Picture this: You are looking for a skilled and competent tradesman to do some work on your home or office building but you don’t know where to start. Last time you hired someone they pitched up late, left a mess, didn’t work efficiently and left you with something you were unsatisfied with. You know there must be someone out there who is capable, experienced and reliable, but how do you find them?

Enter trade-mark. Trade-mark is a non-profit organisation that focuses on removing the barriers to success facing talented tradesmen living in informal settlements. The group selects top quality tradesmen based on their prior work and markets them via the organisation’s website. By giving these talented workers a web presence, trade-mark hopes to assist them in securing financial stability and successful, reliable, businesses independent of the trade-mark community. Trade-mark also provides basic business training and aims to expand this element of their program in the near future.

Trade-mark facilitates a win-win exchange for both underemployed skilled artisans and the client who hires them. The tradesmen (painters, tilers, pavers and carpenters) are given access to a brilliant marketing opportunity which is otherwise unattainable to them, and the clients are granted reliable, skilled and effective labour.

As Joshua Cox, founding director of trade-mark states, “having skills is often not enough to achieve economic freedom; we need to create opportunities for people to become ‘job creators’ rather than ‘job seekers’. Trade-mark believes strongly in helping those who help themselves, and hopes that the increasing success of the tradesmen they work with will their community members to pursue their own goals and successes.

Go to www.trade-mark.co.za for more information and a free quote. Support this great initiative.

Image source