At a time when many businesses are struggling and being forced to scale back operations due to the effects of the current economic climate, some businesses have in fact noticed the opposite and are now thriving in the wake of the global financial crisis.
One such business to be noticing a direct boost to business in the current conditions is an Australian online tradesman directory service, eTradesman.com.au, who have recently seen numbers of professional tradesmen signing up at record numbers.
“Business is great. Our numbers are showing an increase in tradesman sign-ups at well over 60% to last year’s figures – it has to be linked to the credit crunch as all other marketing efforts have been consistent to last year” said Matthew Ireland, General Manager.
The business model at eTradesman.com.au relies on tradesmen and professional contractors to advertise their services on this directory-style website with the view to attracting more business from visitors to the website who are seeking specialist tradesmen in their city.
Within Australia, reports suggest that the building industry and demand for associated trades has slowed down as a result of the credit crunch. This has forced tradesmen and skilled trade businesses into stepping up their own advertising efforts to try and bring in the necessary work to stay afloat.
“Times have changed. For a while there tradesmen would be booked out months in advance and so didn’t really see a need to advertise. Whereas now, things have slowed as people are deciding to delay that new kitchen or are trying to save a few bucks by doing it themselves. So now tradesmen are having to chase the work more fiercely and that’s where our growth is coming from”.
“Of course there’s still the many emergency jobs that tradesmen are called out to repair, but it’s the higher end, more planned type jobs that are slowing. People budgeting $30,000 for a renovation want to find and research the best tradesman for the job and that’s when they’ll come to us to compare. Tradesmen without their hat in the ring will miss out”.
