Builderscrack.co.nz is a web-based start-up cofounded by long term friends Mark Dickson and Keith Roberts, and entrepreneur Jeremy Wyn-Harris. The original idea was born when Mark’s wife, after a few bad experiences with the Yellow Pages, felt that there should be a better way of linking homeowners with tradesmen (& tradeswomen) in New Zealand. The idea of taking this service online seemed like the perfect way to bridge the gap and so Mark rounded up the team and got together to create the first Builderscrack.co.nz proto-type in 2006.

In March 2007, following a year of development and testing, Builderscrack.co.nz was released to the market, providing homeowners with an easy to use self-service tool to get and compare quotes from qualified tradesman for their home renovation and repair jobs. As tradespeople are reviewed and rated,  you can be sure when you are using someone trust worthy who will do a good job.

What were you doing before you launched Buildercrack.co.nz?

I was working as a research scientist writing computer models when my wife came up with the idea for Builderscrack.co.nz in early 2006.

Are you the only director or do you have a business partner?

A friend introduced me to Jeremy Wyn-Harris, a software developer and entrepreneur from Christchurch, and straight away the two of us started work. When we had a proto-type for the website together I got in touch with Keith Roberts, an old friend of mine with lots of business experience, and after four years the three of us remain as the company Directors today. The three of us are still heavily involved in the day to day running of the business, but we also employ a small team to help out in several key areas to make sure that we provide a great service for homeowners and tradespeople.

Where did you grow up?

Keith and I grew up on the Kapiti Coast, Jeremy is originally from Waipukurau, but has been in Christchurch for many years. I now live in Auckland.

Were there many costs involved in developing the backend of the website?

The costs were significant. We pride ourselves on the fact that we have done all of the technical development work in-house. It’s a huge effort, but there is no substitute for being able to listen to customers and change things to optimise their experience.

What was the most difficult stage of launching the business from start to finish?

I don’t think we are anywhere near the finish yet. The first couple of years were probably the hardest so far. The temptation is to try to scale as fast as possible, but for the first couple of years after launch we piled our resources into continually improving our service based on customer feedback. During the same period of time competitors came and went after having splashed big marketing budgets, but we grew organically through positive word of mouth and now, after nearly five years we have been able to substantially grow our advertising budget. That said, customer referrals are still our most important source of growth and we continue to place our main emphasis on making sure that people who post jobs on our site have a great experience.

What do you get most out of owning your own business?

It’s extremely exciting to watch the growth of something that you have built from nothing. We’ve always fundamentally believed that we’re offering a new and better service than that which currently exists. The best validation of that is our customer feedback. We get hundreds of emails thanking for us for the service provided – I’d invite people to look at them at http://builderscrack.co.nz/feedback, but here’s one of the most recent emails sent to us: “After hours wasted from trawling through the Yellow pages calling tradesmen who never returned by calls I was fortunate enough to discover Builderscrack. I was very impressed with how easy it was to load a job and astounded at the level and speed of interest the small job received. Communicating with tradesmen was easy and we were quickly able to arrange for quotes and ultimately select a tradesman.” Matt, Lower Hutt (August 2010)

What business advice would you give our young entrepreneurial readers?

Well, our approach with Builderscrack.co.nz was firstly a genuine belief that we had a service that was better than that which currently existed. A key part on any success we’ve had was forming a team of people who shared that belief and had the skills, experience and work ethic necessary to get the thing off the ground. In addition, it’s been imperative for us to listen carefully to what our customers want and then change things to make the service as good as it can be. In many respects if you do this well then growth comes naturally.

What do you have planned for the future of Builderscrack.co.nz?

We’re still very much focused on growth and have lots of plans in motion to help build on the customer referrals.  We don’t want to give too much away yet, but there are a number of additional features and services that we are working on to ensure we provide the best experience to New Zealander’s looking for tradespeople. We are also looking at different options for taking the business internationally.

Builderscrack.co.nz – let good tradespeople chase you for a change!

How it works for homeowners:

Builderscrack.co.nz invites people to post the renovation or repair work they need done, with the option of including photos of the work required. You can then sit back and wait for tradespeople to post responses. You can see how previous homeowners have rated and reviewed the tradespeople who respond, which helps you work out who is good – most are, as the average rating of tradespeople on Builderscrack.co.nz is 3.6 out of 4. The website lets people get “word of mouth” type recommendations from others who have posted jobs before. There are plenty of reviews available as more than 5,500 jobs have been posted on the site.

A key feature of the site is that once a job is done, the homeowner then rates the tradesperson on their workmanship, adherence to cost, adherence to schedule, professionalism and responsiveness. The system is completely free for homeowners (tradesmen pay a small fee on work they secure). The rating system provides a great motivation for tradesmen to do good work, and turn up on time! Response times vary based on the type of job and location. Building jobs in Auckland, Wellington or Christchurch often receive over 3 responses within an hour.