TaskHer: Your Go-To for Female Trades Professionals

In this conversation, Anna Moynihan, co-founder of TaskHer, shares her journey from a varied background in television production and marketing to creating a platform that connects homeowners with tradeswomen. She discusses the challenges faced in building Tasker, the importance of verification for tradeswomen, and the mission to normalize women in trades. The conversation also touches on the role of social media in promoting TaskHer and future plans for expansion.

Key Takeaways:

• Anna has a varied background in television and marketing.
• TaskHer was born from personal experiences in finding tradespeople.
• The platform aims to connect homeowners with tradeswomen.
• Verification of tradeswomen is crucial for customer safety.
• Building TaskHer involved overcoming significant challenges.
• The mission is to normalize women in trades and change perceptions.
• Social media plays a key role in TaskHer's marketing strategy.
• Future plans include expanding to new cities and enhancing the platform.
• TaskHer offers a free platform for tradeswomen to use.
• Community support and partnerships are essential for growth.

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Instagram: @lifeofafemaletradie_

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Facebook: Life Of A Female Tradie Podcast

Follow Guest:

Instagram: @task.her

TikTok: @task.her

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction and Background

04:50 The Birth of TaskHer

09:51 Understanding TaskHer's Functionality

14:48 Verification and Trust in Tradeswomen

19:42 Challenges Faced in Building TaskHer

24:50 Mission and Goals of TaskHer

29:41 The Role of Social Media in Promotion

34:50 Future Plans and Expansion

39:39 Quickfire Questions and Personal Insights

Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11)

Hi, my name's Anna and I'm co-founder of TaskHer.

Speaker 2 (00:15)

So, before we get into all things Task Her, could you share with the listeners a little bit about your background prior to Task Her?

Speaker 1 (00:26)

Yeah, absolutely. I have quite a varied background actually. None of it's actually trades related. I started in television production and sort of worked on lot of like entertainment shows like The Apprentice. And then from there I moved into marketing through hospitality marketing for hotels and ended up in events. And I worked for an events agency that kind of specialized in corporate events.

and hospitality, which is actually where I met Paul, who's my co-founder slash husband. And yeah, at that agency, I was doing all of their marketing. So that's kind of like my specialty really now. So like the marketing brand side of things. And that's also kind of what I lead with TaskHer as well.

Speaker 2 (01:09)

Brilliant. You obviously mentioned that your co-founder happens to be your husband as well. How is that on the old relationship?

Speaker 1 (01:17)

We spend a lot of time together. Yeah, it's actually okay. think because we met at work, so we had a working relationship already, was in a, we sort of had a similar dynamic as I was marketing and he was kind of, he was focused on a specific kind of area of the business slash product. So he kind of turned to me for marketing support. Obviously, you know, it is different. We were both directors of TaskHer, but yeah, we spend a lot of time together. We were currently working slightly separately. So.

we have a co-working space and we kind of take it in turns to go in so that we're not on top of each other all the time. Because obviously then we're sat next to each other on the sofa, we go to sleep at the same time. it's, yeah, but it's weird. Like I, couldn't, I wouldn't pick anyone else to found the company with because we can be really honest with each other. And, you know, I think they're still, you know, respectful.

Speaker 2 (02:08)

bless you. That sounds great. mean, you obviously have figured out ways to kind of separate your time a little bit so you aren't literally on each other's toes all the time. Because as you said, it can become a bit stressful with everything combined.

Speaker 1 (02:24)

Yeah, absolutely. I think you can really, especially when it's your own company, it can be all very like all consuming. And so, you know, we're really careful. And like I said, yeah, there was kind of a working relationship in place already, which I think a lot of people if they're starting a company with, you know, maybe their partner or even a close friend that if that working relationship isn't already established and those boundaries already in place.

it might be a bit trickier. Obviously, you know, ultimately, it is easy because we can just be really frank with each other. And we can have an argument and then we know it's okay. Whereas obviously, if maybe that was a different relationship, it would be trickier.

Speaker 2 (03:04)

Yes. So yeah. That's great. That's brilliant. Good stuff. So let's get to it then. How did you come up with the idea of tasker?

Speaker 1 (03:07)

On the whole, okay.

So, TaskHer came from personal experience really. So, as I mentioned, like we don't have, we don't, neither of us have a skilled trades background. We moved into our house and we've moved areas as well. So, Paul lived in Wedding and I lived in North London and we've sort of bought a property in South London together. And we didn't have any connections here. We didn't know anyone to even ask.

with regards to who had a good recommendation for sort of tradespeople for specific jobs we needed doing in the house. We started a kitchen renovation and I sort of took it upon myself to find some people to come and quote for the job. And I was using sort of online directory platforms that were available. And I kind of didn't love that process anyway, because I felt like I was having to kind of read through loads of reviews, email people, hope that they got back to me, chase them up, try and organize for someone to come over. And then...

nine times out of 10 when they did come over, they would always, because Paul and I were both always in the house because at the time it was sort of towards the end of COVID. So like we were still, we were just at home a lot. these people would sort of, turn up and they'd always speak to Paul. Even though they'd spoken to me on the phone, I'd emailed them, I'd booked in a time. I was their kind of person because he was in the room and he was maybe a man. Well, he is a man, but as in maybe that was the reason why they spoke to him.

Speaker 2 (04:36)

We can cut that bit, don't worry.

Speaker 1 (04:40)

Don't worry. ⁓ Yeah, I kind of was just like, Hi, I'm here. It's me. Like he doesn't actually know any of the plans for the kitchen really, like we kind of worked it together. But it my baby. I like him to design. I had plans for it. And ⁓ I was just like, this is ridiculous. so I was and it hadn't even occurred to me that

I would potentially be able to pick a woman. was like an unconscious bias or just, I don't know, lack of just any thinking around it. Like lack of being given a woman as an option when I've been searching these sort of directories online for tradespeople, no women have come up. So I was like, oh, hang on a second, maybe I would have a different experience if it was a woman that came over to kind of speak to us. So I went online just sort of assuming that there would be.

essentially that TaskHer would exist already. ⁓ There just wasn't really anything. I was just like, ⁓ that's interesting. That's like a real gap in the market and that's something that I would really want to use. Also, I sort spoke to Paul about it and we kind of realized that we both had this sort of skill set that would potentially pertain to us being able to create something like TaskHer. So my marketing kind of brown background, I was really kind of like,

I think it's really important that the way we kind of put the message across, the way we look, the way we speak to our customers and speak to tradeswomen and then Paul's background. He had already had a startup previously, which was bought by the events agency that we both worked at and met at. He had experience in kind of entrepreneurial, like an entrepreneurial journey and building a product as well. And so we kind of spoke about it and we're like, this could actually be something. And we started with, you know,

researching, essentially speaking to people in our bubble of like, you know, our network, like, is this something you would use? And then further researching it after that and reaching out to tradeswomen that we could find on platforms like Instagram, emailing them having zoom calls and just sort of saying that this is what we're thinking of, you know, this is how we're thinking the product might look, is it something you'd even find useful?

And then we eventually joined, well, we're accepted on an accelerator from an investment, from a VC. And they gave us some, like a small amount of investment basically, which enabled us to kind of build this sort of prototype sort of ⁓ MVP version of TaskHer and also enabled us to create the brand and work with a small agency who only kind of worked with female founders and who was like really pro what we do. And she was just like, you ⁓

worked on the language, worked on the visuals and all of that kind of stuff. So we had something to offer to both Trosim and customers.

Speaker 2 (07:29)

Sounds great, yeah. So just for those listeners that don't know what TASCUR is, just explain what the basis of it is for them so they know what we're talking about.

Speaker 1 (07:41)

So TaskHer is a platform that enables homeowners to book tradesmen online. That's kind of how we, I suppose that's kind of the more customer side of things. So from a, I'll sort of explain customer and tradesmen side. So for the customer, if you're a homeowner and you have a broken toilet, you can go on TaskHer. We currently offer plumbers, electricians, heating, gas engineers, and paint decorators. You can basically book.

your job completely online and we take your card details prior to booking, but we don't charge anything. That job is then sent out to, in this case, it would be a plumber. So it plumbers who service your area, who have the right credentials and the right qualifications to do that job that we've verified. a few, like a host of other kinds of things that are factoring to kind of the algorithm that we've built to enable those tradesmen to accept those jobs. A tradesman will accept your job.

on the dates or one of the dates that you've kind of specified and then you as a customer, you can then speak to the tradeswoman on the platform and iron out any other smaller details like parking, timings, like stay in touch with one another. Once the trader has come and done the job, then we basically just take the payment via strike. And then and that's it job done. So there's no kind of chasing if there are any issues, we're there like customer support are there to support.

And then from a tradesman's perspective, we offer our platforms completely free for tradesmen to use. We don't charge anything. It's like really important to us that we kind of lower that barrier. I know a lot of online platforms are fairly notorious for having subscription fees and then they don't necessarily produce leads. We offer really fair rates. So on the whole, on average, our hourly rate that we offer,

⁓ All trades is around, well actually slightly different, painting and decorating because we do it in day rates. But for the other trades, our hourly rates are around 10 pounds less than most trades would charge if they were getting their leads completely directly. Okay. And that kind of factors in all of the marketing that we do, all of the support we offer, the fact that they're not having to chase customers, that the booking comes to them fully confirmed. So they're not getting leads, they're getting a totally confirmed booking that basically lands.

in their lab. And then again, we have they have that option of support as well. So our customer support, you know, will help them with any questions they have. If there are any issues with the booking, if they, if they aren't happy on the job as well, that's obviously really important to us. And then we also offer kind of a community as well as a UK wide community that we host. And we have things like online events, in person events, and we offer

Speaker 2 (09:58)

Okay.

Speaker 1 (10:23)

loads of different discounts and things that we've kind of done with partnerships, like trade partnerships and things like that. yeah, that's kind of roughly how we work.

Speaker 2 (10:30)

And is it also an app-based platform as well as a website, so to speak?

Speaker 1 (10:38)

It's currently a web app. we are at the moment as a customer, you wouldn't download an app, you just go online. It is a web app. So it functions like an app. It's optimized obviously completely for mobile. So you know, it works really well in that respect from a tradeswoman side. have built what we've kind of built the majority of the backend and we've also done the front end designs for an app for tradeswomen. So at the moment they're receiving text messages.

that have a link to their dashboard, we want that to be an in-app notification basically that will make it so much easier for them to use rather than having to kind of click on a link and navigate into their dashboard and then the chat feature in there, et cetera, et cetera. So we've got, we're sort of almost there. So that'll be something that is rolled out. We have been talking about it for a long time. It's just one of those things in startup funding time.

Speaker 2 (11:32)

Yes, I can imagine. Yeah, absolutely. And when it comes to the tradeswomen that come onto the platform, are there any stipulations that you insist that they have like specific qualifications? How easy is it for them to get on and register?

Speaker 1 (11:52)

So with the four trades that we currently offer, decorating it slightly different. So I touched on that in a minute with the other three trades, we basically need to have, we need to have a site and a copy of their qualification. So they'll need a qualification in electrical, plumbing, and obviously heating and gas, which is more regulated. We won't send anyone to anyone's properties without full, like without proper qualifications within those qualifications. Obviously there are different levels. So for example, with electrical work.

You know, some of our electricians are going to be great for going in and doing sort of smaller jobs, fitting lights, changing sockets, et cetera, et cetera. If we want something like an EICR done, there's going to be another level of tradesmen that can do that. And we'll need to see those qualifications. Same for plumbing. Obviously with heating and gas, they have to be gas safe, non-negotiable. And then on top of that, we need a copy of their public liability insurance. We need to have eyes on their ID and we also speak to them.

as well. that's kind of the verification process for all of our trades women with painting decorating, because it's obviously slightly less regulated, you don't need qualifications. lot of it is kind of on the job training, I suppose, as an argument to say that there's less sort of dangerous damage you can do to somebody's property with painting and decorating versus electrical gas plumbing. But we still have a verification in process, which is ⁓

reviews, imagery of previous work, speaking to their previous customers, and then obviously the public liability ID and speaking to them kind of go hand in hand as well. So yeah, so it's a slightly different process, but we try and kind of verify for everyone's sake basically, so that we know that customers are going to get somebody who knows what they're doing. And that also kind of makes us stand out from our competitors.

Speaker 2 (13:37)

Absolutely. It's good to know that you have those vetting processes in place so that it gives the customer that. Yes, that's what I'm looking for.

Speaker 1 (13:45)

peace of mind.

Yeah, completely. And as a customer, I suppose there's a lot to say about it. But like, you know, the way that we work in the UK with our regulations for skilled trades is, you know, quite shocking when you actually start speaking to people about it and sort of explaining to people that actually, you know, I could, I, me who is good at marketing,

could turn up to your house and say, actually, I'm a competent electrician. I believe I'm competent at electrics and there is a scope of work that I could do and charge you for. It's completely legal and that is how lot of trades, not all, but a lot of trade platforms work. They don't check qualifications because you don't necessarily need a qualification to go into someone's house and dabble with some of their electrics. And I think that that is

That's UK law. That's just how it is. at the same time, loads of people don't know that. I didn't know that until I started TaskHer. And I think that's something that I would want to know. And so that is just how we work because we want that verification to ensure that customers are safe. That doesn't seem so far in the time that we've been working with Traderoo and there's never been someone that has said to us, well, I still want to join even though I've not got any qualifications. they're like, you know, they would be sorry, you know, come back when you have.

Speaker 2 (15:06)

Yeah, definitely. During the process of building TaskHer and bringing it all together to where it is currently, what have been your main struggles through the process?

Speaker 1 (15:20)

There's

been so many, I suppose, probably two that stand out or three maybe. So firstly, the fact that we had no trades experience and we were kind of going in, you you're going quite naive into this sort of world where it was like, that's a great idea. Okay, cool. And then you kind of, you start like getting into the world of the trades and you're speaking to all these women who've been probably burned a bit by other platforms. They've had bad experiences with customers.

they're probably, they're definitely really suspicious. Actually, that's not just tradeswomen, that's just the trades as a whole, I think. And it's completely understandable. And there's like me and Paul just all fresh faced like, hi, we're really good at marketing and products. Can we help you? So that was a real learning curve, like not even, you know, trying to build a platform. And we had to, spoke to so many tradespeople and we, you know, we learned so much and we wanted to build something for tradeswomen that they actually

wanted and needed as opposed to something that we thought they did. I think from the customer side, it was a lot easier because we knew that that was, you know, from personal experience, we knew that there were other people who wanted the same thing as we did. And to counteract that, what we did was we kind of, we found tradeswomen, which was one of the other problems that I'll go into. But once we had sort of started establishing relationships with

some tradeswomen, we formed like a panel, basically an advisory panel. And they were the ones who we would send all of the iterations of our product to and say, this what you would expect? Can you have a go at using it? We'd film, you know, user demos, and we'd get feedback and change things based on their feedback. All of our hourly rates, the jobs that we offer, they're all from tradeswomen. And that was a big mountain to overcome. know, a few years down the line now, that

the language that we use, the information that we have, the understanding that we have is much more kind of second nature, but at the time it was a real learning curve. ⁓ And I kind of touched on the fact that it was really difficult to to find tradeswomen, which was kind of the issue in the first place. And obviously, you know, there's loads of tradeswomen have a presence on social media. And that was kind of where we went first. Yep. But some are more so than others and some tradeswomen have no, no, like

you know, just like everybody else in their job, they don't have social media, they don't, they're not necessarily great at marketing, they're really good at their job, they're not necessarily good at promoting themselves. So that was a real, like it took a long time to get that flywheel turning and we were like constantly reaching out to people, following people, asking people, know, can I give you a 50 pound Amazon voucher if you spare half an hour to talk to me about TaskHer and see if we can help you. And then once we kind of started doing that.

eventually we'd get people and that's how we kind of started our community, which has been really helpful and actually now having this pool of tradesmen across the UK that we can speak to that we know that are, you know, when we change, when we move to different cities that will have this pool of tradesmen in Nottingham or in Manchester. And that isn't like something that we didn't have before. And then the obstacle was funding because that's, I mean, startup life. You know, we were really lucky when we first like when, when we first got our

When we got our very initial funding, was 2022. It was just, it still quite a bubbly landscape for an investment. Very different ballgame now. And, you know, even then it was quite a struggle, but we, you know, we closed our sort of pre-seed route and we had like a good runway of funds to kind of, you know, and we're really small team. Like it's me, Paul, our customer support manager, Claire, and then everybody else really that we work with is freelance. So like from tech, from dev.

to paid social, to anyone like that. They're just, they're freelancers that we work with, but our actual cool team is tiny. so that's really great in the sense of like major overheads of like payment and like keeping our lights on, know, especially for me and Paul, like we're, you know, double whammy if one of us loses our job, we both do in this situation. And it was like, we managed to kind of like keep that runway going for a really long time and do loads of like product iterations.

marketing and PR and like it's really great. But then as soon as you have to start the fundraising cycle again for your next round, which is what we've been doing, it's all encompassing and like me and Paul and you you end up doing that as your full time job. And that has been incredibly difficult. And you're constantly like juggling, you know, everything and juggling finances, you're juggling work, you're juggling, like trying to raise money and book meetings. And, and, you know, we've got two kids as well. So let's go back to the bit.

Speaker 2 (19:53)

Okay, goodness me.

Speaker 1 (19:54)

And even just paying for their childcare on top of just having to manage them, all of those kinds of things, that's been really, really hard. that is something that know, it's for everybody in the startup world, you know, especially for women, that's incredibly hard. So that's a problem we have yet to solve, believe, in the same way that we did the others.

Speaker 2 (20:15)

Wow, they sound very, very testing. What would you say your mission and goal is with TaskHer? ⁓

Speaker 1 (20:21)

Our

mission is to essentially to normalize women in trade for people, homeowners or even business owners to not do what I did and actually think, do you know what, that's a woman, that sounds good actually. think I'd prefer, in this situation, I think I'd prefer a woman in my home or for a tradeswoman to turn up to someone's house and for them to not know the gender and for them to knock at the door and for the person that's in the door to not be shocked.

when it's a woman and to not ask where's the electrician. That's our North Star, that's what we're aiming for. Ultimately, the trades industry is big and it's been running in the same way for a very, very long time and it's going to take a long time and a lot of work from not just us. Loads of people are trying to change the way that not just the trades view women but also... ⁓

Speaker 2 (21:18)

include the customers.

Speaker 1 (21:20)

include them in a way where, you know, in the horror stories we've heard from, say, all of the tradeswomen that we speak to, they've all got a story, some worse than others. And in any other industry, that just would not fly in 2025. And that's something that we're really passionate about. that's what kind of, you know, even if you're not getting paid very much, that's what keeps you going. Because it's just outrageous that that's the way that the trades industry is still being run. And

Yeah, that's not a very succinct answer.

Speaker 2 (21:52)

No, no, I love it. I love that that's your mission to kind of to normalise the mix of genders within this particular area of employment, let's call it. There's so much difference pointed out within the trades between men and women. I think only, I don't even know, maybe in the last couple of years with social media becoming such a big part of

advertising yourself and sharing your work, has it become slightly more acceptable to see a woman drilling something or changing a whole consumer unit or, you know, re-plumbing a whole house, you know? And the fact that we are seeing more women utilizing social media because it's visual, I think is becoming more acceptable in the eyes of those that don't expect females in such roles.

Speaker 1 (22:51)

think that's such a valid point. Such a point. I think that the what you you said about the visuals is like such a big thing. Like, when we and it has changed, it has been changing in the last few years. It has and I've noticed it like even when we first started TaskHer, you went on a number I'm not gonna name names, when you want a number of trades platforms, like directory platforms or booking platforms, the language would always be tradesmen, handymen, the imagery was

all men. You might get a token picture of a woman on one of the small pages, but on the home page it'll be all men. If you wanted a photo of a woman in trade, we wanted photos for TaskHer. When we first started, we didn't have the budget to do photography, so you then go on stock imagery sites. I remember working with the branding agency and she was just like, there is nothing.

for us to you, we then had to, we took all up by all the photos that we now have on our site are all tradesmen, like real tradesmen that we've worked with. And they're all photos that we've taken because they're just, you know, and ideally, from a budget perspective, we wouldn't have had to do that. So early doors, we would have had, we know we would have used some stock imagery and we would have played around with it until we had that budget. But it was so important because that, you know, we were restricted and just even that you're just like, so stock imagery sites don't think that it's important to have a

a proper photo of a woman in trade, not just a pink hard hat, high vis jacket, but like a proper woman, even stuff like them having their hair up, rather than just down and looking glamorous because that is not how someone who works in the trades is not safe. Or, know, upper ladder, but not having one hand on the ladder, like even to silly things like that. That's the kind of stuff that gets picked up by tradespeople when they're looking at your imagery. So you need to have it right.

Speaker 2 (24:13)

Genuine.

Speaker 1 (24:37)

But like, yeah, having that ability to like share that stuff on social media and like, there is a real generation of tradesmen coming through who have a really big social media presence and they're doing so much for the cause and they're showing the next generation as well. And I always say this, but I just think it's amazing. Like I remember like reading, I think I was on someone's like social profile, don't know who it was, and her saying that she'd been out at a club the night before and she was like,

properly like, you know, dolled up hair done, nails done, looking great. And she was talking to this guy in the club and he was like, she was trying to tell him that she was a heating and gas engineer and he didn't believe her. And so she had to like put out her phone and show him all of the photos of boilers that she'd taken on her phone at work. And I was like, I love that. Like, I love that like combination of the two. Like she's like, she's more than just one, like, you know, one dimensional. And that is really important for the next generation of

of tradeswomen to see at whatever age, but when you're school-leaving age and you're, you know, the way you look and the way trying to fit in with society is so important, you don't want to necessarily stand out from the crowd to be able to see that there are girls that look just like you doing those jobs. And it's so, so important. So like, I think that like them coming up through social media and, you know, platforms like TikTok and Instagram is amazing.

Speaker 2 (25:49)

Absolutely.

Definitely, definitely. I mean, when I was at school many moons ago, I don't even think construction of any kind was mentioned to me. mean, there was like the old woodwork and metalworking technologies ⁓ classes in secondary school, but after school into colleges that I don't even think there was a course brought to my attention, shall we say, you know? And I think now a lot of people are taking up apprenticeships in the 30s now.

⁓ I think the fact that apprenticeships as a whole are more prevalent for people to see, then it opens up another avenue for young girls or even young boys to get into the construction because we all know if you've seen any news that construction is a bit thin on the ground, shall we say, it?

Speaker 1 (26:51)

Absolutely. Completely. Like it's not at the moment, I imagine, you know, there was probably a big period of time, I don't know how old you are, but like when I was at school, same thing. I don't think even the boys were really being offered apprenticeships. It was, there was a big period of time where everyone was basically like you go to uni or you go straight to work. Like, and going to uni was this like gold star and I went to uni and I loved it and it was loads of fun. But you know, I did TV production.

And I had like one lecture a week and I kind of went for fun, right? I wasn't studying to become a doctor. And it was a really lovely experience. you know, at that time, didn't have to, my tuition fees were nothing like they are now. So then all of these people leaving school, so many people university is not achievable. because the tuition fees are so expensive. And there's so many jobs now where you don't need to have a degree.

So I do think, I think that there is more of a push now and there will be further pushes to get more people into apprenticeships. What I'm really hoping for is that the girls who are of that age or I mean, I think it is slightly different when like an older generation, when you're older and you're going into an apprenticeship, you know yourself and you're not trying to like sort of, you know, go along with the crowd and you've had a bit of work experience and you know, maybe, you know, we've got a lot of tradeswomen who have had many other jobs previously from teacher to

We've got a doctor who is now an electrician. We've got an ex venture capitalist who's now a plumber. We've got lot of not old old, but older women who are, they're in their second or third iteration of their career. But when you're at school and you're trying to make this decision, that if you're going to do an apprenticeship, that actually the trades are going to be a lot more lucrative and a lot more flexible than if you're going to do an apprenticeship in childcare or in cosmetology or in hairdressing. And again, they're great jobs.

And they're very creative and they're, you know, my children are in childcare, we need those people, but they pay really badly in comparison to skilled trades. And then there's, and it's always going to be the girls that get pushed down that route. And then it's always going to be those, it's always going to be, there's always going to be this gender pay gap that there already is.

Speaker 2 (29:04)

That's it. Exactly. I totally agree. Totally agree. Obviously we spoke about social media. Would you say that it's a big part of you as TaskHer using to promote your platform?

Speaker 1 (29:17)

Yeah, absolutely. When we first started TaskHer, we just created an Instagram account and we were like, let's just do a little, it's called fake door testing, which is basically where you create ads that kind of don't necessarily go anywhere because you haven't got a product or a website yet, but you want to see who's interested and who's clicking through. And so you get sort of some ideas. And so we did that initially just with Instagram and we were like, okay, people are

keen here. It was really easy to get followers, to get people clicking through. So we have a lot of ⁓ our marketing budget does go on paid social. Our core audience, it's shifting now. Our core audience is in Instagram. That's sort of the demographic that we've always targeted. So ultimately, it's kind of my demographic. So somewhere between 30 and

50, where they are using Instagram, they're not sort of the older Facebook generation anymore. They're not, they're, they are kind of dabbling in TikTok. That is kind of where a lot of our leads and a lot of our kind of like organic kind of brand awareness kind of comes from as well. So that's really, really important. We are now moving more into TikTok.

Speaker 2 (30:31)

I think it's a must, isn't it, to move into TikTok? Because it's blowing up, it?

Speaker 1 (30:35)

Yeah,

absolutely. And to be honest, I use it a lot for like research. So I'll find myself just like searching stuff on TikTok because I know there's going to be a video on there that someone's made like my like hips hurting. Let's see what someone on TikTok's got to say. And there's always someone that's got an opinion and I kind of do that. But you know, I know not everyone does that. like, that is a trickier thing for us like from a content perspective, because it is so video focused. Whereas is slightly more kind of graphics focused. But

it is where we're moving and it gives us a voice, which is really important. So yeah, those kind of are the two platforms really, really focused on. LinkedIn's another one that's slightly more, you know, more kind of like personal brand. And yeah, and then we kind of we do quite a lot of PR as well. found the PR I think maybe because the story is quite not necessarily the story of why it was founded, but like the story, the idea of TaskHer resonate because I think a lot of people are like, I didn't even think I didn't even think about the fact that

I never see a female electrician. It hadn't crossed my mind, I just sort of assumed. And so, you know, we've had some really great sort of UK wide PR, like Times and BBC. I think that that is really helpful for us because we get a real idea of, it's really helped us determine like what are the next cities that we need to go to. So like we did an interview last year on Radio 4, which was really, it was a really exciting and like I came out of there and like the emails of like,

that we'd had for like requests for bookings were like just literally like going through my email and I was, I spoke to like Paul on the phone he was like, I can't speak to you because it's it's gone crazy. But that was because obviously it was a UK wide like radio falls obviously big and we just weren't anticipating it. But you know, and a lot of those inquiries we could not fulfill because we we're in London at moment. But it was really helpful because we could we mapped out

where they'd all come from. And we could see like the key cities that we were really resonating in and that in itself is really helpful because then we can go into like our next stage of like expansion and go well actually we know loads of people in Manchester thought we were a really good idea as so much so they tried to look with us so that is potentially a really good city for us to move into.

Speaker 2 (32:43)

That's like invaluable research there, isn't it? Goodness me.

Speaker 1 (32:47)

Yeah,

we had no idea that that was gonna happen. I wasn't the reason why I did this.

Speaker 2 (32:53)

And added bonus, added bonus.

Speaker 1 (32:56)

It was really helpful and it's made us kind of more like spend a bit more money working on PR. You know, making sure that we get that because it is a story that people kind of seems connected.

Speaker 2 (33:07)

Amazing. Brilliant. So can I ask you, are you allowed to say where the next cities are going to be that you're going to?

Speaker 1 (33:16)

I mean, yeah, we don't have timelines necessarily yet, you know, hopefully. So the three that we've got earmarked at the moment are Manchester, Brighton and Bristol, which I think if you kind of look at who we are and the demographic that we target, we were just like, that fits like fairly kind of like, you know, liberal cities who are, you know, quite forward thinking people probably are living there. like, that they're kind of where we're planning on next.

Speaker 2 (33:41)

Brilliant, brilliant. And is there any big moves coming from you guys yet apart from opening up in new cities? Is there anything else big project-wise on the horizon?

Speaker 1 (33:54)

We've got a few from a product perspective. At the moment, our product is, so when you go on to book as a customer, you basically kind of like, it's a bit more like kind of click through. you kind of say like your trade that you want and basically then like the job sort of you click through a process like a Q &A essentially. Add a bit more information, you get your quote, you book. We're now.

Obviously, like, even since we started TaskHer, which wasn't that long ago, AI has like just boomed and the ability to use AI is just so much easier to integrate it. So we're rebuilding the platform to make it even easier. I won't go into too much detail as of how that is because it's not complete yet, but it'll just basically make the process for looking even easier than it already is, which is amazing. And we've also another thing that we're really sort of working on now, which is

which we love is just working with more kind of companies, so B2C, but that is, sorry, not B2C, sorry, B2B. So ⁓ we're working with women's refuges more, which is amazing because I think that's like a real niche where we can really support. ⁓ You know, it's a really important job when you do turn up to a women's refuge that you're reliable, that you're

you know, you kind of keep yourself to yourself that you're aware of the situation and that the fact that you are female for the majority of the women in these women's refuges is really important. So that is a great like collaboration for us. And also it just feels like we're like we're an impact focused company anyway, but to be able to have even further impact is really lovely. And we're also working with housing associations for a similar reason. ⁓ And

And then we're kind of having sort of conversations and we have sort of small contracts with left-wing agents and sort of like property management companies as well. So that kind of B2B angle we're moving forward with as well, which is great. And then like from a sort of trades perspective, we have a couple of trades in the pipeline that we're looking at launching, but I'm not going to go into those yet. And just from our trades community, that's something that we want to put more into. So like doing more.

We want to get some bigger partnerships to support our tradesmen. So at moment we've got like, at the moment there is if you're in our community, you can kind of basically click link and it'll show you all of the sort of partnerships we have with sort of other companies, you know, paint companies or tool companies, things that can potentially support tradesmen, they get some money off, insurance, things like that. want, we're after bigger partnerships that can support them even further. We're also like speaking to like training academies as well to support tradesmen who've already trained but want to like...

further train, like upskill even more. Also, speaking to like colleges who've got apprenticeships, apprentices, or ready to go to like connect them with trades women who are in our community that might be able to help them and also, you know, get those women who are, you know, in class in these colleges to join our community because chances are they're going to be one of, you know, potentially one or two of 30 people in that classroom who are female. And then just basically just giving back a bit more because

over the past few months because we have been fundraising, like giving has always been really difficult, like more than we were able to. Now that we've got kind of funds coming in, it means that we can kind of support that community more, which is really good.

Speaker 2 (37:20)

That sounds brilliant or fantastic. I love it. I'm going to just go into a quick fire question round. Okay. It's just so the listeners can get to know you as a person a little bit more ⁓ on a personal level. I do this with everybody. It's just a bit of fun. Here we go. Driver or passenger? Driver. Tea or coffee?

Speaker 1 (37:42)

Bye, there.

Coffee, my god.

Speaker 2 (37:47)

Absolutely. A sunshine holiday or a cold holiday?

Speaker 1 (37:52)

a cold holiday. I'm ginger. I hate the sun.

Speaker 2 (37:55)

So does that make you a skier then? Can you ski?

Speaker 1 (37:58)

Well, I've only been skiing a couple of times. I would like to start that day. Although to be fair, the worst sunburn I've ever had was skiing. So it's probably a really bad idea.

Speaker 2 (38:08)

You didn't get the goggles marks, did you?

Speaker 1 (38:09)

I had like proper like like almost black burn marks on my cheeks underneath where my goggles were. Bad me.

Speaker 2 (38:15)

Yeah, nuts.

Bless you. Cats or dogs?

Speaker 1 (38:22)

Dogs, dogs, yeah. We had a dog and now we don't, but yeah, he was a good one.

Speaker 2 (38:28)

bless.

⁓

Speaker 1 (38:32)

Night owl, definitely, although forced to be an early bird because I have two children under

Speaker 2 (38:36)

A starter or a dessert.

Speaker 1 (38:38)

dessert, 100 % dessert. My husband has been known to order a starter for pudding. That's how much of a starter person he is.

Speaker 2 (38:49)

play camping or glamping

Speaker 1 (38:52)

I like camping until I have kids. Now I don't want to do it with them because they're really annoying and you get bad sleep so you might as well. Good camping.

Speaker 2 (39:00)

Fair play. A call or text? Yeah. And a sunrise or a sunset?

Speaker 1 (39:06)

I don't think I've ever really seen the sunrise, even if I've been up, which I have 100 % been up at sunrise with children, but I've never had the looks out the window.

Speaker 2 (39:17)

Brilliant. That's that then. Thank you. I have three last questions that I ask everybody. First one is, if you could be, it's obviously worded a little bit different for you, if you could be a fellow tradie, what trade would you choose and why? ⁓

Speaker 1 (39:34)

that's a good one. Do you know what, I always, I thought about this before, just, I don't know, coincidentally, and like you, I'd probably been, I probably really enjoy being a paint decorator. That's something that like, I'm quite creative and quite attention, I've got quite a lot of attention to detail, but it is exhausting. And I'm always broken when I've done any of it. And I actually think I would, I would probably prefer to be a plumber just without.

Like I fixed our toilet recently and I was so proud of myself. But then the idea of going to other people's toilets, kind of grim, so I'm not sure. But I would say plumber, just to give you bit more of concise answer.

Speaker 2 (40:05)

your shipping.

Brilliant, brilliant. And what trade or who do you think I should have on the show next?

Speaker 1 (40:22)

I think you should have an electrician and I think you should have Erin, who's one of our electricians who is absolutely, she's total legend. She's scouse. She's got a good chat and she's got some great stories. yeah, she would be my, she'd probably hate me for saying that, yeah, Erin the electrician.

Speaker 2 (40:41)

Okay, I'll have to check if I follow her already. If I don't, I'll be messaging you for her details. Fabulous. Okay, and where can people find ⁓ TaskHer on social media and the internet?

Speaker 1 (40:55)

Yeah, so our website is tasker.k.uk and then on Instagram and TikTok we're task.her. We're also on Facebook as well, is Hello TaskHer, which is basically our Instagram content, just regurgitated really. So yeah, they're kind of the three kind of main places that you'll find us.

Speaker 2 (41:16)

Brilliant. Well, thank you so much for sharing your time with me today. I've really enjoyed learning more about TaskHer and hopefully the listeners will have enjoyed it as well. So yeah, thank you very much. You're welcome. All right. We'll chat soon.

Speaker 1 (41:30)

Thanks so much.