Hi chaps Bin self employed as a joiner ( come all trade handyman!) For a few years now. Before Xmas I joined rp to give it a try. Anyway I thought it's ok job leads are overpriced TBH. And it can be very frustrating out of 24 jobs I've not managed to contact 17. I only buy cheap leads £6 or 8 the price of say any roofing lead is stupid £50+( or plumbing) but they can be sold 3 times occasionally! What made me laugh and I thought is the internet all lies. I went on trustpilot to check out rp.... Bad review after bad review. But on the cover page 4 out of 5. All one star reviews( many many) had been sort of frozen by rated people until the poster replied to them( not gonna happen folks) leaving a series of customers who'd had good jobs done by tradesmen from rated people. Basically people who didn't understand who or what they were rating. If r p looked after there tradesmen with even half the diligence they managed there online reputation it could be great. I bet even this will be targeted by them with spam..***. To me it's been alright. Sometimes every job I'm after will be brought for a week when someone joins and spends there credit quickly but that soon stops when they realise many are wasted money. What do you guys reckon scam or scamola?
Wow not a single reply. I guess you guys think I'm a spammer! Or it's posted in the wrong forum. Or nobody loves me?
Very few here, if any, have any time for sites like that . Paying to get work in effect. Better off using that money to do your own selective advertising or promotion in my opinion.
I'm sure you guys realise the problem with advertising. These days local papers are read by old people. Who mostly only have smaller jobs done. Although they can be great value. The stoke sentinel is our bigger paper but that's £80 a week for lineage and the last time I got one call! I think rp is ok but overpriced and leaning to much power to the customer. I do get a proportion of legit jobs though. With follow up work as well. It's just I can't find rhyme or reason in there pricing for leads or a good method of sorting out poor leads other than not paying much per lead. Yes word of mouth is better and cheaper but I had to face the facts. I don't have a network of trade friends to send jobs my way. And if I want to work for Joe public I need a way in. Any good ideas for ads anyone?
T'internet. Set up your own website, easy peasy. The internet is why yellow pages consists of only 10 pages these days. It takes a lot of work to get it to and keep on the front page of google. Have a look at Vistaprint, costs a hundred or two to set up then about £25 per month, you won't find cheaper advertising than that.
What about Facebook? I am completely clueless about it and rather regarded it as a means of communicating * - "Just done a dump lol" to equally moronic people. I'm wrong - in part at least. I still don't use it but some of my clients do, and they have posted examples of my work for their friends and I've picked up new clients that way. Possibly worth looking into?
I agree with willy. Facebook and places like it. I dont use it, but apparantly lots of people do who need work doing. Its a modern word of mouth system. Last time I was short of work I had some leaflets made up and went round new estates people were moving into. Say hello to everybody you see and put a leaflet in every door. People moving into modern houses often have busy lives and little time or ability to do odd jobs, especially like flat pack furniture assembly etc. Get in touch with letting agents, they often have a need for handymen on behalf of landlords etc. But be careful with the contracts some give you. Read them carefully and price accordingly.
I'm DIY (consumer), have used checkatrade with good results but would steer clear of sites where trades have to pay for leads. This strikes me as a scam and not in the interests of the trade nor the consumer. With checkatrade you have direct access to the trades peep, no different to having your own website or FB page, but advantage of being in one place that more people are likely to look at. Thinking about how I've contacted trades peeps I've used in the past 2 years: - plasterer/handy man: checkatrade - plumber (2 of them): first via local area magazine advert, second via recommendation/word of mouth - spark: my cousin - architect for drawings: facebook
I used a Gumtree ad because it was £6 for 60 days. But the leads were rubbish all but one he was a landlord and he was a bit ocd so he'd always be chopping and changing trades and I got quite a bit of work off him. Quality of leads is also important I think. Gumtree were all( but one) young idiots. If you advertise in the same way you tend to get the same type of job. Eg small local paper will always result in older folks and smaller jobs. Rp has helped me out of that rut a bit. I've also realised there are many more jobs out there than I at first thought. The skill isn't really doing the job it's making contact. Doing the job should be taken for granted. En mass advertising is becoming the reserve of biggish businesses. The problem for one man outfits is to access a tiny portion of that pie at a reasonable rate
I've seen people use Facebook really well to advertise TBH. Kitchens and like.stuff people luv to show off. I tried it but they just seemed to want money for a business. I couldn't really get to grips with it either. Wouldn't really work for general joinery....wow look at my new fd30 fire door! Jb As I said in my first post people on trust pilot were reviewing the individual trades and attributing that to rp! Rp instead of saying wow all these trades are unhappy with us let's do something they close down these complaints. Trustpilot Bs pilot more like. Never ever ever take any internet thing on face value. Never. Ever! People(t**ts) are dreaming up ways to scam people constantly. I bet trustpilot encourage companies( nay charge companies) for this advice. Money saving expert...money grabbing t##t more like! Jb
as it comes to labour "market" it is very peculiar these days, when reputation matter more than business of supplying labour (business) and yes fake reviews etc- bit of a minefield to everyone, but EVERYTHING now is down to "google up professors", that if you going to a cold lead job, you'll find somebody knowing way more about the job, than they let you to know... (often hiding issues etc) to pay for the leads- I'd never!
During all the years i have had houses..(8 of them) and helped do up family houses...the number of reliable skilled tradespeople who turn up on time and do a decent job is negligible !! Always in a rush...cheap materials....no attention to decoration or details ..or the implications of their job on the people who have to follow them. That's why I try to do everything myself. I am not saying there are not some decent skilled very knowledgeable guys out there.....and lots on here. I could give personal accounts of the type of dreadful things I mean... but I am sure we have all come across them. The best advertising is word of mouth. Rs
Too true RS. Good trades peeps are few and far between. My work might not be the best but I reckon its at least as good as most trades. Just takes me ages.
After hundreds of jobs you get to know a straightforward job. I don't mean easy. For instance last week I went to a job..remove upvc door and replace with fire door( between house and garage). Definitely straightforward but I had to make a frame to suit the opening. Went to view another job the same day old terraced house 29 inch doors by 78 inch high. She'd had 2 trades quote before. Rental so wouldn't want to pay. The frames were cross legged as well as kids and dags! Which one would you go for? My point is people expect trades to wave a magic wand. Making and fitting a fire door and frame seems trickier than fitting 2 interior doors. Not so These are both rp leads btw. If a job can't be done easily does the landlady think the next joiner through the door will have a cheap solution. What a waste of time.
Rated People is OK, useful for filling in gaps in schedule. I had a period this year where I didn't need to get any leads from it as I had a full work schedule from other sources (mostly recommendations). When I do use it, I go for the cheaper jobs, and often pick up additional work ("while you're here, can you do this....?"). The additional benefits are quite good, and help justify the expense of it - we use discount off supermarket shopping, cheap cinema tickets (max 50 per year, but it doesn't say so!), free phone insurance.
I take the attitude, if a tradesman needs to use rated people to get work, then he can't be much good, so I avoid any tradesman using them or similar, so being a member does the reverse of what is intended.
Talking from the other side of the fence, so to speak, the customers, these sites are useful. I've used them several times. When you don't know or have any contacts they are a good way of posting a job. I've on the whole had good experiences of using them. But having said that I recently posted a job to refurbish a bathroom, replace bath, sink, retile. Had someone who gave a good, low quote. Too low in reflection. The next thing he messaged me asking for a deposit to order stock. I foolishly, stupidly paid him & come the day he was due to start didn't turn up or message me. Said he couldn't make it so arranged following week, again didn't show. I haven't been able to contact or heard from him since. I have his bank account details & address (he's advertised as being a Ltd company), tried asking bank if they can get money back, but can't, contacted police but say it's not a police matter. Short of going to his address & confronting him, is there anything else I can do?