small tradesperson essentially get more professional, more organised, and geared up for expansion and/or to make more money?

If so, then it's 100% what a lot of small traders need and should use. I know quite a few, my best friend in particular is one doing a lot of work now for estate agents (reactive maintenance) but also some private work too and small amount of subbying. He's doing alright for himself, but he doesn't half drive me up the wall at times. Because he complains about things that I absolutely know can be resolved. He gets in a tizz with payments and what he's owed when. He doesn't prioritise or plan jobs correctly, doesn't buy materials in advance, drives from one side of town to the other to do a job only to drive back to do another job 200 yards from the first one etc. He took a lad on to help him expand but didn't actually really have a plan how to do that or how to make sure he was earning him money as a boss, not just enough to cover this lads wage.

I have helped him a couple of times, once when he was really struggling with cash flow I lent him some money but only on the proviso that he let me help organise his jobs, prioritise things and also work based around when he was due to get paid (as with the estate agency that revolves around the tenants rent pay date). That all helped for a while but gradually the bad habits crept in. He's essentially a tradesman and that's what he enjoys. The "admin" side of it and long term strategy he just can't do/has no interest in.

And therein lies the problem I think - whilst I genuinely believe this kind of thing could be a godsend to many, getting them to understand that and pay for it will be an extremely difficult job, I would imagine. And I guess the issue might be you either go hands on and do everything for them - but your renumeration for that needs to be big enough to make it worthwhile. Or you're less hands on, deliver all the tools for them, show them how to do it. But then, like in my example above... they just don't.

Absolutely.

I've just messaged my plumber for the third time asking for an invoice for work he did 2 months ago.

But, whilst some of them definitely need this type of service, many won't see the real value in it and id suggest none are about to go looking for it. It needs to be thrust in their face, neat, concise and ready to go - and sold well.

 

[BizLondon]

I'm not 100% sure what you're offering here, but would I be right in saying it's helping your average small tradesperson essentially get more professional, more organised, and geared up for expansion and/or to make more money?

If so, then it's 100% what a lot of small traders need and should use. I know quite a few, my best friend in particular is one doing a lot of work now for estate agents (reactive maintenance) but also some private work too and small amount of subbying. He's doing alright for himself, but he doesn't half drive me up the wall at times. Because he complains about things that I absolutely know can be resolved. He gets in a tizz with payments and what he's owed when. He doesn't prioritise or plan jobs correctly, doesn't buy materials in advance, drives from one side of town to the other to do a job only to drive back to do another job 200 yards from the first one etc. He took a lad on to help him expand but didn't actually really have a plan how to do that or how to make sure he was earning him money as a boss, not just enough to cover this lads wage.

I have helped him a couple of times, once when he was really struggling with cash flow I lent him some money but only on the proviso that he let me help organise his jobs, prioritise things and also work based around when he was due to get paid (as with the estate agency that revolves around the tenants rent pay date). That all helped for a while but gradually the bad habits crept in. He's essentially a tradesman and that's what he enjoys. The "admin" side of it and long term strategy he just can't do/has no interest in.

And therein lies the problem I think - whilst I genuinely believe this kind of thing could be a godsend to many, getting them to understand that and pay for it will be an extremely difficult job, I would imagine. And I guess the issue might be you either go hands on and do everything for them - but your renumeration for that needs to be big enough to make it worthwhile. Or you're less hands on, deliver all the tools for them, show them how to do it. But then, like in my example above... they just don't.

You've pretty much got it. A lot of tradesmen leave loads of money on the table with bad habits but as you say, it's convincing them there's a problem. I suppose I'd need to find people who realise their business is a bit of a mess but self aware enough to realise they just won't get around to sorting things unless they are spoonfed.

 

[BizLondon]

Absolutely.

I've just messaged my plumber for the third time asking for an invoice for work he did 2 months ago.

But, whilst some of them definitely need this type of service, many won't see the real value in it and id suggest none are about to go looking for it. It needs to be thrust in their face, neat, concise and ready to go - and sold well.

Yeh it's shocking how many of them lose money by not even invoicing! You're correct, it's a hard sell but it's also the type of thing I could do in my spare time so if the client list builds slow, it's ok. I think getting one client and giving the service free/discounted in return for a very detailed testimony/filmed interview etc. could be a great marketing tool to get the next client.

 

[DoolallyTap]

The OP has sold the idea to himself and rejected dismissed or argued any comments. Good luck, come back this time next year and tell us how quickly it folded.

 

[BizLondon]

The OP has sold the idea to himself and rejected dismissed or argued any comments. Good luck, come back this time next year and tell us how quickly it folded.

What a pathetic response, why did you even comment? A prime example of the negative attitudes I often see on here and a great way to alienate new users in a section of a site intended to promote conversation.

I didn't dismiss anything and took on all feedback. The thread also promoted discussion; shocking on a forum I know...

I created a landing page and spent a tenner on an ad campaign and decided the results weren't encouraging enough pursue the idea. I've since repackaged the core mechanics of this in another model and am going to validate that.