Call center for handymen?

[Enterpooreur !!JUu2kfupk2B No.51310021]

I got this business idea for a startup that shouldn't cost much but could yield decent income. Got the potential to grow bigger if I play my cards right.

It's simple in my city it's difficult for some people to find macon, carpenters, welders, etc to do some stuff for them at home. They will call a friend or a relative who would recommend someone and so on. Some handymen would make ad post on the FB page of my city but people are paranoid and won't save any post just in case.
>The need
Locals need handymen. Handymen need gigs. I'll be the link. A poor-man call center where you tell us your needs and we hook you up with the right people.
>business model
I need help here. My initial thought is that I get a small commission from handymen 5%. I want it to be a free service for the locals. We generate income only from the handymen. This is autistically redundant, I know.
>expenses
Nothing really. This a small town so one post on the city FB page will be enough as advertisement. I can repost every 10 days or so. Till I gain traction.
>building database and coordination
Initially, I will only allow handymen I know on a personal level to be in the call list. I know how qualified they are and how trustworthy. But I need a recruiting model to add people to the listing eventually. Two main criterion: adequately qualified, and trust worthy.
Also I need to design forms so the people taking the calls will know which questions to ask so the handymen will be fully informed about the gig before saying yes or no.

What you guys think?

[Anonymous No.51310205]

>>51310021
yes this already exists it's called home advisor lol

[Enterpooreur !!JUu2kfupk2B No.51310450]

>>51310205
Cool. Doesn't exist here. I'm a thirdworlder. What if I call them and suggest they branch here in my country?

[Anonymous No.51310774]

>>51310205
OP is europoor

[Anonymous No.51310797]

>>51310021
>idea
this market is already saturated you ESL bizlet

[Anonymous No.51311405]

>>51310797
I said no equivalent to this in my area, region, country, dammit. You don't even know my market.

[Anonymous No.51311423]

>>51310774
Poorer XD

[Anonymous No.51315562]

>>51310021
Call centers are costly and would only make money if you are generating a lot of sales leads.

What you are describing is a smaller scale, side hustle, type fee-for-service based on commissions, that you, as an agent, will probably best run as an individual. Your job is in the hook-up, and you should not ballpark the commission %, or flat fee, without literally asking your prospective pros what kind of commission they are willing to pay, for the service. 5% is a lot. You can also balance that, by taking a fee from the buyer. But after your customer and the pro get together, they can cut you out.

You are describing, essentially a sales job. Your leverage is your work and your connections and reputation. After accounting for your expenses, I seriously doubt you will be able to afford a "call center". At this point you should probably be working as an independent for pros, as a sales lead generator. You would be their future customer's first point of contact. If you can deliver work and be trusted by the handymen then all you have to do is sell their services for them.

But don't forget YOU are not the contract, THEY are the ones who make the contract with the customer. You shouldn't be making anything unless the actual contractor assesses the job and then they price the contract. Since you aren't doing any real work here I would assume they would not want to pay you 5%. But they might. You have to understand what they will pay ON COMPLETION of a job, on what they think they can charge the customer, pay you, and still retain a profit.

Lets say they agree with the buyer on a $100 contract, and they usually make $75 over costs. But this project goes over budget, something goes wrong, maybe they are liable. Now it costs them $115, what is 5% of -$15? Here you would be better off with flat upfront fee.

So you need to have some kind of fee structure, some kind of written agreement, so all these contingencies are covered.

[Anonymous No.51315751]

I think it is a good idea but consider it as more of a sales job toward both ends of the transaction. You absolutely do not want a customer calling you with technical questions you can't answer.

Maybe it would be better to provide the service to the pros, IF you can deliver customers and thus handle marketing and sales leads they normally do, that could be worth 5% or more, if that matches or exceeds their expenses in customer acquisition costs.

Your best bet is finding the service providers who would love to have someone doing that side of the business.

[Anonymous No.51316060]

>>51315562
>>51315751
Finally, some based response. Thank you for taking the time.
>call center is an overkill
You're right. This is small scale. I can handle the calls alone. I was thinking of how thia could turn into
>contract, no contract
Nothing is done with a contract here. Like 98% of it is off the books. Just two guys having a verbal agreement. No fear of liability issue. Rarely people take anything to the court house either. It's the wild west out here. However, if I'm to scale this up - perhaps dominate the whole country market - I need to consider these issues.
>5% could be too much
I pulled that number out of my a$#. I could take less. I'm only spending time on this and brain calories.
>home advisory sells leads to more than one contractors
That business model sounds shady. Maybe it isn't. Is this what you mean by provide service to pros?

Thank you so much, kind, educated anon. If it was only for the fruitful discussion

[Anonymous No.51316146]

>>51310021
it's interesting. i tried this exact model for a different niche. didn't workout, but it's worth trying for other things.
>business model
take the call. define requirements. set appointment. they pay the handyman directly. you don't want to deal with customers and payments. charge the handyman a flat fee. %'s will be too hard to track, and they can be dishonest. pricing it yourself will prove too difficult, especially for the various work that handymen perform, and the expertise it requires to adequately estimate from a phone call. so it will look like this:
>get the call, define requirements, set appointment.
>get handyman to fulfill appointment and work.
>they charge the customer and deal with the payment. theyll charge their price + your fee
>they pay you your fee.

[Anonymous No.51316261]

>>51310021
Hola Gaston

[Anonymous No.51316811]

>>51316060
>Nothing is done with a contract here. Like 98% of it is off the books. Just two guys having a verbal agreement.

That is interesting.

Possible directions to go, might be actually providing for the work a contract structure, as part of the service. Why be in the 98% of the market without such contracts? What is the disposition of that 2% who do use contracts.

So why create a contract? Many reasons. Because you can value-add. For example, if you can sell a customer on a work order, you can probably also sell them an insurance policy, on the liability of any problems. This helps the sale both ways, and you could sell the service provider an insurance policy on any problem that might come up.

In effect, by offering the work order fulfillment, you are, in a way, acting as insurance agent, if only for your own sake, because improper deals, bad customers, or bad work, are all going to come back to hurt your reputation. I would think contracts and insurance policies would generally help in deals being completed successfully because these things reduce the unknowns in a process, and insurance requires things like documentation which keeps accounting up-front. When agreements are open-ended, then costs can get out of control.

>https://www.centralamericadata.com/en/article/home/Good_Figures_for_Regional_Insurance_Market

Look at the dollar figures in this market. Clearly there is a market and a demand for these services.

[Anonymous No.51317692]

>>51316811
Insurance isn't something people would be willing to pay for here. Could be in big cities, I really don't know. But the 2% are contracts done for the government. For hospital, school, city hall etc. They can't possibly justify spending without some sort of contract/bill.

[Anonymous No.51319964]

>>51317692
So how is business done? Because even in a situation where there is less formality, there are norms. If there is irregularity here, then a business can stand out, if it offers more predictable terms than others. One issue for an informal economy is also the reason why there are few or no contracts. It would seem contracts are a value-added. As markets evolve there are opportunities to sell services to improve that market. Instead of planning for the current economy, try and imagine where the economy WILL go. You're already doing that.

For your own information, you will need to know your sector and what is the capability and how much it will grow. Many state economics and commerce bureaus publish this research.

You would inadvertently do this for yourself, if you make, and screen, service providers: that data is in itself, a service. In a pre-insurance market this information is valuable- to insurers- or even the state itself, and you can sell information to the state that you could also sell to providers.

And there might be companies that would pay you, to advertise on those updates, to your subscribers, since those companies' customers are your clients.

This business is, in effect, an information business, who make money by making and selling that information. Each of your phone calls generates information. Even if you can't make money generating sales leads, businesses might pay to be included on a list others see.

You could try to create a market by convincing providers to become insured, and then telling customers the providers who are insured are better providers. In that case you might end up making a commission selling insurance to a provider and the customer, and not necessarily directly, it could be a link on a website.

[Anonymous No.51320045]

I'm kind of starting to talk myself into getting into the insurance business.

For example:
>https://www.iii.org/publications/a-firm-foundation-how-insurance-supports-the-economy/driving-economic-progress/contribution-to-gdp

The % of GDP of insurance in a mature market seems to be about 3%.

Therefore find your country's GDP and derive where the insurance contribution to GDP is (the 2% of work as state contracts) and where it will go potentially (3% of GDP)

Now imagine being ahead of the competition selling insurance policies into a nascent market for insurance, with the ultimate market being the potential market figure.

Not to get off-topic, it is still relevant, but I am kinda talking myself into selling insurance... :)

[Anonymous No.51320088]

Based plan if you do live outside the states and the UK.