Nailed is a great website for anyone wanting tips on the building process. Everything from renovating to building new.
We’re currently building a house on the back of our section…
… and nailed has helped us gain knowledge about the contractual and council issues we’re facing.
The Availabuild diary feature is now optional.
Current subscribing tradespeople get to decide whether they’d like to keep displaying their schedule throughout the site or just have a web presence with no diary.
Subscribers can simply log in to their profile and turn the diary on or off.
Note that all diaries that haven’t been updated for a month have
been turned off automatically.
Subscribers can re-activate their diary feature at any time. Previously set dates will remain intact.
As a self-employed tradesman, have you ever wondered if being out on your own is all worth it?
It’d be worth a read of these books. The E-Myth / The E-Myth Revisited.
In it, the author Gerber, says… “For most business owners, You start working for someone else. Then, you decide you could do better. So, you set up on your own. But, you get caught up in the technical work and forget the dream.”
So, is it all worth it? Being out on your own that is. The Government surely enjoy all the regulatory costs you pass their way for being out on your own.
“….Fatal assumption: If you understand the technical work of a business, you understand a business that does the technical work. The technical work of a business and a business that does technical work are two totally different things. To the technician, the business is not a business but a place to go to work. The carpenter stays a carpenter.“
How’s that? Gerber even uses a carpenter as an example.
So, how to escape the grind? Gerber says “…Pretend that your business will be the prototype for 5,000 more exactly like it. The true product of the business is the business itself - sell the business, not the product. Discipline, standardization and order are the keys. Eliminate discretion.
The best and most exciting part about being out on your own then is surely that you can scale! You can scale the business beyond your team of 3, 5, 10, to whatever the market will allow. So the decision would be to either a) work for wages, and if you’re good, demand higher wages and be paid what you’re worth or b) scale to the point where being out on your own is worth all the hassle compliance.
This obviously has far reaching implications for the trade industry. But, it’d be pretty cool if your business was the one that lasted, because its processes and systems enabled you to develop the business beyond your personal time constraints.
It’s obviously a necessity in commerce related websites to have both the chicken and the egg for action to take place.
One of the challenges in the early days however, seems that you need to make sure you don’t have too much of either the chicken or the egg at once. Letting them grow together has to be the best (but isn’t always the fastest) approach.
I guess it’s about having both the buyer and the seller user rate growing steadily. This can be a challenge, as patience is required. But we’re sure the best, not the fastest, wins in the end.
In the meantime we keep reminding ourselves… slow and steady wins the race.
Tradesmen now automatically get their own web address on Availabuild. The address is derived from their company name. See an example here ….. it’s shown as the ‘quick link’.
We’re aiming to make it easy for tradesmen to get their businesses on the web. Giving them their own basic web address (related to their business name) when they register seems to fit that aim.
What do you think?
We’ve been invited to a sales presentation on how radio advertising can benefit our business. I’ll go along and enjoy the biscuits.
All marketers are liars author Seth Godon has said that what is called ‘interruption marketing’ is on the way out, and that this traditional marketing has become less effective at about the same rate that it has become more expensive.
I notice no cowboys have stopped advertising on the radio. Is this format sustainable given the results? I was told these guys spent $400k developing their site. I’m sure a whole bunch of that was marketing spend. What was ferrits marketing spend last year? …$15m, and this year? …I heard $30m.
We’d have spent that on developing and improving our product offering. I’d love to know what they’d do given the chance again.
Here’s a great tool to help any team complete a project, one-off or ongoing. It’s called Basecamp.
Totally web-based with the ability to set milestones, place to-do lists, add comments and post messages. We’re using it for Availabuild and it’s been a real asset.
Much better than using email.
There’s a free version which isn’t too shabby. If you want to send attachments etc. there’s also an upgrade version.
Interesting article by Paul Graham on How to be Silicon Valley. I see alot of parallels with Wellington.
Here’s our latest update… ‘Photos’ feature for tradesmen to show their workmanship. Helps to inform our users that much more about the trade company they’re enquiring about.
Nailed.co.nz. Helpful if you’re building/renovating and want some objective info and tips.
