Press and Media Coverage

Builderscrack is buzzing. Watch, read or listen to interviews about us, or big stories that we are behind:

Campbell Live - Kiwi in France wants builders from home for special job

Builderscrack is the engine behind this story - view the full story and video on TV3.

View the home renovation job in Paris here!

NZI Business Interview

25 May 2009

Radio Live (Maggie Barry) NZ tradesmen wanted in Paris

Listen to Maggie Barry talk with Pauline about her wanting to send a Kiwi Trademen to work in Paris (28 July 2009)

Radio Live (Garden & Build) Interview

Listen to Mark on the RadioLive 'Garden and Build' Show (31 May 2009)

For higher quality video click here and watch it on the TVNZ site.

Voxy.co.nz

Small Businesses Can Win In The Downturn - 16 February 2009

As economic circumstances change, there will always be winners and losers. The economy is changing dramatically with New Zealand's retail spending falling for a fourth straight quarter, the most prolonged decline on record, and house sales plunging to a 20-year low, adding to signs the nation's recession is deepening. New Zealand's smaller businesses are in a prime position to benefit from the current economic down turn. ``Smaller businesses tend to be able to respond more rapidly than large companies to downturns. They can also take a longer term view away from the short term focus of stock market investors,'' said Builderscrack.co.nz director Keith Roberts. "In our business we have found consumers are much more focused on getting the best bang for their buck than they were when we first launched 2 years ago. Back then tradespeople were in short supply so they were glad to get any good tradesman, and much less focused on the cost. Now they are looking for the best deal, and there are better deals to be had as there are more good tradespeople out there looking for work. This is good for websites like ours which enable people to compare what different tradespeople can offer". Builderscrack.co.nz was one of the few businesses to be excited by Real Estate Institute figures showing that just 3706 houses changed hands in January, the lowest level in 17 years. ``While we are sympathetic to those that need to sell their homes, we expect our business to benefit,'' said fellow director Mark Dickson. ``A number of our new customers last year had their houses for sale, but when they realized they would not be able to get the price they sought, decided to stay in their homes and renovate. We expect this trend to continue''. Small business can benefit from reduced costs as larger companies scale back, particularly in advertising. ``The big guys tend to follow a predictable pattern - when times get tough, they scale back for a year or so to try and support their share prices. This leave more advertising inventory for privately funded smaller companies to take advantage of. Particularly online, we are finding it easier to secure better advertising spots for the same spend,'' said Roberts. Attitude is also important. ``Small businesses also tend to be run by people who are inherently a lot more optimistic, and optimism is going to be what gets us out of this recession''.

NZPA

Builders chasing renovation jobs as market dives - Monday Oct 06, 2008

Builders are feeling the pinch as New Zealand's property market falters. The slump in the property market is prompting builders to chase smaller renovations jobs. Figures released by Statistics NZ show home-building approvals slumped to a 22-year low in August. The trend for the number of new dwellings, including apartments, has been falling since mid-2007, and is down 42 per cent since then, increasing unemployment and underemployment in the building trades.

However, there are still pockets of growth in the building and renovations market for tradespeople to target. Keith Roberts, director of builderscrack.co.nz a website where home owners submit jobs for tradespeople to quote on, said people were focusing on improving the appearance of their homes before putting them on the market. He said the number of people posting small renovation or home improvement jobs had doubled since this time last year. Meanwhile, the number of postings for major renovations was down by 50 per cent. Fellow director Mark Dickson said tradespeople were finding it tougher, and as a result were much more active in seeking smaller jobs from customers. "It is a good time to get those jobs done if you can afford it," he said. "Working for a large developer that expects us to put a lot of money into the job before we get paid is getting more risky - a lot of guys have lost money when developers have gone bankrupt," Mr Dickson said. He said having a number of smaller jobs on the go was becoming more attractive as financial markets seized up and developers became exposed.

Christchurch Press

Tradespeople Respond (16th June 2007)

The founders of a new website aimed at bridging the gaps between tradespeople and frustrated potential customers has been heartened by the response from professionals. Mark Dickson, who co-founded ww.builderscrack.co.nz, says that while tradespeople may be busy, they remain keen to use the website's technology to their advantage. The website allows customers to enter in their job requirements and get a cost estimate, and allows tradespeople to pursue jobs on offer that may be suited to their skills.

KiwiFM

Listen to Kiwi FM's nation wide Builderscrack radio interview (25th July 2007)

Press Release June

Builderscrack.co.nz - making it easy for you to deal with Tradespeople (11th June 2007)

10 months ago, Builderscrack.co.nz co-founder Mark Dickson was frustrated after ringing around numerous tradespeople to organise renovation work on his house. Some tradespeople sounded keen but didn't turn up, others were simply too busy or not interested... as a result Mark still has a hole where a door should be between his kitchen and a spare room! Surely there must be a better way?

After talking to loads of home renovators, builders, plumbers, electricians, landscapers and painters, Builderscrack was founded with one guiding principle "to make finding tradespeople a simple and efficient process". Rather than tiresomely sifting through a directory, Mark explains "with Builderscrack homeowners submit details of work they need done online and receive multiple quotes from motivated tradespeople."

The site also includes the estimating tool, allowing users to get an idea of likely costs instantly. Mark says "many homeowners don't have much of an idea about the various costs of home renovation, so we think this will be useful as a planning tool".

In response to a pre-launch campaign, co-founder Jeremy Wyn-Harris explains he has been surprised how enthusiastic tradespeople are to join "tradespeople may be busy, but they're also quick to see how Builders crack can work for them - it's free for them to browse jobs on the website, whereas they currently spend a fortune on advertising that may not generate them work, and may in fact result in a bunch of phone calls about work they're not interested in! With Builders crack tradespeople can choose work they want to do, and we charge a small fee only when they win a job!"

And why the name? "While we are serious about making the experience a great one for the customer, we wanted a name that everyone could relate to and wouldn't forget - I doubt anyone will forget our name!" Jeremy says.

While Mark's job is now completed, if you are a tradesperson, there are around 40 jobs nationwide wanting quotes right now.

Press Release July

Proactive tradespeople outperform those responding to queries from traditional advertising (23rd July 2007)

There is nothing to get the blood boiling like a bad experience with a tradesperson. However, when you think about how we tend to find tradespeople, it's not surprising that the experience is often poor.

Most homeowners find tradespeople through the Yellow Pages, or newspapers. Advertising in these media allows builders, plumbers, roofers and other tradespeople to sit back and wait for calls to come in. Given that tradespeople with big ads can often pick and chose between jobs, they have less incentive to do a good job. New services allowing homeowners to submit their jobs to multiple tradespeople are changing that.

Keith Roberts, co-founder of one of the leading new services, Builderscrack.co.nz, believes that there are several reasons why homeowners have had such positive experiences with tradespeople sourced through Builderscrack. "Tradies who use our service want the work. When they contact the homeowner, they are keen to win the work, and thus will make more of an effort. That is a very different dynamic from when a busy tradesperson receives a call from a homeowner, which they may or may not want, or have time to deal with"

He also believes that technology helps screen out the bad Tradespeople. "Our web service encourages tradespeople to actively seek work, which means we tend to attract both motivated and well-organised tradespeople. These are also the tradespeople who tend to care more about customer service, about turning up on time and doing a good job. They understand the value of doing a good job to generate referrals"

This seems to be paying off for customers of Builders crack. In 97% of cases, tradespeople completing jobs have received positive feedback.

Kapiti Observer

Reporter: Randall Walker (23rd of April 2007)

Two former Kapiti College students have launched a website with a catchy name in an attempt to streamline the job of finding and hiring a tradesman.

Builderscrack.co.nz was "a Trade Me for tradespeople", said Raumati's Andrew Dickson, co-owner of the business.

A spin on the usual process of obtaining quotes, the New Zealand-wide site let homeowners be the one's listing work they needed doing, with tradespeople signing in to see what was on offer and quoting online, over the phone or in person.

It cost the homeowner nothing to list nor the tradesman to quote. The latter paid a small fee once they had a deal. Mr Dickson's brother, Mark, embarked on the concept after becoming frustrated with tradesmen while renovating his house last year. "Some tradespeople sounded keen but didn't turn up, others were simply too busy or not interested, said the former Kapiti College student." Believing there had to be a better way, he talked to renovators and tradespeople and, with fellow Christchurch resident and software developer Jeremy Wyn-Harris, started work on the website.

Andrew Dickson, a former business analyst now PhD student, helped market the site. He said it "revolutionised" the interaction between homeowners and tradespeople. "In the past, the way it worked was that tradespeople advertised and you as a homeowner looked where they advertised, the Yellow Pages or whatever. What we've done is provide an opportunity for the homeowner to advertise, so the tradesperson can actually look on the site to see advertisements for homeowners. And as far as I can tell it's never been done before."

The site also offered an estimating tool, providing ball park figures for a wide variety of jobs. Mr Dickson believed it would attract "progressive" tradespeople looking for work, as well as offering a starting point for newly qualified tradespeople.

Since its launch in February the website had signed up over 200 tradesmen and homeowners and listed about 70 jobs, with 48 on offer last week.

Build Magazine

June-July 2007

Builderscrack.co.nz co-founder Mark Dickson was frustrated after ringing around numerous tradespeople to organise renovation work on his house. As a result, Builders crack was founded with one guiding principle - to revolutionise the interaction between homeowners and tradespeople. With Builders crack, homeowners submit details of work they need done online and receive quotes from tradespeople. It is free for tradespeople to browse jobs on the website and a small fee is charged if they win a job.

Progressive Builder

Get Cracking (April-May 2007)

A networking website has been launched for tradespeople and homeowners called Builderscrack. It lets homeowners post jobs, and tradespeople to browse and quote. The site allows quoting online, over the phone, or in person at the job site. Also included is a rating facility, and a tool to estimate the cost of a job. It's free for homeowners while tradespeople are charged a small fee for work secured.

Hawkes Bay Today

March 2007

If you're in business chances are the little jobs around the house are slowly but surely building up waiting for you to find time to get "around to it". Former Waipukuaru man Jeremy Wyn-Harris hopes to corner the market with a "sophisticated but of fun" website called Builders crack (http://builderscrack.co.nz). "It's a web site that would help two sets of people right now" said Jeremy, who now resides in Christchurch. "Desperate homeowners who need plumbing, wiring or building jobs done yesterday and tradespeople looking for work. "With the high demand for tradespeople, its really really hard to get someone to fix your pipes or wire your lights". New Zealand has plenty of talented tradespeople fresh out of their apprenticeship; are bright eyed and bushy tailed, but can struggle to get their names out into the marketplace. "So we've come up with Builders crack", Jeremy explained. "It's a new way of linking homeowners and tradespeople". Homeowners post jobs they need done, and tradespeople browse jobs and quote on the ones they are interested in". So rather than homeowners having to ring around loads of busy tradespeople,a quick visit to Builderscrack will generate responses from a range of motivated and available tradespeople. And Builders crack is definitely worth a visit if you need a commercial job done. The site allows for quoting online, over the phone, or in person at the job site. "We've included other features including a rating facility, and a tool that allows homeowners to estimate the approximate cost of jobs. "We think users will find this a really useful planning tool". And of course, the competition generated by the system means Builderscrack users get the best possible price.