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Commercial Contractors (Idea Feedback)

Idea threads

Thomash905

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This post is a comprehensive explanation of this idea all the way up to what I have now.

The idea: A business marketplace website that connects businesses with contractors to meet any need.
Businesses and contractors can create free accounts. Businesses can post to the marketplace to request bids on a complete project or just sections of a project. Contractors can go onto the marketplace and look for work based on their approved trades. This website will work kind of like Uship.

The website will NOT provide insurance to the contractors or the businesses, all contractors will be required to maintain all insurance required by law. The contractors will be required to maintain proof of insurance to the website to maintain their account.

Benefits to Contractors;
  • Free Account
  • Security of payment from customer as long as contract requirements are met and quality of work requirements are met
  • We take the burden of collections off of your shoulders
  • Offer standard easy to understand contracts
  • Offer service to help you understand customer provided contracts
  • We will review customer contracts to ensure you are signing what you agreed on
  • We will ensure you stay with in the legal requirements of the contracts insurance requirements
  • We will have weekly meetings with you for project updates
  • Conflict resolution between the parties
  • We will remind you of upcoming date (Premium feature)
  • We will keep track of project timelines on a daily basis (Premium feature)
  • We will send you business that comes into your area (Premium feature)
  • We can schedule building inspections (Extra fee)
  • We can pull building permits (Extra fee)

Benefits to Customers;
  • We will ensure your job is completed by qualified and legal contractors
  • We will guarantee a standard quality of work
  • We will provide conflict resolution
  • Offer easy to read contracts
  • We will guarantee completion of work
  • We ensure building permits are pulled
  • We ensure building inspections are done
  • We can review plans and complete RFP's for you (Extra fee)
  • We will provide complete conflict management (Extra Fee)

The main focus of this business is to protect the contractors and ensure quality work for customers. Right now there is a major issue with contractors not getting paid, why yes I agree with the fact that poor quality work that does not meet contractual obligations should not be rewarded, I also agree that there are a lot of good contractors out there that are getting screwed by large commercial customers who are trying to squeeze them for money.

There is a lot of work yet to be done but I have started by learning HTML/CSS.
#BeMyOwnBoss2020
 
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Jon L

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I don't see much in the list of things that you're going to be doing for customers that requires a website. In fact, most of it is very manual, requiring a huge amount of expertise. It sounds like you're essentially playing the role of a general contractor.

Are you a general contractor?
 

GoodluckChuck

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This post is a comprehensive explanation of this idea all the way up to what I have now.

The idea: A business marketplace website that connects businesses with contractors to meet any need.
Businesses and contractors can create free accounts. Businesses can post to the marketplace to request bids on a complete project or just sections of a project. Contractors can go onto the marketplace and look for work based on their approved trades. This website will work kind of like Uship.

The website will NOT provide insurance to the contractors or the businesses, all contractors will be required to maintain all insurance required by law. The contractors will be required to maintain proof of insurance to the website to maintain their account.

Benefits to Contractors;
  • Free Account
  • Security of payment from customer as long as contract requirements are met and quality of work requirements are met
  • We take the burden of collections off of your shoulders
  • Offer standard easy to understand contracts
  • Offer service to help you understand customer provided contracts
  • We will review customer contracts to ensure you are signing what you agreed on
  • We will ensure you stay with in the legal requirements of the contracts insurance requirements
  • We will have weekly meetings with you for project updates
  • Conflict resolution between the parties
  • We will remind you of upcoming date (Premium feature)
  • We will keep track of project timelines on a daily basis (Premium feature)
  • We will send you business that comes into your area (Premium feature)
  • We can schedule building inspections (Extra fee)
  • We can pull building permits (Extra fee)

Benefits to Customers;
  • We will ensure your job is completed by qualified and legal contractors
  • We will guarantee a standard quality of work
  • We will provide conflict resolution
  • Offer easy to read contracts
  • We will guarantee completion of work
  • We ensure building permits are pulled
  • We ensure building inspections are done
  • We can review plans and complete RFP's for you (Extra fee)
  • We will provide complete conflict management (Extra Fee)

The main focus of this business is to protect the contractors and ensure quality work for customers. Right now there is a major issue with contractors not getting paid, why yes I agree with the fact that poor quality work that does not meet contractual obligations should not be rewarded, I also agree that there are a lot of good contractors out there that are getting screwed by large commercial customers who are trying to squeeze them for money.

There is a lot of work yet to be done but I have started by learning HTML/CSS.
#BeMyOwnBoss2020

I'll play devil's advocate.

As a marketer who specializes in construction I have come across dozens of companies trying to do this with a lot of variations.

There's one called Househappy that does something similar for residential remodeling. It's less of a marketplace and more of a conscierge service which is what your idea sounds like as far as the collections part goes. If you're handling the accounting then you must also be doing some sort of inspecting, right? How is the work verified up to standard? What are the standards?

For large commercial construction like public buildings and roads there are already marketplaces out there. Buildzoom is one and there are others where you can bid on public projects.

I would highly recommend doing some serious research into the companies that already exist and look for holes. Companies like Househappy are popping up all over the place. I've talked to at least 5 execs in the last year from various startups targeting this space. Some of them have huge funding and are making deals with huge banks and insurance companies because of the synergy and data sharing.

It would be a shame for you to invest a ton into making something that is already being done bigger and better by multiple startups.

Find out who is doing what and get a clear idea about what you can do that is different. Maybe there's a specific type of construction you can Target. Going commercial is broad, especially if it's Nationwide.

Just my two cents.
 

Thomash905

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I don't see much in the list of things that you're going to be doing for customers that requires a website. In fact, most of it is very manual, requiring a huge amount of expertise. It sounds like you're essentially playing the role of a general contractor.

Are you a general contractor?
This is just the concept behind the idea, the customer will be able to input all of this on their end if they are competent enough or they can ask us to do it for them. In a way we will function as a general contractor but the main thing is automation. This website will be able to function independently of any input on my end. Should either party need assistance then we will provide quick and courteous service. We will great a SUCS event by have a 24/7 line that they can call at anytime to get assistance, we will also ensure the quality of work by monitoring our contractors through random job screening. The main focus of the website is to support contractors, through this mission the customer gets the best quality work at a great price with less worry.
 
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Thomash905

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Dec 30, 2019
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Hallsville, TX
I'll play devil's advocate.

As a marketer who specializes in construction I have come across dozens of companies trying to do this with a lot of variations.

There's one called Househappy that does something similar for residential remodeling. It's less of a marketplace and more of a conscierge service which is what your idea sounds like as far as the collections part goes. If you're handling the accounting then you must also be doing some sort of inspecting, right? How is the work verified up to standard? What are the standards?

For large commercial construction like public buildings and roads there are already marketplaces out there. Buildzoom is one and there are others where you can bid on public projects.

I would highly recommend doing some serious research into the companies that already exist and look for holes. Companies like Househappy are popping up all over the place. I've talked to at least 5 execs in the last year from various startups targeting this space. Some of them have huge funding and are making deals with huge banks and insurance companies because of the synergy and data sharing.

It would be a shame for you to invest a ton into making something that is already being done bigger and better by multiple startups.

Find out who is doing what and get a clear idea about what you can do that is different. Maybe there's a specific type of construction you can Target. Going commercial is broad, especially if it's Nationwide.

Just my two cents.
Thank you I appreciate the input. I do have a lot of work to do, this is far from my final service. I will do research into these companies and see if I can identify a good niche market that is undeserved, from there with a proven profit system I should be able to expand.
 

Duane

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Benefits to Contractors;
  • Free Account
  • Security of payment from customer as long as contract requirements are met and quality of work requirements are met
  • We take the burden of collections off of your shoulders
  • Offer standard easy to understand contracts
  • Offer service to help you understand customer provided contracts
  • We will review customer contracts to ensure you are signing what you agreed on
  • We will ensure you stay with in the legal requirements of the contracts insurance requirements
  • We will have weekly meetings with you for project updates
  • Conflict resolution between the parties
  • We will remind you of upcoming date (Premium feature)
  • We will keep track of project timelines on a daily basis (Premium feature)
  • We will send you business that comes into your area (Premium feature)
  • We can schedule building inspections (Extra fee)
  • We can pull building permits (Extra fee)

I want my contracts created by a lawyer or the Builder's Association, are you going to have a team of lawyers to write these up and adjust as needed? Are you going to be cheaper or better in some way at this? Same thing applies to reviewing customer contracts if I don't understand it.

My team has weekly meetings, and if I needed someone to remind me of upcoming dates and project timelines, I should not be in the business.

Conflicts I should be able to resolve myself and if I can't, I should not be in the business. If it's a big project, an architect is usually involved and things are usually resolved via him.

You can't pull permits, only the contractor can pull the permit. Inspection is apart of the permitting process.

I wouldn't want to pay you to do either of this for me, as I make money on both the permitting process and inspections.



The only thing of value I see you providing is giving me business. Sounds like a B2B home advisor, charge a fee for bringing me business. Then, the customer gets a vetted contractor that has a higher chance of doing a great job and giving them what they want over them just googling a company and hoping for the best.

My question to you is, how are you going to do it better than the home advisors and househappys?
 

Muller21QQQF

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It's an awesome business idea but I've heard something like this, so, if you will start such an idea then you won't be the first who's engaged in something like this. I feel like it would be very beneficial for most contractors and for the potential clients since they will have an easy access to specific workers. For example if someone is looking for a contractor to remodel their bathroom in their area they could just access this site or app (I feel like an app would be better since we are always on our phones these days) which would help people in general. So why don't you think about that?
 
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