Looking for feedback from trades-people

[Jay Mayers]

Hi to everyone who reads this,

My name is Jay and I am currently developing a business which is an online platform where consumers can find reliable local trades-people and post jobs for free.

( sound familiar? )

I can probably guess what you may be thinking right about now and that is that I am a little too late to the online trade directory party.

Believe me after soooo many hours of research I know that the market is fit to busting with hundreds of sites like RatedPeople, Checkatrade and Mybuilder and so on.

"So why start a business in this sector" is a very logical question you could ask me

Well my answer to that question would be that I see a need for change.

I've read so many honest reviews from trades-people ( some on here ) about how they have had bad experiences with sites like the ones mentioned above and that using a third party website to find work can be a waste of both time and money.

I strongly feel that done right a business like the one I am building can be truly beneficial to both trades-people and consumers alike.

I would love to go into detail on how I plan to disrupt this crowded market but if I give all my secrets away then that would be a bit of stupid thing to do would it?

So back to the reason for this thread,

could all trades-people who have signed up to paid online directories please share their experiences and how they would change the market if they could.

I am looking for more ways to help trades gain more work online and feel the more feedback I can generate the better my service can be.

Thank you so much for taking time out to read this post and am really looking forward to reading any responces this thread may create.

 

[SteveJG]

Way you can do it different is not to charge the tradesman, will stop all the time wasters asking for jobs to be done then finding out the price and then not bothering. I don't use these sites btw and never will pay someone to give me work. Lots of work out there at the moment without having to pay someone for it

 

[Jay Mayers]

Thank you for the feedback Steve,

One revenue stream for my business would be in the way of charging a small recurring monthly fee to trades in return for ad space on the site.

I feel charging lead generation fees for work is something many trades-people would not sign up to and on a personal level I don't particularly agree with.

I understand my site will not be for everyone, those who already generate work from having a strong online presence may not see the point in joining, but I still wish to offer some services to those well established trades.

One such idea would be a leaflet design and distribution service, where trades can pay to have all that taken care of.

 

[fisicx]

The big problem will be getting sufficient membership to make the directory viable. If I want a decorator I want to see a good list of local providers. If you only have a couple then I wil go back to Google and check out the alternatives.

So either offer free listing for 12 months or you do all the leg work and fill the directory yourself.

 

[Jay Mayers]

Thanx for your input fisicx,

I'm currently building up a database of local trades ready to market my business to when I reach that stage, so I may cosider offering a basic package for free where trades can list basic contact info but are unable to reply to posted jobs and then offer a premium package to trades looking to gain more exposure who can reply to job posts.

The main idea behind my business is to offer as many services as possible to trades-people looking to promote their businesse both online and offline.

At this stage I am looking into a whole host of revenue models, so the whole paid membership idea may even change.

I really would not want my business to revolve around one revenue stream as it will limit it's growth in my eyes.

 

[Matt.WD]

I'm by no means an expert, but don't you need to consider the benefits for the buyers more than the sellers? Otherwise if your site is the same as others from a buyers point of view, then its just a case of who has the larger marketing budget?