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Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2016 8:13 pm
by DempseyLiverpool
Anyone on here members of any of checkatrade, Mybuilder, trustatradesmen etc. And do they generate much work from them ?
Customer I'm working for at the moment is completely renovating their property and theses sites are where they go as they believe they are getting better tradesmen. Just wondering if this is where the general public are looking these days.
They only had us in as we done a job in the same road.
Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2016 9:45 pm
by Dave_L
On the Builders FB group the general consensus is avoid!
Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2016 4:57 pm
by RAPressureWashing
Check-A-Trade avoid mate,
Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2016 6:12 pm
by rxbren
Avoid all of them all middle men wanting money for nothing rated people is the worst you have to pay for leads with cost a lot then there budgets don't even cover materials
Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2016 10:32 pm
by lutonlagerlout
My cousin used to go for silly small jobs on mybuilder,say 1 fence panel or repair a brick pier,but he built up quite a large client base from it and got larger stuff through contacts
we work solely on recommendation,and I generally do not like to price work for someone who isnt a friend of an existing client
your work sells itself Ashley, Aim high
LLL 
Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2016 8:52 pm
by DempseyLiverpool
Cheers Tony. Ive had a good year but haven't priced much new work been only recommendations and repeat custom.
Seams the more I specialise in stone the less work and less enquiries I get, probably getting better quality work but always feels like a quiet spell is coming.
Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2016 7:18 am
by mickg
I was in checkatrade for 12 months and all I got were low end enquiries...
can you replay my old 3 x 2 flags round my new conservatory
cheapest flags on the market to construct a patio
cheapest driveway quotes
the staff at checkatrade constantly phone asking why you have not submitted and customer satisfaction forms, the voting system is flawed when you see companies on all 10's..
mybuilder was the same, joined that many years ago but don't get any enquires now I'm please to say
I was removed from rated people for not completing a questionaire, over a 12 month period I paid for a few leads but nothing came from any of them, same with this scheme the customer is always after the cheapest quote
I am told it does work for some people and like Tony said if you quote for the little jobs to build up your reputation then you will get the larger jobs, I much rather stay in bed than get up to go and fix a fence panel or loose coping stone on a wall......
Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2016 7:13 pm
by rxbren
The people who generally use rated people want the cheapest price regardless of what cowboy hitches his horse up.
All it does is bring everyones prices down. Went and look at one job all it gives is a vague description and budget off the top of my head was around 5k lead was £48 get there and they had a plan drawn up by another company with a quote to do the work for £25k. So they wanted to scale back costs so was 40m2 slabs 40m2 artificial grass raised flower beds and 30m2 decking plus land drains as ground holding water fair enough to seat budget if 5k didn't even touch the sides and that's pretty much every job you look at.
Small fencing jobs are just as bad people supplying and doing featheredge for less than £30 linear meter
Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2016 9:45 pm
by DempseyLiverpool
Thanks for all the info lads I'll stay well clear. I get enough nutters as it is without having to pay for the privilege.
Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2016 12:33 am
by lutonlagerlout
think of it as a snowball rolling down a hill Ashley
keep doing it right and your rep just keeps getting bigger and better
the minute you do a *budget* job you are back to the top of the hill a little 3 inch snowball
sorry to say this but if you do the best you possibly can eventually that snowball becomes so large that you can name your price
LLL
Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2016 8:36 pm
by DempseyLiverpool
Cheers Tony great advice as always. Im always on the look to start that snowball with an atlas stone