Trust a trader, worth £495 per year?

[Connor Williams]

Hello all,

I am considering joining Trust a Trader as a plumber and the price is £495 per year, even more than Yellow Pages.

Now the guy I spoke to (desperate for his sale) assured me I would be very busy if I joined, has anyone been a member for the year and did the phone ring at all?!

I am cagey before I part with half a grand up front

 

[Plumbstar Tom]

dont do it

spend that 500 on some decent leaflets and go round dropping them off

no noe uses these much to find a tradesman

local papers are the most common and leaflets

my copy of yellow pages is a fantastic door stop. step, weight tho

 

[newbie1]

load of tosh
customer has approx fifty people to choose from on the site in your area whats the chance of you getting the call??

 

[Blake]

load of tosh
customer has approx fifty people to choose from on the site in your area whats the chance of you getting the call??

Completely agree with newbie. If it sound to good to be true, it normally is. Stay away, or go buy 495 scratch cards as there is probably a greater chance on getting a return

 

[Plumbstar Tom]

1 in 50 ?

 

[johnmcginty]

or £49.50 on a 10 to 1 horse ten times a year. DO NOT DO IT!

 

[Connor Williams]

Yeah just as I thought, thanks guys I will stay local with cards and leaflets!

 

[Gassy]

Hang on Connor! What makes you think cards and leaflets are going to be any better?

£495 may not be such a bad price. It depends on the quality of the jobs you get. It's easy to think you might only get say 10 calls a year and £400 from it and thinks it's a disaster.

But the challenge then is to keep those customers over a number of years. Listen if you keep all 10 customers and they give you £200 each repeat business over say 5 years you have £2k for £495 worth of investment. Each customer will have cost you £49.50 to obtain. Well that ain't so bad.

I personally would go onto the website and find a couple of the tradesman on there and ask how much business they are getting from it.

If people go on the site looking for a tradesman they are much more likely to be serious about giving you work than those people who pick up a leaflet because you posted through their door.

I always feel that leaflets are a complete waste of money. My local curry house seems to put a leaflet through every door down my road every week.
I reckon out of 100 houses only 3 people eat curry. Thats 97% of leaflets wasted just to get the 3% who do.

Wouldn't it be easier and cheaper if they could just send out 3 leaflets. That's what advertising in a tradesman mag might give you. But do your home work first.

 

[Blake]

I agree with leaflets not always being worthwhile, but I still say stay clear of the website, there are tons of them and more and more seem to spring up.


and more and more of the tripe if you look. In my opinion they merely feed of the self employed folks that are short of work with the promise of X amount of jobs per week.

 

[oldplumber]

i think these websites are brilliant, they take all your money so you dont have any left to advertise locally, leaving just me in the local rags etc, keep spending on the web sites guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Plumbstar Tom]

of all customer i speak to i do not know of one who looks on the internet for tradesman

many do for a large purchase or insurance but when they want a local tradesman they look in paper or local mags

also leaflet drops are mainly for the off chance that people think i could do with updating my bathroom, or my boiler is making that funny sound. not every leaflet will create a job but if there's a chance?

 

[mrlennie]

Yeah ive found leaflets to be abit useless even though i said "Don't worry I am not a cowboy" on it. Nobody called...

 

[Mr stubbs]

Re: Trust a trader, worth £495 per year?
Please please please! What ever you do don't sign sign up to any of those trader review sites they are not worth the money. They aren't run by tradesmen or ex tradesmen they are run by wanna be entrepreneurs or business minded suits who just want to get rich or richer quick . They are using your hard earned and grafted money to line their pockets so they can drive flash cars and live in big houses while the rest of us real workers wonder when the next job will come along. All of those replies praising these sites are sent by people who run them( notice the length of reply!!!!). They are not happy because all us sensible tradesmen who Sussed them out long ago are stopping them get more money! The best thing we can all do is stop using these pimps and let them crawl back into the gutter where they came from! One of the best forms of advertising is free ! Do a good job and people will recommend you

 

[PlumbBobBob]

wow that was a very forthright first post and i totally agree
welcome to the forums

steveb

 

[everflow09]

trust a trader is a con - bloke rang me promising me loads of work, make we a web site etc. Its just another sticker to put on side of van..
Keep clear

 

[leeone]

These people must be from the dark ages?????????????
I have been using Check A Trade for 5 years (I know it's not trust a trader but exactly the same format) and last year was my worst return from it at £15000, in my opinion that's not a bad return from half a grand.

 

[Atouchofgas]

Same length of time as the post on this subject

 

[lame plumber]

These people must be from the dark ages?????????????
I have been using Check A Trade for 5 years (I know it's not trust a trader but exactly the same format) and last year was my worst return from it at £15000, in my opinion that's not a bad return from half a grand.

costs more than £500 per year though

 

[Micksta]

Hi Conner

I was with Checkatrade when I was in the UK and probably the same deal I covered parts of Surrey and for me it was well worth it, I got plenty of connections from it and quite a lot of work. It would make me laugh when once you have completed the job you hand the client a comment form that was free post and it was mainly score out of ten questions. I used to always get under 5 for time keeping, but when your on the easy job that take 2 hours longer than estimated your always going to be late for the next job. I even came second in their annual golf day.

To qualify I had to get 10 testimonials from clients, when I suggested to a mate that he should join and met him in a pub later with all the paper work. he agreed and then just got 10 of his other mates to fill out the testimonials, I did not realise he was like that, so here's the thing are these sites really for good honest trades people or do the slippery lairs still find a way through and give us all a bad name, because at the end of the day it's all about advertising A.

I'm sure you have a great reputation stick an add in the paper mate you'll see a return.

 

[-=HaZ=-]

Looking through comments people always have and will have there opinion about what is best..... My best source of work is all the selling and trade pages on Facebook which is free, also iv got a lot of work lately through mybuilder and for £12 I have managed to get over £2k worth of work
Leaflets have been great for me aswell especially when I started out.... I delivered around 1000 on a day I wasn't busy and got 2 jobs..... But them 2 jobs payed that days work off and payed all the fees for the leaflets

You have to try every avenue and find which is best for you... Like I say at the moment Facebook is food for me just posting 1 advert on 15 pages once a day.... Trying to do it at different times of the day aswell so you attract different people of different working patterns

 

[H20]

Don't spend you're money there , it would be better to use local advertising or post cards in the local post office and shop notice boards I'm in the same predicament trying to get established its hard

 

[stevetheplumber]

maybe internet use is a london thing but local papers and leaflets definitley dont work in london anymore possibly its a demigraphic thing half my neighbours dont speak english so not likly to read the local rag

 

[jim fennessey]

Too many cowboy companies now trying to supposedly certify tradesmen,I find it all personally repugnant,nobody knows who these people are,and who certifies them and what qualifications do they have,save yourself money word of mouth or advertise,or leaflet drop,try the good old-fashioned way write to companies introduce yourself and your wares,give them a reasonable rate but most importantly always give a guarantee on your work ,trust on both sides always goes far .

 

[Tjdservices]

So you feel the Facebook thing is worthwhile? I'm newly GS registered and am looking for the best way to relaunch my company from plumbing and bathrooms to include the gas work.

 

[hammers4spanner]

Try it