- TotalHousehold’s Bill Manos, left, and Tony Gallucci at a home show.
While many businesses now embrace social media and digital marketing tools to gain an edge, construction contractors are still finding their digital voices. Contractors by a factor of 10-1 lack a digital presence to attract new customers and garner greater market share.
To combat this problem, entrepreneur and hedge fund industry veteran Jeff LaCava started TotalHousehold Inc. in Danbury, a digital marketing service for contractors who don”™t have the resources and tools to build their online presence. He said what he found was alarming.
“We found a lot of contractors that had a difficult time marketing themselves and had little to no Internet presence,” LaCava said. “To give an example, out of our entire database of 1.3 million contractors, only 9.5 percent had websites and most of them were severely outdated.”
Websites are one of the most important marketing tools for any business, LaCava said. With the ubiquity of smartphones, tablets and the Internet, homeowners are going to choose services that they can easily find via a Web search. LaCava said a company”™s first impression is important and cited Apple Stores as an example. He said walking into an Apple Store, even without buying a product, customers make an assessment about the company.
“You walk in and see the hardwood floor, soft lighting and clean lines,” LaCava said. “You already made an assessment about the product by looking at your surroundings. If companies don”™t give any visuals for people to go by except for a name and a product, people need more information. They need to access a website themselves ”” not just hear about it from a neighbor.”
As a starting point, contractors can utilize TotalHousehold.com as a free website platform. If they decide to create their own website, the digital marketing company can consult and provide a package with advice on what tools to employ and how to  expand an online presence.
The website also offers homeowners an online database of millions of contractors throughout the U.S. who have been reviewed by other homeowners and who specialize in everything from fixing minor leaks to spearheading dream home projects. A search engine filters results based on categories and its geolocation feature further helps yield relevant matches.
From May to December, the business has generated nearly $100,000 in revenues for its digital marketing services, which start at a base level of $500.
“I”™ve been building this company for two years, primarily funding it myself,” LaCava said. “I want to have the product built up to point where it could generate revenue, so we didn”™t really start marketing it until April 2014. We have strategic relationships with credit card processing companies, loan and escrow account services. We”™re looking to raise $2 million in revenues by the end of this year and around $300,000 by the first quarter.”
In February, TotalHousehold plans to launch its first mobile app for contractors, which provides a picture and video taking feature within the app. TH Pro will provide a way for homeowners to review contractors upon completion of a service.
The company is also actively looking to raise more capital through new private investors this year. Down the road, LaCava said there”™s potential that Angie”™s List, a paid subscription supported website containing crowd-sourced reviews of local businesses, may be up for sale.
“I reached out to them because I have friends in the hedge fund industry that could help me buy it if it does go up for sale,” LaCava said. “We also signed on with a private company in Connecticut to help with fundraising and investor marketability. That company is taking our information and repackaging it for investors and showcasing them through road shows.”
TotalHousehold consists of LaCava and a team of a manager, salesperson and recent University of Connecticut graduate who is the head of content. The business has 25 active clients and plans to add 10 more this month. Each month about 60 to 80 companies are added to its website.
