April 27, 2020
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WELCOME!
Well what a crazy week it’s in been in MyTradie land! Welcome to the over 1,000 of you that have joined us this week. Great to have you on board. I bet you are all wondering what MyTradie is and what we’re about. We thought we would take some time to introduce ourselves and tell you a bit about MyTradie and how we got to be here today. MyTradie is the brainchild of Aaron O’Meara, a licensed Plumber and Gasfitter. Like most tradies he completed his apprenticeship and then spent some time building up his experience and trying to further his career. He eventually began working for a company where it seemed that things were too good to be true. The pay was great and offered a pretty good working environment. Little did he know, they charged customers through the roof and treated them horribly. Training on pressure selling and how to use their fixed price book was given regularly with meetings held to discuss which of the workers made the most money. Complaints from customers happened regularly but were all hidden or swept under the rug by offering refunds or discounts. The tune through the office was that every phone call was worth $100 to them so the office girls were told to convert every call. This is because they used paid advertising to gain all their work, and spent an absolute motsa to get it (a little more on why this is so bad later). Of course the cost of all this expensive advertising is then passed on to the customer. The labour component of a lot of jobs this company does, is charged at approximately $360 an hour!!! Fast forward a couple of weeks, when Aaron is starting to cotton on to what’s really going on and he is sent to a job in Randwick, they had a blocked pipe. Upon arriving Aaron learns that the customer is not only 92 years old, she’s also a war veteran… she’s a hero! He sits down, has lunch with her and is in awe of her story. After he finishes eating he has a look at the problem and quotes it up. According to the company’s price book they want to charge her over $11,000 to fix the problem. Aaron would normally have only charged $1,400 if he was doing it himself. This really did not sit well with him and he tried to encourage the customer to get more quotes. But they really liked Aaron and thought he would look after them so they insisted on him doing the works. It was here that we was met with a bit of a moral dilemma – they had to know. There was no way he could let them pay that kind of money for a job that was definitely not worth it. He explained to them that they were getting ripped off and the price he would normally charge. Safe to say, they asked him to complete the works… and not through the company. Aaron then logged that the quote was unsuccessful and spoke to the owner of the company to ask how they could charge that much and especially to the elderly and veterans. His response was to “Rip and run mate.” And he laughed. He actually laughed! He then followed up with “I don’t care if they don’t come back. Just take their money and run.” Well, we all know what happened next. Aaron quit on the spot and decided that it was time to open his own company. Fast forward a few years, Aaron is running a fairly successful All Trades company – one that grew from just the one-man band plumbing company and he’s struggling to get traction on any of the advertising platforms he is using. This is because companies like the one the Aaron previously worked for create a bit of an auction with online advertising. To even have the chance of someone calling you from a paid advertisement on google for an emergency plumber will cost you up to $450. This is for your ad to show up and someone to click on it. It doesn’t even guarantee that you’re going to get the job! For those of you who aren’t sure, a google ad is one of the top listings when searching for something. They will have “ad” written next to them. If the ads are clicked on, more often than not you are actually taken to another company’s website.With companies paying that much to have their website or add appear first it’s any wonder why the small local companies can’t even get a look in. Even if you list a specific suburb, you won’t even get ads for companies local to you. It was here that Aaron realised things needed to change. Us Tradies are constantly being slogged with fees for everything – from advertising and marketing to the software we use, other job search services, payment gateways so that customers can pay by credit card, insurances, running costs and much more. What if there was a service out there that was free for tradies to use? What if tradies could list with a service and not be charged per lead they receive or quote they send? What if you didn’t have to pay a subscription to ensure you received the leads first so they could have a chance to be one of the first 3 that sent a quote through? What if there was a service where you could find work but weren’t competing with people that were unlicensed or uninsured and pushing down the prices?
We know that Tradies aren’t the only people effected by the companies and services brushed over in this blog but the customers are too. Customers are charged through the roof without any real transparency as to what they are being charged for. They are charged call out fees and pressured in to having the works completed on the spot so they don’t have time to think about the quote or gather other prices to compare to. Customers that are using the other job search services to have works completed around their home can’t guarantee that the people they are employing are licensed and insured. At MyTradie we don’t just think of our Tradies and our Customers. We are also thinking of Property Managers too. We know how hard it is for them to find good quality tradespeople to complete the works that they require in a timely manner and to their standard of quality. This is where MyTradie is different, every trade is vetted, their licenses and insurances are in their profile for customers and Property Managers to see. MyTradie will integrate with Real Estate software to make the process of having works completed at their properties even simpler and more efficient for Property Managers. MyTradie wish to welcome you to the new era of home maintenance. Simple, efficient and effective for everyone. We will be launching in the second half of 2020 so please keep your eyes peeled and look out for our updates. If you haven’t already, head to www.mytradie.online to register for our email updates. Until next time. Stay Well, MyTradie You can keep up to date with the rest of our blogs here. Regular updates are also on our facebook page, as well as some pretty awesome contact. You can follow us at: facebook.com/mytradie Would you like to become a MyTradie Tradie? Head to mytradie.online/becomeamytradietradie to leave us your details and we will get in touch with you.
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