8 months ago my business partner and I took on the broadly-defined task of trying to design a website which could connect users with construction contractors in the most efficent, fair way possible. It’s been a long, sometimes very painful journey, but we now have the initial version of our site launched!
For those of you unfamiliar with online world of contractor advertising, it’s a pretty brutal place for a contractor. . . but I realize that I’m probably not going to be able to drum-up much pitty for contractors : ) We did some major research before and on the way to creating our product, and here’s the gist of what we found:
A) Almost 60% of homeowners and project managers use the Internet to find a contractor
B) Less than 10% of contractors have a web presence. By “web presence” I mean can be found in any form on the Internet.
C) The existing, entrenched websites designed for connecting contractors with clients either gouge the heck out of the contractors ($300 per decent lead!), or offer such a limited selection, that they’re worthless to the consumer.
So, we found that the modern solution is logical and obvious: Take the free-flowing, user-content-rich models of Yelp, Myspace, and Wikipedia, make it about contractors, and give it a simple search tool. That’s more or less the idea behind jobtrio.com.
The site is prepopulated with all the public info we could gather on California contractors — there’s almost 300,000 of them. Therefore, the site is already a really useful tool for finding a local contractor, no matter what obscure trade you need. Contractors can then enhance their free listing for $15 a month; add pictures, write-ups, links, all that good stuff.
We’re not trying to rip anyone off - that should be clear. We want jobtrio.com to be great resource for everyone in the construction industry. The contractors can control how they present themselves, get solid construction leads, and concentrate on their work. The consumer gets to do their research all in one place and make an informed choice.
I would love to get feedback for contractors and consumers alike about my project. Write some reviews of check out a couple contractor profiles. Drop me a line!
Josh Groves
President
jobtrio.com
Profiles and reviews of California contractors.
“Let’s get to work!”
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