Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hello all!
I`ve had this home improvement / home services business idea in my
head for some time. I am not in any related industry to this idea, so if
anyone has +/- feedback, please do share! Haven`t put anything to paper
yet to formalize the concept, just thought I`d briefly (as brief as I can be
anyway) run it by you all first to hear your input!
Thanks in advance!
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Problem:
-Homeowners that have home projects that they hire a contractor for
(landscaping, remodeling, etc) have hundreds of options available to
them.
      *For those of us (probably all of us!) that are timestarved, how can
you be sure that you get an accurate bid on a project without lining up
and spending time with 4 to 5 contractors?
      *How can I balance my expectation for quality while getting a value
with a contractors bid? (Comes with having options and understanding
the contractors reputation)

A. Concept:
     A virtual bidding service that facilitates home improvement bids
betweens Property Owners & Contractors.
     The Home Owner establishes an account on the ‘website’ that allows
them to upload pictures of the service that they need rendered, as well as
a descriptive account of the project specs. Once all of the fields
have been properly entered & the project has been accuratley
described, the Property Owner releases the project for bid. Project plans
requiring more detailed plans and specifications, can facilitated through
affiliated Architectural firms and Design companies     
     Likewise, the Contractor establishes an account on the site with a
history (historical rankings by homeonwers of their performance- much
like angieslist.com) and profile of their business. The Contractor can
search and virtually bid on listed services on the website.

B. Revenue Sources:
1. User Fees: Charged to the property owners for the right to upload a
project for bid. The fee is a necessity to further inscent the user to follow
through on accepting a bid, and further incent the contractors to return
to the site to bid on projects.
2. Contractor Fees:   Consideration will also be given to fees for
`preferred contractors` and or for the ability to further detail their
company on the contractor profile page.
3. Vendor Ads: Manufacturer`s product will be highlighted in more
detailed project suggestion corners of the site or on standard ad space
within the site.
4. Design Plans:   For the more routine project, users will be able to
freely upload their project specifications through a set of prompts that
leads the property owner through a series of questions that would need
to be answered for the contractor to be able to bid. However, more
complex projects, such as basement remodels, the site will have
sponsored partnerships with selected architectural and design firms for a
fee. Upon completion of the design through the selected firm, the project
specs will be uploaded to the site for bid.
5. Lending Firms: Partnerships with lending companies and realitors?

C. Challenges / Barriers:
1. $$$$$ Funding Start-up Costs
2. Given the concept of the site revolves around ebids, reaching critical
mass out of the gate will be important, or property owners and contracts
would not revisit the site.
3. Copy cat sites.
4. Too complex? Is this one of those `shoot for the moon` type ideas?!

D. Competition:
There are quite a few referral sites out there, that will connect you with
contractors, but do not facilitate the actual bid process. Also, you can
also find commercial constructions sites that facility an esourcing type
event. From what I can tell however, there isn`t much out there outside of
this.

I`ve had this idea for about a year now.  I worked for an A/C company for 5 years and also build custom homes and this popped into my head out of nowhere one day.  It is a very solid idea that could potentially make a ton of $$$ if done right.  While working on this I`ve realized how hard it is to find a qualified person to design the site, a host large enough to host the site, and the problem of starting the site off without much traffic and hoping contractors and homeowners come back to it if they have a bad first experience(ex. A homeowner pays to place a job and gets no bids because a contractor in their area hasn`t discovered the site yet).  I have found a few similar companies but none that do the exact same thing.  Good luck to you, maybe there`s enough market for both of us to make some cash!

yes home improvement is headache but  Miller Home Improvement give you help . then it is not head ache  .

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Home improvement is such a big headache but in now days some home improvement service able to provide you such a great result without headache as Kitchen Showroom .

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