Morning guys and girls, hope you're keeping well. I want to get something off my chest this morning guys.
I've just seen a post on Trial Talk, somebody's said that a property company's been in touch with him,
offering him leads, offering him to give him leads throughout the year for an initial fee of £2,500 plus VAT,
plus they said they take 4% of each one job and all this bollocks and it's just, nothing boils my piss more than seeing hard working honest trades people being taken advantage of.
And this week I was already irritated if I'm honest because yesterday I heard Checker Trade's new advert campaign that they've rolled out
and it's basically all built around like Julius Caesar is the theme and I don't know if you know the story of Julius Caesar but I don't fully know the story,
all I know is that he was betrayed by friends etc. So there's like treachery, the theme's like treachery
and he's basically saying, in an abbreviated version he's basically saying when I need a trades person I don't trust them,
I trust Checker Trade because I know that their customer reviews are real.
And I just thought what a kick in the nutsack, you know. I just feel like the audacity of Checker Trade to tar hard working tradesmen with this brush
and to sort of throw us under the bus like that is bang out of order.
And reading that post yesterday about this property company coming on, you know, trying to charge lads an initial fee of two and a half grand plus VAT
to sell them leads. Guys, leads, internet leads is big business. It is big business.
And as trades people, people know that we don't know how to generate leads in general, right?
We don't know how to generate leads. So they take advantage of us.
Okay, they prey on us because they know self-employed, work's going to run thin on the ground,
and we're going to get anxious, stressed, and we're going to become desperate.
So then they prey on us, right? And they charge us extortionate amounts of money
to give us people's mobile phone numbers.
Guys, this is all stuff we can do ourselves.
Got some information for you, right? Not only did Checker Trade mug us off, okay?
Throw us under the bus and make us out to be rogues and crooks.
Think about this, right? The economy's made up of thousands of small businesses, right?
What other businesses do you see having to be checked?
Think of the name, Checker Trade.
So do you ever see, like, Checker Hairdresser?
Checker Solicitor? Checker Cakemaker?
Checker Pig Farmer? Do you know what I mean?
Think of all the little businesses that the economy relies on every day.
You and I both know there's good businesses and there's bad businesses.
You've probably had good experiences in restaurants.
You've probably had shit experiences in restaurants.
You've probably had good experiences in hairdressers.
Bad experiences in hairdressers.
I haven't got that problem, as you can see.
You've probably had good experiences with kids' party organisations.
Whatever it is.
Fucking anything.
Think of a business.
Pick a business.
But is there an organisation branding this group of businesses as crooks that need to be checked?
There isn't.
And you could argue, well, the building trades, you know, there's no entry barriers.
Yeah, that's a fair comment.
But what about all the other thousands of businesses that don't have any kind of entry barriers either?
They're not being branded as crooks that need to be checked.
So it just boils my piss.
I know what the biggest kicker is as well.
Check this out.
Do you know how much Checker Trade made last year?
This will make you sick.
£55.6 million.
£55.6 million from your pocket.
So if you remember a Checker Trade, right, if you've got that brand on your van, just have a think about that.
Think about how they portray hard-working tradesmen, right, how they brand us.
Unless, of course, you're with them, then you're a good tradesman that can be trusted.
Think of how they paint us in their campaigns so that they can earn these millions of pounds that they earn a year, right?
I just want you to have a think about that because you've got two options in my view.
You can either build your own brand or you can go and, you know, wear their brand and have their brand all over your van and all over your website, you know.
And I understand from the tradesperson's perspective, it's like, well, I don't know how to get work.
And, you know, I've heard these guys can get us work.
So who cares?
Who cares if it costs me 300 a month if I'm getting two grand worth of leads?
The problem is, guys, is that they're creating a fucking monopoly over the marketplace.
So they're trying to push us into a corner.
So basically every tradesperson will have to sign up and become, you know, part of the clique.
Otherwise, you know, there's not going to be enough to go around.
And that's what they're doing.
They're creating a monopoly.
So think about, like, Just Eat, for example.
All the little local restaurants and Chinese and Indians.
Basically, they've been backed into a corner.
And if they're not on Just Eat now, they're fucked.
And I think they take something like 7% or I'm not sure the exact amount that they charge.
It's like the fucking mafia.
It's craziness.
And it's because we don't know how, in general, tradespeople, plasterers, they don't know how to generate their own organic leads.
So they're paying thousands and thousands.
55.6 million pounds.
That's a piss take.
What have you earned last year?
And don't forget, they're taking money from hardworking tradespeople, right?
Then they're branding us as crooks.
Then they're selling us customers' phone numbers.
Ridiculous.
Guys, we can generate our own leads organically using Google.
That's where CheckerTrade gets all their fucking leads from, is the internet.
So I just wanted to have a little rant about that today.
Boils my piss.
£2,500 plus that and we'll give you some leads for some new build sites.
And we'll take 4%.
And lads, this time of year as well, this is when they'll come out.
This is when the wolves will come out to prey on you.
Because they know December, January, February, March, those four difficult months for tradespeople.
They'll come out and they'll prey on you.
They'll come and dangle that carrot for you.
Stand strong.
Don't fall for that bullshit.
Okay.
Build your own brand.
Your own local brand in your local area.
Okay.
Go old school.
You know.
Do you know a good barber?
Yeah.
Use Joe Bloggs there.
He's fantastic.
You know.
That's what you want.
You want that referral strength.
You don't want to be relying on these fucking parasitical, if that's even a word.
These parasites that come after you when you're down and when you're low on work.
Selling your leads for thousands and thousands of pounds that they get for pennies off the internet.
Have a think about that.
And by the way, don't spend two and a half thousand quid for new build site leads either.
Because it's all bollocks.
Okay.
It's all bullshit.
And away.
I've had my little say.
And I feel calm now.
So have a good weekend.
And let me know what your thoughts are in the comments.
Have a good one.