Here's an idea for all you computer savy guys out there

[Likwid24]

<div class="bbWrapper">If there&#039;s anyone here who doesn&#039;t have a fastlane plan yet or if thier looking to do something else , here&#039;s something for ya!<br /> <br /> Build a website to compete with ServiceMagic! They pretty much have a stronghold on the market right now but their service is terrible. I know this from experience. Someone can build a site to compete with them and take them down. <br /> <br /> As some of you know, I am a Painting Contracter (but not for long). Times are tough right now for me for two reasons. <br /> <br /> 1) The economy is pretty bad right now and most people fear spending money unless it&#039;s neccessary. I guess they figure they can hold off on a paint job. <br /> <br /> 2) So many people in my area lost their jobs and I guess one of the easiest jobs for them to start is a painting business. Everyone thinks they can paint but i always end up fixing bad paint jobs. This not only means more competiton for me but these people are also charging unbelievably low prices that I can not compete with<br /> <br /> So I my partner and I decided to try Servicemagic. It&#039;s been one month so far and we have just about broke even. It is not worth the trouble at all but I feel it can easily be fixed and here are my complaints and what I think can be dont to fix them:<br /> <br /> 1) More than half of their leads are Bogus. I recieve the lead then try to contact the customer by phone and email. I get no response from the customer but I am still charged between $30-$50 for each lead depending on what it&#039;s for. Then I have to fight with them to get my money back for a bogus lead and they are very reluctant to credit me. <br /> <br /> What I think probably happens is that someone decides maybe they should get some work done on their house, so they go on the computer, punch some stuff into servicemagics website not realizing that the 3 contracters get the leads and get charged for it. They then decide a few minutes later that they dont want any work or can&#039;t afford it now so they dont answer. <br /> <br /> Another reason can be that a scumbag contractor who is signed up for the service, has family members or friend fill out an estimate request in order to screw the competition.<br /> <br /> 2) When you first sign up, they sweet talk you and don&#039;t tell you about hidden charges. They told us that a free website for our company is included but &quot;forgot&quot; to inform us that there are monthly fees for both our main website and our mobile website<br /> <br /> 3) When we signed up we had told them that we did not want small jobs (which is a seperate category) and that we only wanted larger jobs or commercial jobs. We got hit with about 10 small jobs in the first 2 weeks and are currently fighting to get credits for those leads. They also told us that if we happen to get a lead for a small job it would be no problem getting a credit for it.<br /> <br /> 4) We were getting sick of all these small jobs getting sent to us so we shut off our residential leads. Within a few hours of shutting it off we got a commercial lead and another one the next day. How is it that we didn&#039;t get any in over 2 weeks but all of a sudden we get 2 when we shut off the residential. By the way, they were both bogus. <br /> <br /> I&#039;m not sure if I&#039;m missing anything else but here&#039;s my idea to improve this concept:<br /> <br /> -To prevent bogus leads you can have customers sign up to your site free of charge. Get full information from them such as full name, address, phone #&#039;s, etc...<br /> <br /> -In order for them to get a free estimate, have them give their credit card info. Make it a point that if 1 contractor goes on the estimate then they will not got charged. They will only get charged if they don&#039;t answer their phone or email and make an attempt to schedule an appointment with the contractors. This will prevent people from just filling out the form for the fun of it. It will also prevent J O cotractors from having friends and family screwing with people. <br /> <br /> -Don&#039;t have any hidden fee&#039;s! That really bothers me. <br /> <br /> -Have helpful customer service. Remember that the contractors are your customers, not the home owner<br /> <br /> -Advertise it to contractor&#039;s as a site without the bogus leads. I swear that out of 30 leads, more than half of them were B S!! <br /> <br /> -Make sure every contractor is legit. Licensed, Insured, the whole 9 yards. I actually gave a quote to a customer on a job that required lots of labor for $3500. They loved us but told us that a husband and wife team (yes you read that right) gave them an estimate of $1500!!!! That&#039;s absolutely insane. They probably had no insurance, no overhead and had no idea what they were getting themselves into. <br /> <br /> -Have some kind of customer rep program so contractors know which customer&#039;s are really legit. <br /> <br /> I&#039;m sure there are other improvements too but that&#039;s what I can think of right now.<br /> <br /> They are the leaders of the industry right now in a very large market. They have thousands of contractor&#039;s across the country signed up. If a % of their contractor&#039;s can be taken away then you might have a nice little business!<br /> <br /> Hope someone can do something with this!</div>

 

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[aptohosting]

<div class="bbWrapper">You seem like the perfect person to do this, you know all of the problems and how to improve it. Why not get in the Fastlane and start this business yourself? I am sure you already have quite a few contacts in the industry that you could get on board.</div>

 

[Likwid24]

<div class="bbWrapper">Forgot to add for those that dont know. I know nothing about programming and inventing is my fastlane path. Way too busy with other stuff to take this on. Im focusing on my prodcts right know. Thats why I threw this out there.</div>

 

[Darkside]

<div class="bbWrapper">Maybe a monthly fee instead of a fee being charged per lead? You&#039;ve done a good job explaining the downside of having a lead based system. What sort of monthly fee would you be willing to pay to have access to unlimited customers? $20 a month? $50 a month?</div>

 

[Pat]

<div class="bbWrapper">Coding that would be quite easy. I recon marketing would be more of a challenge though...</div>

 

[Darkside]

<div class="bbWrapper"><blockquote data-attributes="" data-quote="Pat" data-source="post: 165442" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=165442" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-165442">Pat said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> Coding that would be quite easy. I recon marketing would be more of a challenge though... </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote> <br /> Marketing to contractors wouldn&#039;t be too difficult. The difficult part would be getting ordinary people to visit when they need a contractor. The cost per acquisition there would be much higher.</div>

 

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[Likwid24]

<div class="bbWrapper">Right now I pay $40 per lead and receive about 20 leads per month. So paying even $100 a month would save me a ton of money.</div>

 

[callmelucid]

<div class="bbWrapper">DUDE! you literally sound like MJ except MJ pursued his website and you aren&#039;t. i don&#039;t know you or how loaded your life is with work, but you have a solid business idea with a solid knowledge base of the industry. you should be the prime candidate to figure this thing out and bank millions.<br /> <br /> if you still don&#039;t believe me, just buy and read MJ&#039;s book and i think it will change your mind. like literally MJ has the same story and the same business idea<br /> <br /> best of luck!</div>

 

[Likwid24]

<div class="bbWrapper"><blockquote data-attributes="" data-quote="callmelucid" data-source="post: 165514" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=165514" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-165514">callmelucid said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> DUDE! you literally sound like MJ except MJ pursued his website and you aren&#039;t. i don&#039;t know you or how loaded your life is with work, but you have a solid business idea with a solid knowledge base of the industry. you should be the prime candidate to figure this thing out and bank millions. </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> Read this and it will explain why I can&#039;t and won&#039;t do it. This is why I&#039;m giving the idea to all the members of this forum who don&#039;t have a plan yet. <br /> <br /> <a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/fastlane-millionaire-stories/30969-my-path-fastline.html" class="link link--internal">https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/fastlane-millionaire-stories/30969-my-path-fastline.html</a><br /> <br /> <blockquote data-attributes="" data-quote="" data-source="" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> if you still don&#039;t believe me, just buy and read MJ&#039;s book and i think it will change your mind. like literally MJ has the same story and the same business idea </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> C&#039;mon man. Don&#039;t you think I read it already. In fact I read it twice and if you go and read it again you&#039;ll see where he says to focus on one thing. Put all your effort into your one fastlane plan because if you try to do too many things at once your destined for failure. The product I&#039;m developing now is taking all my time and effort and when I succeed with this first product, I have many more. I&#039;m not going to let something like learning to build a website interfere with my main goal. My focus is entirely on inventing.</div>

 

[kwerner]

<div class="bbWrapper">Hey Likwid - you might want to check out using <a href="http://bidclerk.com" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="noopener">BidClerk</a> for leads. Costs $80 a month, and you can test it out for 3 days for $6. Basically they offer unlimited monthly leads, residential and commercial.<br /> <br /> A while back I was looking at construction lead gen due to all of the complaints that people had about ServiceMagic and there were several contractors on the ContractorTalk Forum that said they had much better success using BidClerk, so I thought I would pass that info along to you.<br /> <br /> <br /> ServiceMagic has a long history of bad customer service and a ton of complaints against them, they&#039;re kind of like the Bank of America of contracting leads. They&#039;re so big and so well known that even though their service is shitty, people still put up with them because they don&#039;t know of any other options.<br /> <br /> Here&#039;s a few websites listing contractor / consumer complaints against them:<br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.contractortalk.com/f100/no-service-magic-56796/" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="noopener">ContractorTalk Forum</a><br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.ripoffreport.com/directory/service-magic.aspx" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="noopener">Ripoff Report</a><br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.complaintsboard.com/?search=servicemagic&amp;complaints=Complaints" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="noopener">Complaints Board</a><br /> <br /> And there&#039;s about a million others. <img src="/community/imgs/emoticons/em-smile2.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-shortname=":)" /> Good luck to you!</div>

 

[rocksolid]

<div class="bbWrapper">I was making a website that would compete with them. It&#039;s called proneeded.com. I am actually selling it becuase I was never able to get it up and running and then my attention got diverted.</div>

 

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[mtnman]

<div class="bbWrapper">lol Every one of my local clients hates Service Magic... They are part of the reason why my job used to be so easy. (snagging clients and bringing value)<br /> <br /> I&#039;ve thought about what you propose. I may even have the means to do it. However, catering to contractors as a whole might be a bit of a bear. You could niche it down to just painters though and scale if successful.<br /> <br /> I guess the question is, would you want to deal with 100k of you? (painting companies nationwide)</div>

 

[Stu_Hefner]

<div class="bbWrapper">It&#039;s a good idea. How exactly does the service run? Does the person hiring just recieve quotes from contractors that match up with the data? and what occurs after. Do the contractors need to follow up with these clients?<br /> <br /> Just curious to grasp the entire concept. Hopefully since you have used the service you can guide me through the process, Likwid24.</div>

 

[Likwid24]

<div class="bbWrapper">Here check it out. They pretty much explain everything. If you have any more questions I&#039;ll be glad to answer. <br /> <a href="https://pros.servicemagic.com/?activeTab=Home&amp;link_id=14489" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="noopener">https://pros.servicemagic.com/?activeTab=Home&amp;link_id=14489</a><br /> <br /> I&#039;ve also tried out bidclerk.com but my company isn&#039;t suited for that type of work. It&#039;s mostly jobs that are over a million $ and you need to be fully bonded. I only found one residential paint job on there and no small commercial paint jobs. <br /> <br /> Another one I tried was Findmealocalpainter.com. So far I&#039;ve been signed up over a week and I&#039;ve only received 3 leads that were for really small jobs or in neighborhoods I&#039;d rather not work in. Good thing is that I don&#039;t have to pay for them. They show you part of the lead and if you like it, you can buy it. They only sell to 3 contractors.</div>

 

[DocBrown]

<div class="bbWrapper">Thanks Likwid24! This looks like a good opportunity. I might give it a shot. The only challenge I see is coming up with a good, brand-able domain name.</div>

 

[semsniper]

<div class="bbWrapper">I think it&#039;s a pretty good idea also....<br /> <br /> And I can relate, although from the other side of it.<br /> I recently needed an HVAC person to check out some issues i was having at home with my A/C and furnace.<br /> I filled out a form and it said I would receive 3 quotes and I never received a single quote or anyone even contact me.<br /> <br /> As an Internet guy, I might look into this further for myself.</div>

 

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[Likwid24]

<div class="bbWrapper"><blockquote data-attributes="" data-quote="kwerner" data-source="post: 165584" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=165584" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-165584">kwerner said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> Hey Likwid - you might want to check out using BidClerk for leads. Costs $80 a month, and you can test it out for 3 days for $6. Basically they offer unlimited monthly leads, residential and commercial. </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> <br /> Hey, I checked out BidClerk. Its more of a site for big time contractors. Most Projects for bid are in the millions. I would have to have a fairly large company to get involved in work like that. I am still signed up though because I&#039;m using it to find a certain type of project for something else I&#039;m working on. I do highly recommend them for anyone with a huge contracting biz. <br /> <br /> After hours of searching on Google, I still couldn&#039;t find anything to compete directly with ServiceMagic. They have a huge market and I&#039;m surprised they don&#039;t have any major competitors. There are companies trying to compete but none of those companies are a threat to them. It&#039;s amazing how much control of the market they have with their terrible customer service, ridiculous prices and dead end leads.</div>

 

[semsniper]

<div class="bbWrapper">You know what&#039;s funny?<br /> <br /> I actually heard a radio advertisement in the car this afternoon for them.<br /> If I had&#039;t been in this thread, i wouldn&#039;t have paid any attention</div>

 

[kwerner]

<div class="bbWrapper"><blockquote data-attributes="" data-quote="Likwid24" data-source="post: 167869" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=167869" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-167869">Likwid24 said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> After hours of searching on Google, I still couldn&#039;t find anything to compete directly with ServiceMagic. They have a huge market and I&#039;m surprised they don&#039;t have any major competitors. There are companies trying to compete but none of those companies are a threat to them. </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> <br /> LOL, they have tons of competitors. It&#039;s probably more saturated than you think, but of course that doesn&#039;t mean there&#039;s not money to be made in the niches. <br /> <br /> I&#039;d say YellowPages / SuperPages / AngiesList are a few of their top competitors. Then there&#039;s several mid-sized sites, e.g. 1800contractor.com, contractors.com, contractor.com, mrhandyman.com, etc. Then a BUNCH of small-ish sites.</div>

 

[Brad Huntsman]

<div class="bbWrapper">this was the google ad at the top of this page - <a href="http://localpainterquotes.com" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="nofollow ugc noopener">House Painters | Painting Estimate | Painting Quote</a></div>

 

[Likwid24]

<div class="bbWrapper"><blockquote data-attributes="" data-quote="Brad Huntsman" data-source="post: 168294" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=168294" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-168294">Brad Huntsman said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> this was the google ad at the top of this page - <a href="http://localpainterquotes.com" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="nofollow ugc noopener">House Painters | Painting Estimate | Painting Quote</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote> <br /> Thanks! That must be new because I&#039;ve searched quite a few times over the last 2 months and haven&#039;t seen that one yet. I&#039;ll try them out!</div>

 

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[CommonCents]

<div class="bbWrapper">What about taking the service magic type model to other trades that may not have one?<br /> <br /> Is roto rooter the same? I got prices from them once and they charged a freakin fortune but they have an advantage of brand awareness and people have last min plumbing emergencies and are willing to pay high prices. I mean outrageous prices. I was quoted $400 to hook up a pedastal sink and install a new toilet with all rough plumbing done, just to hook the stuff up.</div>

 

[Brad Huntsman]

<div class="bbWrapper"><blockquote data-attributes="" data-quote="Likwid24" data-source="post: 168333" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=168333" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-168333">Likwid24 said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> Thanks! That must be new because I&#039;ve searched quite a few times over the last 2 months and haven&#039;t seen that one yet. I&#039;ll try them out! </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote> <br /> Thank you for bringing up the topic. Exemplifies the idea of this forum where we are here to help each other. I have been thoroughly following your story in your posts. <br /> <br /> I have a special interest in this topic because this is the road I&#039;m studying to see if it is my fastlane. It seems like it is very doable. I&#039;ve read every piece of info I can get my hands on and may sometime write a post about what i&#039;ve learned. But what I&#039;ve learned says different/conflicting information. <br /> <br /> I see it very difficult to make something to really compete with ServiceMagic. They may do a poor job, but they are the biggest. <br /> What I&#039;ve come to discover is it is best to start with one niche in one local and build from there. Become an expert in that service area and locality. Become more of an expert than the company owners are. Do your best to service those clients (one company or several) and once you have it figured out for that one area, expand your radius. Once you have as many towns/states.. scale the service to another niche. It looks like that is what <a href="http://localpainterquotes.com/" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="nofollow ugc noopener">http://localpainterquotes.com</a>)/ has done. They also do other niches. <br /> <br /> My niche is an area that I can&#039;t find in ServiceMagic or other similar company. I worked for a couple years in an industry that still does door to door sales. While at the door, if we could keep it off our noses, we would get the person interested, take some measurements, quote them, and sign them up. But, while doing this, I talked to so many people who had the wrong company (not saying that my company was the right company for them). Different companies do better at different things. And each homeowner thinks different areas of more important than others. <br /> <br /> So, i&#039;ve come up with a way to quantify a companies customer satisfaction compared with what a home owner finds most important (a sliding scale) and then compares it, based on price, with other companies to see which company has the highest customer satisfaction, and if there is a company that they would be just as happy (or more) cheaper. I&#039;ve finished the back end calculations, and database, charting system. Now I&#039;m working on the website. <br /> <br /> I&#039;m still having trouble figuring out how to pass along (word/promote) the details and benefits of this system to the home owner as well as the local companies to convince them that they need to buy these leads from me (and that these leads are more valuable than, say, servicemagic leads because they are targeted, you know what their focus/problems is/are (and many of them will already be using a company (already a buyer)). <br /> <br /> Any Thoughts?<br /> <br /> UPDATE: localpainterquotes has gotten 14,000 visitors this month. If even 10% converted into leads (and I would expect more than that did) and if they sold those leads to 3 companies (like they say the do - 3 quotes) for $20 (i would expect quite a bit more) that&#039;s $84000 this last month. Not Too Shabby.</div>

 

[BillyShears]

<div class="bbWrapper">I&#039;d like to see an online niche play for each individual service that i need as opposed to ServiceMagic.<br /> <br /> For example, I recently came across a crowdsourced lawn maintenance business: <a href="http://www.LawnMowingOnline.com" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="nofollow ugc noopener">LawnOnlineOnline.com</a> I&#039;ll probably never use them, but it is a fascinating idea. It&#039;s different from an &quot;Angie&#039;sList&quot; or &quot;ServiceMagic&quot;. The buyer never has to interact with the service provider. Instead of &quot;leads&quot;, it&#039;s providing &quot;sold business&quot;. The service provider just shows up with his/her mower. <br /> <br /> You&#039;re probably thinking, &quot;Yeah, but you can&#039;t do that with __________, because nobody will pay upfront.&quot; I thought so, too, until I saw an ad for Lowe&#039;s carpet special and read the fine print. Carpet is one of those things that I thought wouldn&#039;t work. Most trades (painting, plumbing, etc) are those things, too. What Lowe&#039;s does (online &amp; in store) is simple: they require a very minor measurement fee of $30-$50 for whatever it is you want to buy. The measuring fee is considered a non-refundable deposit that is applicable to the purchase of __________. So, instead of paying for leads, Lowes makes you pay them to be somewhat obligated to use them. <br /> <br /> Now, Lowe&#039;s probably did it in response to having a ton of wishy-washy customers and not being able to convert them to sales. BUT, that doesn&#039;t mean that you can&#039;t start your business out that way. And you probably should. Why would you want to waste a second on someone who may ultimately decide to not buy carpet this year? or whatever.<br /> <br /> So, here&#039;s the give away: <br /> <a href="http://www.palmtrimmingonline.com" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="nofollow ugc noopener">www.palmtrimmingonline.com</a> is available. Build a site just like the lawn guy. I paid $30 per tree x 6 trees this year. The customer only has to know their name, address, credit card number and how many trees they have. A tree trimmer would probably be pretty glad to not spend a lot of time putting business cards in my front door. (and I don&#039;t mean for this to be an idea for LikWid . . . I know you have other priorities)<br /> <br /> <script class="js-extraPhrases" type="application/json"> { "lightbox_close": "Close", "lightbox_next": "Next", "lightbox_previous": "Previous", "lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.", "lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow", "lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow", "lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen", "lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails", "lightbox_download": "Download", "lightbox_share": "Share", "lightbox_zoom": "Zoom", "lightbox_new_window": "New window", "lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar" } </script> <div class="bbImageWrapper js-lbImage" title="n500667216_2446953_1437613.jpg" data-src="/community/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fa3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net%2Fphotos-ak-ash1%2Fv651%2F179%2F29%2F500667216%2Fn500667216_2446953_1437613.jpg%3Fdl%3D1&amp;hash=d273482283e6f7fa14a2eb02f7204a71" data-lb-sidebar-href="" data-lb-caption-extra-html="" data-single-image="1"> <img src="/community/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fa3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net%2Fphotos-ak-ash1%2Fv651%2F179%2F29%2F500667216%2Fn500667216_2446953_1437613.jpg%3Fdl%3D1&amp;hash=d273482283e6f7fa14a2eb02f7204a71" data-url="http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-ash1/v651/179/29/500667216/n500667216_2446953_1437613.jpg?dl=1" class="bbImage" data-zoom-target="1" style="" alt="n500667216_2446953_1437613.jpg" title="" width="" height="" loading="lazy" /> </div></div>

 

[Brad Huntsman]

<div class="bbWrapper">@likwid - Could you post an update if you use that painting lead service of what it&#039;s like / how it&#039;s different from what you&#039;ve tried before?</div>

 

[30yomillionaire]

<div class="bbWrapper">On the bright side - that post made me turn off the PC &amp; goto sleep<br /> <br /> Besides - MJ - sry I mean ME - would never like this idea anyways - too much people bznz</div>

 

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[rocksolid]

<div class="bbWrapper">LIke I said earlier I stared a website called proneeded.com to compete with service magic. Since I took on another project I was not able to complete my website although most of it is there and you can see what it looks like. I had a buyer for it but it did not work out so it is back on the market. If anybody is interested, let me know.<br /> <br /> There are 2 different ways that you could make money. The site is set up so a person like yourself would post for free a job like paint your house. Then painters that signed up for your service would find your ad and place a bid to do the work so the #1 way I was going to make money was to have the business subscribe to the website and then they could search the site for people that need work done in their field and place a bid to do the work. The other way you could try to make money is buy offering it free on both parties and take a % of what the final bid was once the work is completed. I think the first way would be easier to do.</div>

 

[CommonCents]

<div class="bbWrapper">I have a project on something similar but not quite. More like angies list for consumers but looking to monetize by a commission/groupon type deals. This would involve recurring services as well in an effort to create some residual revenue. My sticking point would be protecting myself after the initial deal so the contractor doesnt go straight to homeowner to cut me out. Any ideas on how to deal with that as best I can? How do I control the deal/transaction on a recurring basis?</div>

 

[Likwid24]

<div class="bbWrapper"><blockquote data-attributes="" data-quote="Brad Huntsman" data-source="post: 168693" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=168693" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-168693">Brad Huntsman said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> @likwid - Could you post an update if you use that painting lead service of what it&#039;s like / how it&#039;s different from what you&#039;ve tried before? </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> <br /> So far I tried Servicemagic, BidClerk and Findmealocalpainter.com. <br /> <br /> You know how I feel about Servicemagic.<br /> <br /> BidClerk is probably a good site for companies that are bonded and do millions in work per year. <br /> <br /> FindmeaLocalPainter - I just joined a few weeks ago and have only received a couple leads from them for relatively small jobs. The one lead I did buy, the owner made an excuse that He just redid his floors and I couldn&#039;t get in the house to see it. He wanted a price over the phone, which I will never do. <br /> <br /> Overall I came to the conclusion that maybe a lead gen site isn&#039;t so good in the painting industry. Word of mouth and some local advertising probably works best. I don&#039;t know about you, but most people I know ask a friend or a neighbor if they know a good painter. That&#039;s how I get 90% of my business. Do a good job and your customer will refer you to friends and family. I even set up a referral program which seems to be working pretty well.<br /> <br /> I think one of the reasons I&#039;m having a little trouble finding some work now is because people are weary of our countries economic situation. People just aren&#039;t spending money like they used to and when they do, their spending it on necessities. Painting isn&#039;t a necessity unless your selling your house or you just purchased a new house. I also think that most homeowners are just doing it themselves since painting is probably one of the easiest things to do on your own. I&#039;m not saying it&#039;s easy to do a good job, just that people can do it good enough to deal with until they have money to get it professionally done. <br /> <br /> On the other hand, summers are usually slow in New York because most people go away or enjoy their summer. It really pics up in September. That&#039;s when I&#039;m always swamped with work.</div>

 

[Brad Huntsman]

<div class="bbWrapper"><blockquote data-attributes="" data-quote="CommonCents" data-source="post: 168757" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=168757" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-168757">CommonCents said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> My sticking point would be protecting myself after the initial deal so the contractor doesnt go straight to homeowner to cut me out. Any ideas on how to deal with that as best I can? How do I control the deal/transaction on a recurring basis? </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> I&#039;m in the same situation. My niche CAN be recurring. But I can&#039;t figure out a way to make it work that way. I know that the companies would, as soon as I set them up, take the lead (and residual income). The companies that have salespeople, don&#039;t pay their sales people on the backend (year after year). The pretend like it&#039;s a non issue, but most of the homeowners use the service for 5-10 years. That&#039;s a much bigger &quot;new customer value&quot; than they are willing to admit. But, I don&#039;t see a way to make it work. So, I will focus on one year at a time.<br /> <br /> The benefit of my service is that it&#039;s not a lead gen company only, but a &quot;Let us help you evaluate your companies service and if they aren&#039;t doing better than their competition, let me get the better companies to give you a free quote&quot;. So, each year, they may try a different company. I won&#039;t push them to switch, but if their not happy, let us help you find just the right company.<br /> <br /> If your niche is like that, maybe that will work for you too.<br /> <br /> I&#039;ve also considered some way of taking payment from the Home Owner and forwarding it to the company each scheduled service. I could take advantage of any prepay discounts. I could charge the customer a couple dollars over each time. Lots of ways to make a little extra, but I know I would get stuck with the bill too often to want to mess with it.<br /> <br /> Hope that helps.</div>