jobtrio.com

Santa Barbara, California – April 9^th, 2009 – The construction contractor directory website Jobtrio.com has retained the search engine optimization firm Internet Marketing Inc. to help increase the exposure offered to California contractors.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a process through which the quality and volume of organic, or natural, search engine-generated traffic to a website is improved. “In a nutshell, this means that it will be much easier for consumers to find our contractors,” says Josh Groves, President of Jobtrio.com. “For instance, a Google search performed for a specific contracting company’s name will now be more likely than ever to return that company’s Jobtrio.com profile as a top result.” The ability of consumers to find contractors translates directly into Jobtrio.com contractors acquiring more construction leads.

Jobtrio.com selected the SEO firm of Internet Marketing Inc. based on their track record with such organizations as US Army and Ritz Carlton Resorts. “We chose a top tier firm because more Internet visibility equals more contractor leads for our members. We want our clients to get the most value possible out of Jobtrio.com,” says Brett Vernon, CEO of Jobtrio.com.

Jobtrio.com is a free Internet service that allows users to browse more than 250,000 listings of California contractors, or quickly locate a business by name, location, or specialty. Key features include candid customer reviews and detailed profiles so it is easy for project managers and home owners to find great construction professionals.

Santa Barbara, California – March 13, 2009 – Brett Vernon comes from a family rich in construction experience.His dad, brother, and uncles are all successful home builders.Though Brett, a 27 year old business school graduate and former Navy SEAL, had his own short run at contracting, being a natural problem solver he came away with a concept for a product that could alleviate some of the pain contractors and their customers face.

“As a general contractor, I continually ran into the same issue when I would start a project:there’s no simple way to research and select the best sub-contractors for a job. I soon realized that across the board, from home owners to construction project managers, everyone was experiencing the same problem.”

The Internet is the perfect tool to help businesses reach their client base, but most contractors are stuck in dark ages and can’t even be found on the Web.With only 5% of construction contractors having websites, the Internet is a largely untouched territory for the nation’s 2nd largest industry.What Vernon envisioned was a low-cost way for contractors to get a meaningful Web presence and a free way for consumers to select the best contractors to perform their construction project.He enlisted the help of systems engineer and childhood friend Josh Groves to assist in building the Web application that has become jobtrio.com, headquartered in Santa Barbara, California.

The Internet has a handful of sites which attempt to match construction contractors with customers, but they all seem to be taking a mid-‘90s approach to the challenge, trying to dictate the flow of information to the consumer and using market price-setting,” says Groves, who studied physics at Columbia University before working in home automation system development.”Our goal was to take a Web 2.0 approach.Low entry cost, democratization, and fee-flowing, user-generated content were crucial forces driving the jobtrio.com site design.”

In simple terms, jobtrio.com is an easily searchable directory of all licensed contractors in California, with some of those contractors paying $20 a month to create an in-depth profile of their company.What truly makes jobtrio.com special, though, are features like honest user reviews, a site optimized for browsing, and the level playing field among the contractors.Jobtrio.com is attempting to do for construction company websites what Myspace.com and Facebook.com did for personal homepages.While removing the barriers to entry and fostering an online community, Vernon and Groves simultaneously create a very useful tool for the public’s benefit.

“We are trying to present all the means for making the right decision when choosing a contractor,” says Vernon.”We really just want to bring clarity to contracting – clarity that benefits the contractor and the consumer.”

The creators of jobtrio.com know that it may not be easy to convince a largely word-of-mouth industry to convert to the marketing methods of the Internet, but, more and more, people demand to have free access to information about products and services before they buy.We are well within the age of the informed consumer, which is clearly demonstrated by the popularity of websites like Amazon.com and Yelp.com.Jobtrio.com has presented the construction industry with a long overdue, low-risk channel to get 21^st Century advertising exposure.For that sake of all home owners, let’s hope that contractors embrace all that jobtrio.com has to offer.

April 14, 2009 – In late March, the Employment Development Department of California released the state’s unemployment data, with numbers up through February 2009. Overall, this report paints a grim picture of California’s economic status, and in particular, the health of the construction industry.  Here are a couple key statistics and I would like to discuss what they mean in regard to recovery:

-  Percent difference in amount of construction industry employees between February 2009 and February 2008:  -18.5%

-  Unemployment by county:
Colusa = 26.6%
Monterey = 16.2%
Santa Barbara = 8.3%
San Luis Obispo = 8.1%

The point I would like to make first is, the -18.5% reflects where we are now with respect to the past, but says nothing in regards to present trends.  Home sales numbers indicate that the California housing market bottomed in February, and started its gradual rebound in March (see my previous blog, “California Construction on Path to Recovery”).  Given the direct correlation between the health of the construction industry and home sales, I would expect construction jobs to be returning very soon.

The second point I would like to address is the overall strength of the Santa Barbara construction and San Luis Obispo construction economies, at least with respect to most other California counties.  True, the construction economy has slowed in these two counties, but for the most part these regions are in pretty good shape.  What does this mean?  It means that given the low point in the housing market reached in February, these counties are poised for a very quick turn around in 2009 and 2010 since their local economies do not require much in the way of resusitation.  Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties are very good regions in which to be a construction contractor during the next 18 months.

Josh Groves

President of jobtrio.com

Profiles and Reviews of Construction Contractors

June 1, 2009 – As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act infrastructure project, California has already laid claim to almost $1 billion of funding by identifying over 80 infrastructure improvement construction projects.  This is a good thing.  States which do not claim their funding from the Federal Highway Administration by June 30 will be dumping the money back into a pool which proactive states, like California, will then have access to for even more construction spending.

The first stimulus project is already underway.  Top Grade Construction of Livermore and Caltrans began the $13.5-million pavement improvement project for Interstate 80 on April 30.  It is estimated that this project alone will create 40,000 man-hours of labor and employ Fairfield construction professionals across 20 subcontracting trades.

On May 4th, Caltrans released a listing of 80 up-coming projects which are part of the infrastructure stimulus.  All interested contractors should contact Caltrans as soon as possible to ensure that this golden opportunity is not missed.

Josh Groves
President of jobtrio.com
“Where contractors and their clients meet.”

November 30, 2009 – The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has announced its plan to spend over $23 million on improving the state’s Internet broadband infrastructure. These construction projects will be paid for in part by the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) grants, but a major portion of the money will come from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), pending federal approval of the projects.

Of the six projects the CPUC has in the works, one of the largest includes fiber optic installations along Highway 36, from Humboldt county to Trinity county, which is expected to put dozens of Eureka contractors to work. Another planned project, and good news for Weed contractors, is an overhaul of Siskiyou County’s broadband system.

Final federal approval for the funding is expected next month.

jobtrio.com Staff
Construction Industry Newswire