What other profession lets other companies do this to them at the very first hurdle? I don’t know any websites that rate, vet and belittle, doctors and solicitors for example, every profession has people who are incompetent or just plan bad people, builders are not any different, but the level of untrustworthiness has been exploited continually, especially TV shows which have vilified them to the point that Tradesmen accept it and will happily undergo excessive vetting just to register on a marketplace.  

When you think of online Marketplaces EBay is the first website that comes to my mind, what is being sold mostly on Ebay? second-hand items that people don’t want, through a bidding system that determines the price, the same thing applies to Builders Marketplaces only in reverse, the lowest price get the job, but you still pay even if you put in an quote or get shortlisted.  It’s a kick in the teeth don’t you think?, so what do you do? price the lowest so you get the job, this translates into low quality work and preying on builders who are struggling, not a good place to be if your just starting out or tiring to fill some gaps.

You get a job, price it (under-price it to get it in the first place) carry out the work, then the customer brings up a snag list as long as your arm, then asks then for add-on work for free, then decides to haggle on price with the threat of a negative review as leverage.  How will you feel after getting paid on that job? yes done over, repeat that a few times a month and it will get you down, life’s too short for that way of living.

There is no doubt that they have a lot of job posts, but if you filter out the I need one baby gate fitted and put up my shelfs, plus the customers who just want a price so they can bargain with their builder, not to mention the shed load of jobs that look fraudulent, it soon reduces down to a few promising jobs.  So you contact the customer get some details and get a price list, work out the qualities submit it and wait and wait, checking every day but no response.  This is how it pans out 95% of the time, speaking of time how much did you waste going through that process for nothing ? Well not nothing as you have either paid to get shortlisted or pay a monthly fee.  

All the above factors lead you into pricing lower, doing extra work for free, paying for being short listed, while being held to ransom with reviews, this equals no confidence in your work, yourself and feeling that you have to hang on to this system.  Your profits are not stable enough to get new employees, you don’t want to invest in new equipment, your running on empty, time to stop and think, this is the reason marketplaces train you to think if your not on here you don’t matter. Harsh but true, but yes Marketplaces aren’t so bad really.

So what have we discovered about Builders marketplaces? Well they make your beloved business into a profile that can only compete on price and reviews, this is not a good place for any tradesperson no matter if starting out or established.  Have you ever bought that new tool used it for an hour and wished you had got it 5 years ago? Get a website from Builders Sites for a reminder.