Who created www.find-a-tradie.com.au?

Find-a-tradie was created by myself. I am a former medical scientist, former commercial programmer and I have been a small business gardener/landscaper for the past 22 years. I still love the creativity and problem solving involved with building web sites and software. So creating find-a-tradie.com.au has been a passion project for me.

Why did I create find-a-tradie.com.au?

• Advertising at my competitors costs of the order of $109 per month, or more, and you have to spend credits to obtain customer contact details.
• You can easily spend more on advertising with my competitors than you can earn from jobs obtained through them:
  
  
  • Especially when you are a brand new business and have not yet developed a word of mouth reputation.
  • Especially for trades like gardening where job values are generally low and competition for jobs is high .

Small business tradies, like myself, deserve a fairer go.

         

Feedback System

 

Feedback is where find-a-tradie is different. We use a feedback based mutual trust system similar to eBay.

If the client refuses to pay the tradie or delays payment for an unacceptable period of time then the tradie can leave negative feedback for the client and warn other tradies.

Similarly the client can leave the tradie negative feedback if the tradie does not complete the work in a reasonable amount of time or if their work is sub standard.

Accountability goes both ways on find-a-tradie.

Negative feedback will have an email link for the member who left the negative feedback and it is up to both parties to negotiate turning negative feedback into positive feedback.

Benefits of find-a-tradie.com.au

• You can edit or delete any jobs you post if you change your mind. That way you don't waste tradie's time and money chasing 'dead' jobs.
  
• No sensitive personal or financial data is stored on the web site, because find a tradie is not intended to include a risky payment management system. All payments are done via external web sites such as eBanking and Paypal.
• Tradies & customers can browse the database of tradies, view their feedback history, contact details and business details etc..
  
  
  
• You can contact tradies directly from the list or post a job for tradies to respond to.
• Tradies can view customers feedback history and contact details when they post jobs.
  
• Tradies can manage their jobs:
  
  
  • Mark the job as accepted - in which case it will not appear in the lists of other tradies browsing for jobs.
  • The tradie can then contact the client via phone, mobile or email and send them a quote via whatever means suits them.
  • If the client does not accept the quote then the tradie should mark the job as 'unaccepted' so that other tradies can have a go at quoting it.
  • If the client accepts the quote then the tradie can later mark the job as completed and send an invoice to the client via what ever means suits them.
  • Once payment is cleared the tradie can then mark the job as paid and leave the client positive feedback.
• New tradies get their first 6 months of membership for free, from the time they register.
• Customers get free membership.
• If tradies are qualified in more than one trade then they can list additional trades as well as a primary trade. And jobs matching their primary trade or any of their additional trades will come up.
• There is a forum available for customers and tradies can use to discuss jobs, requirements and tips etc. Information in the forum will not be sold to marketing data miners.
  
• Membership is a flat monthly or yearly fee.
• You can try for as many jobs as your want, with no additional payments.

Your reputation as a tradie, as a customer or as both is ENTIRELY in your hands, as it is on eBay.