Technology has changed the way tradesmen make money. No longer must a person straight out of training find a job at an established workplace and try to stay loyal to that one company for forty or fifty years with nothing but a gold watch to look forward to at the end of his long hard journey.
There are a number of online sites and online opportunities where a tradesman can join and list the skills he has to get work referrals. They advertise skills of remote workers.
1. Freelance type websites
On a few websites, an employer posts a job description so that tradesmen can bid on the individual jobs, the price is then negotiated between the employer and the employee. Money is held in escrow by the website and the payment is released to the tradesman when all work is completed, but not before the website skims a commission.
A small list of this kind of website follows;
- Elance
- com
- Upwork
- Guru
- com
If you need help in your trade and would like to outsource some of your work, this type of website could help you find temporary workers or one time project people.You can outsource anything but the most common use of these sites are for programming, web design, writing, sales, customer support, accounting, and legal work.
You can use these sites best as an employer rather than bidding on jobs because the intent of the site is to lower the costs of workers, but every person has his own needs.
Bidvine is a different type of website that markets your business.
Tradesmen are turning to websites to market their services and to find people looking for their services. One such site in Great Britain is MyHammer. It allows tradesmen there to find a large pool of jobs.Free business social networking websites and media tools like blogging and podcasting increase the fortunes of many tradesmen.
2. Online Staffing
Another way to find professional jobs online is with online staffing agencies like Tradesmen Staffing. Clients login to list jobs and employees login to find available jobs. They also offer their clients full payroll services.Other online staffing is widely advertised by;
- tradesmeninternational.com
- indeed.com
- facebook.com/Tradesmen-Staffing-Burley
- monster.com/jobs/c-tradesmen-staffing-llc
- elswoodstaffing.com/elwood-tradesmen6. etc…,etc.
3. Self Promotion
The cheapest platform for a tradesman is the free one. Use PR to gain coverage in local papers, trade magazines, and websites to increase your name recognition and educate the public about your business.Start by researching publications that cover your trade. Once you know the writers that will be interested in your type of business craft a pitch about your skills that will grab their interests. Try to find what kind of stories you could write for their upcoming publications.This kind of free advertising can do wonders for your trade.
Try email marketing to increase lead generation. Email is the most effective digital marketing strategy. You could start a company newsletter and offer information about your services and special promotions to guide customers to you. There are free services like “MailChimp” which help you send automated messages to customers or to businesses you want to become customers.
4. Social Media
Social media can offer you a massive customer potential. To name some likely prospects, I would suggest Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, or Ello. Make sure you offer something that your customers will perceive as valuable. Combine self promotion with an extensive social media campaign for a surprising boost to your professional efforts.
Start small and post a few times a week. You can speed up your posts after you see the reaction from your customers.
Satisfied customers can be your best marketing tool. Actively engage your former customers for referrals and have them contact your list of magazines that you market to. Frugal marketing is the final platform and probably the best for any tradesman to use to make money. Technology has opened many different opportunities for skilled tradesman. It has taken away the drudgery of working like a slave for one’s whole life for a wage that is only a percentage of what the final customer pays.
