About the publisher
Honest work.
Honest pay.
Need A Trade is published by an Australian operator who spent almost 30 years inside project management, and 16 years building marketing for working tradies. The story of how the publisher came to exist starts with a problem the marketplaces won't fix.
Antony Loomans
Publisher · Kingscliff, Australia
A note from the publisher
Why this exists.
My name is Antony Loomans. I've been a project manager for almost thirty years. I did my Master's at UTS in Sydney around 2007, and I've worked with tradie businesses — large and small — since about 2010.
The economics of most marketplaces are broken. Google and Facebook costs have increased almost exponentially since they launched. What used to be a cheap form of digital advertising — a way of connecting businesses with their prospective customers — has turned into a hostage situation for both sides.
On the plus side, Google reviews gave good operators an opportunity to showcase their work. But that still comes with its problems.
What I saw working with the trades, in particular, was also a problem for new operators coming into the market. Apprentices setting up had a major, major disadvantage — and a lot of people were gaming the system. I wanted to create a solution that gave both sides an opportunity to connect, that wasn't a race to the bottom, and wasn't about making money from everyone.
So Need A Trade was born. It's part of an ecosystem I'm building to help connect real Australian families and businesses with trades that do a good job — because everyone deserves to get honest work and honest pay.
That's the back story. The rest of this site is the structure that holds it — the Code, the editorial separation, the Member Profile, the public ledger.
— Antony Loomans, publisher
The three sites
Where each thing lives.
Brand & standards
needatrade.com.au
This site. Front door, Code of Conduct, Member Profile explainer, editorial separation, how we make money, terms, privacy, contact.
You're here →Homeowner guides
guides.needatrade.com.au
33 trade-by-trade guides. 2,037 homeowner quotes referenced. Editorial-only — no member ads, no paid placement, no referral links.
Open the guides →Tradies & flyers
tradies.needatrade.com.au
Sign the Code, get vetted, run a flyer in your suburb, reserve a founding Member Profile slot at members. when the directory opens.
Open the tradies site →Contact
Reach the publisher
Editorial corrections, factual errors in the guides:
editorial @ needatrade.com.au
Conduct complaints about members:
conduct @ needatrade.com.au
Tradies, prelaunch, member benefits:
tradies @ needatrade.com.au
Press, partnership, anything else:
hello @ needatrade.com.au
We answer every editorial correction email. We don't answer cold sales pitches.