My Builder, Checka trade, my workman Get work apps

Work may have dried up a little.

Or you just want more customers in your business. It's a situation a lot of tradesmen get into from time to time.

You could start posting leaflets the old fashioned way yo drum up some work.

You could do a few posts on social media offering your services to generate new customers.

But then you come across a website that's full of customers wanting work done.

All you need to do is create a profile and there's work on tap forever.

My builder, check a trade, my workman all these websites do the same.

Are they any good for getting work?

Let's dig into it and find out.

Tool Box Talk For Electricians - Helping Electricians gain back time, reduce stress and make more money.

Hello and welcome back once again - I'm your Host Ben Poulter of toolbox talk for electricians.

Today's podcast is looking into these websites like check a trade and my builder to really find out if they are worth the time for an electrician trying to build a business.

Fill you diary with local jobs with customers just right for your business.

Plenty of local work, set your custom working area exactly the area you want to work.

We’ll introduce you to the millions of homeowners that are searching our website, or reading our printed directories every single month, looking for reputable tradespeople like you.

The website are full of all the same promises to entice you into signing up.

Which would be great if they actually work and it keeps a constant flow of work coming in.

This is my experience, so many other have had their own experience.

Maybe good, maybe bad.

I signed up to them all when I first started out years ago. So it may have changed a bit now, but from the comments i see online - not that much.

My workman was the first one I signed up to.

Looking at my old profile it was 2009. I did 3 jobs from them.

That was enough for me.

You have to express interest in actually quoting for the job and it will cost you to do this.

You have to buy the customers details in order to send them a message and give a rough quote off of the details the customers have supplied.

In real life the customer knows what they want done.

6 x downlights in the kitchen and move the switch.

Ok so…

Is that ceiling asbestos?

It the cabling and good, let along got an earth?

Does the property have RCD Protection?

Just 3 questions the customer doesn't even think about.

In their mind it's 6 lights for £100 and that's expensive!

These are the types of customers you get on my workman website. Small jobs that you end up making no profit at all.

I stuck it out for 3 jobs thinking it would get better. It didnt!

Thinking back now, are they the type of customers I want to work for anyway. Always putting cost before safety!

I had to argue to be able to put a small RCD unit in one property. I did it at cost because it wasn't in the online quote I gave them.

But the house was a dump and I didnt want to leave that circuit unprotected - because there were loads of fire hazards.

Back to the drawing board I went.

I came across My Builder. Again I was sucked into all the promises of plenty of work and local customers.

At this time I was sitting around doing nothing.

So I did a wider search of the area I was prepared to work.

On my Builder you have to express interest in doing a job.

Once the customer sees that you're interested, you get shortlisted to be able to quote for the work.

I logged into my account to check it out for this podcast, i only went and pressed on to express interest! I hope i don't get shortlisted.

The jobs I was expressing interest in were 40 miles away, board changes, kitchen rewires.

Bigger jobs make it worthwhile, so when I went to quote in real life - I made sure to do the best quote I could!

My plan was to build up my feedback on my builder, this way customers trust you more if you have a reputation.

So the jobs I was doing I was just breaking even really after all the travelling.

The thing I did do with the customers was get their email. I needed it anyway to send the certificates to and register the part p.

This way their customers were able to contact me outside of my builder.

Some of the customers I met on my builder I still work for today.

So in that aspect it served me well.

The reason I only did 8 jobs on my builder was that I didn't need the work anymore, it picked up with all the actions I took.

To be completely honest I wanted to say something bad about my builder, But looking back at it, my experience with it wasn't too bad.

I wouldn't use it to get work continually over time, but it served a purpose for me.

I have heard horror stories of fake profiles posting jobs, the tradesman will be shortlisted and never get the job.

Weather these profiles are made up to be able to get the shortlisting fee from tradesmen Im not sure, but by the sounds of it, it happens far too often.

So if you're going to use my builder, do it with a plan to get the customer's details to be able to do work for them away from my builder.

Might sound a bit cheeky towards my builder I know, But it's business. If you can save having to be shortlisted by my builder and go directly to the customer, it's going to help your business a lot more.

We can't not mention - Check A Trade. They are everywhere.

Their marketing for customers and tradesmen is great, I will give them that.

For all trades on check a trade, its a fight to the bottom!

Who can give the cheapest quote and win the job, Im not 100% confident in the checks they do on the tradesmen either.

The beat up vans driving around with CheckATrade logo on the side!

Im pretty sure the side is full of cowboy builders who are out to make a quick buck from a job where they rip off a customer.

This makes the good tradesmen look bad.

You can quote a job for £500 and there will be someone who comes along and says £250.

I haven't got a clue how they do it, but its a big race to the bottom with all trades on there.

You do however get clever customers who will ask for qualifications and registration certs, insurances and experience.

This is where CheckATrade works out for the customer and the tradesperson.

I started this podcast thinking I was going to talk about how rubbish these websites are.

A complete waste of time and money for any trade.

I think I have changed my own mind.

If your starting out, looking to keep busy with some work or just looking to expand…

These websites will help, even if in a small way.

In an ideal world you don't want to have to rely on the work you get from these websites, but there is a good way to get some work.

Maybe you're just looking for a bit of extra work alongside your employed job.

I think these would help too.

The main thing is to get the customer's details to be able to not only keep in contact away from the websites, but to keep reminding them you're in business.

I do this with emails.

A bit like a newsletter just letting the customer know what's new on the market.

I have put 10 together you can download, there will be a link in the show notes.

Go grab a copy and send one a month to let your customers know your still in business and always a phone call away.

https://toolboxtalkforelectricians.ck.page/products/email-nails-x-10

until next time