One of the “secrets” to a successful business is to find a problem and solve it. And there is a real problem in the area of trade workers. For a number of reasons, there are fewer and fewer trade workers available. The reasons include the misguided notion that trade workers are unskilled, underpaid blue collar workers and the real money and recognition is found in educated, white collar jobs. Furthering this belief are well-meaning parents who themselves did not have the opportunity to go to college and make sacrifices so their children can. As well, the long-term apprenticeships or costly equipment acquisition period can seem prohibitive when compared to the potential earnings and perceived respect of a degree.
This results in a lack of trade workers as well as rising costs for getting work done due to the simple law of supply (not much) and demand (a lot).
1. The most obvious way to cash in on this is to get into the trades yourself. There may be tool acquisition costs or apprenticing to do but short-term sacrifices can be well worth the long term benefits when you open your own business as a licensed service provider.
2. Another way to cash in on this business is to set yourself up as a “middle man.” Some trade workers are notorious for not showing up on time and many need to take time out of their busy schedules to do estimates, deliver invoices, collect money, etc. As a “middle man” (or woman) you would provide a scheduling service to help customers get the work done on time and to help the service provider to balance the work so they show up when they’re supposed to. For example, you could have several “member” roofers in a queue and when you get an order, you simply contact the next one in line. As a middle man, you’d also do the estimates and invoicing and collections, freeing up the individual companies from taking time out of their day to do it.
3. Finding and flooding the market with new trade workers is not the answer, however finding some new workers and introducing them into the market is a good idea. For women entrepreneurs, there is a lack of female trade workers out there and yet many women customers may feel more comfortable working with women who repair their car or their home; there is a greater sense of trust between same-gendered client/service provider relationships.
4. Lastly, trades companies require staff but don’t always have the resources to hire an HR person. You could create your own HR firm or placement and recruiting firm, specializing in just the trades (or even within a small subset of the trades, like automotive, for example).
On their own the trades offer lucrative business opportunities with a ready market willing to pay top dollar for service. But as an industry itself, the trades offer the savvy entrepreneur other ways of starting successful businesses that address the problem with some profit-generating solutions.
