How Tradify gave tradies their freedom back

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Xero’s app marketplace has over 700 apps which help small businesses and their advisors reach their goals. Each month we celebrate an app partner who really stands out for helping small businesses thrive.

Introducing Tradify, our December app partner of the month

Five years, seven regions and thousands of customers in, it’s no exaggeration to say Tradify is a market leader in software built for tradies. The app looks after job management, scheduling, quotes and invoices for a group of customers known for being out of the office – all tasks

Chief Revenue Officer at Tradify Emma Crawford-Falekaono says slow down the day for tradespeople.

“We streamline the entire end to end job management process of a trade or construction business. Operating in the cloud means that can happen any time, anywhere, and we focus on getting the tradespeople back to what they enjoy doing and what they’re good at – being on the tools and running their business.”

Starting strong by nailing the niche

Tradify began five years ago and built to Xero from the very beginning. A big part of that decision was building to where their customers were, but also to provide as little friction as possible for users of the product. Emma explains how being an industry specific piece of software meant partnering with Xero was a no-brainer.

“We know that if we have a customer that’s using Xero and using Tradify, they’re going to be a much more successful business. We want to have the customer using both apps to get the most for them.”

While different types of tradies are using Tradify, Emma says knowing who the app helps the most has influenced their marketing, their messaging and the product overall.

“We benefit many different trade businesses, but we add the most value to electricians, plumbers, constructions and HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) businesses. Their processes are really aligned to our software.”

How customers helped Tradify grow

By tailoring the product early on to their core customers, Emma says Tradify found loyalty and referrals were big competitive advantages for growth.

“We’ve seen a lot of organic growth through brand awareness and referrals. Quite often the trade and construction industry as a vertical is heavily dependant on referrals – people like to have a yarn to each other, recommend new software and who’s good to work with.”

As well as organic growth, the integration with Xero saw customers come through Xero’s ecosystem.

“We’re finding more customers are coming from the Xero app marketplace thanks to advisors who are pushing clients to investigate the products and software they need.”

With growth coming from all directions, Tradify has grown over 100% year on year and have big aspirations to raise those numbers over the next five years.

Finding markets outside of New Zealand

“One of the things we are really proud of is we’re a Kiwi company” Emma says. “We were founded by a Kiwi, we’re based in New Zealand, but the majority of our revenue and customers are offshore, which is something a lot of New Zealand businesses struggle to achieve.”

Now, Tradify find the majority of their customers in Australia and the United Kingdom, with the latter being an interesting market due to its familiarity. This year the UK is a key part of Tradify’s expansion plans.

“We had a lot of customers come organically through from the UK. Because the market is quite similar to New Zealand, one of our strategies is to really pour gas into it. Looking forward, the opportunity in the UK for Tradify is huge.”

With innovation at the core of the product, Emma says new markets continuously improve the way Tradify operates and its features.

“We’ve done a lot of market research – looking at where exactly our growth will be coming from, like which growth channels work versus actual regional, geographic locations.”

It’s these markets which Tradify have pinpointed as markets full of potential.

Advisors are a hungry market, so give them something to eat

Tradify has seen massive demand from accountants and bookkeepers who want to take a step into the advisory space, particularly around software advisory or industry specific advisory. Emma says partnering with advisors is a big push for Tradify moving forward.

“We want to partner with those accountants and bookkeepers who are focussed on the trade and construction vertical in their practice, so we can give them the tools to be able to succeed in that new stream of work.”

The Tradify team identified many trade and construction businesses and the people who run them are practical, and they like to be hands on.

“Tradies suddenly have real time business advisory services given to them because app advisors have access to all of this information which they never had before. Tradify is all about cutting the BS and giving tradies their freedom back by eliminating the manual, mundane tasks. Advisors will help us help them get back on the tools, and back running their business – what they’re best at.”

#goals for 2019

With the past year focussed on a scale strategy, continuing to improve the product and making sure the team culture is right, Emma says the goal for 2019 is simple – continued growth for the business. Getting more connections through Xero, continuing the YoY growth of 100%, and growing the UK market.

“We want to heavily invest in our product innovation to make sure we have the best product for our customers. It’s all about product, channel acquisition, partner strategies, and we’ll heavily invest in this across all regions. This is the way the accounting industry is moving.”

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