Under The Radar: Like many people, Ted Laverty had a bad experience with a tradesman working on his home. While most people would see red over a botched job, Laverty saw a business opportunity.

In October 2005, along with business partner Declan Feely, he launched Onlinetradesmen.com as a nationwide service to provide homeowners with easy access to qualified and accredited trade professionals.

"Property owners have had difficulty for a long time in finding tradespeople who are qualified and vetted. We provide an accredited source of qualified tradespeople," says Laverty.

His company has partnered the likes of the National Guild of Master Craftsmen, RECI, FÁS and Fetac as accreditation bodies for its members. "We turn away more tradespeople than we actually accept because we are trying to build a stamp of quality," he explains.

The website is designed to provide property owners with project pricing and start dates directly from qualified tradesmen by e-mail - eliminating the stress and uncertainty from what is otherwise a difficult process, he says. "Property owners looking for anything - from a new home build right the way down to a landscaper or a guy to fix a leak under the sink - know when they put in their information that what's going to come back to them is going to be qualified tradespeople."

Laverty says the service is designed to tap into the huge rise in home ownership and changing demographics where many people are living in areas far away from where they grew up and are unaware of their local providers or reputations.

"With the commuter belt, we have people spending hours travelling to work and spending longer at work. These people don't know their next-door neighbour, let alone the local plumber who lives down the road."

The answer, he says, is sitting on the PC in front of them at work. "They still have the same fears and worries that anybody else would have. If I get this guy, is he going to be any good? Is he going to turn up? It is more critical for them because they mightn't get home to meet the guy. It mightn't be until late that evening after he is finished until they get to see the job. That is just the reality. So, they have to know they can trust these tradespeople."

But Laverty says it's not just a service for consumers and is equally beneficial for tradespeople.

"Trade professionals join as members and receive local job leads that match their skill sets. We have designed a platform that suits both people. The tradespeople get a system they can log into. They define what their parameters are in terms of the type of work and location, so when they log into the system they can see all the jobs that meet their criteria and they can see the start dates. So consumers will only get a reply from people that are available to do the job and are interested in doing it based on the description you have put into the system."

The trades industry is still very underdeveloped from a technology perspective with many using mobile phones, landlines or faxes rather than embracing the internet, which is increasingly becoming the medium for consumers to source services, he said.

Convincing about 8,500 professionals to part with €75 plus VAT to sign up to the online service was the next step.

"It is an education process definitely," Laverty says. "The hardest thing in business is to try to change behaviour. That's been our biggest challenge but it has worked quite well.

"We went to the National Guild of Master Craftsmen and we did mailouts with them to their members. We also contacted local tradespeople and did forums with them and focus groups. Then we did a lot of direct marketing to the tradespeople themselves."

Onlinetradesmen.com recently processed its 50,000th job request with a cumulative value in excess of €750 million. The company, which Laverty expects to turn over about €500,000 this year, has also recently launched a new service to complement the main business - an online hardware store called Handyhardware.ie, which will sell tools and materials at discounted prices.

"We can now fulfil all of the requirements for a property owner and tradesmen," he says.

And Laverty isn't going to stop there. "We've got some fairly big designs. We are certainly looking at the British market and there is a plan to launch in Britain later this year or early 2008."

On The Record

Name:Ted Laverty

Age:32

Marital status:Getting married to Catherine in July.

From:Deansgrange, Dublin

Education:Clonkeen College in Deansgrange.

BSc in applied science and postgraduate diploma in business development from DIT Kevin Street.

Background:Worked in business development for IBM in Ireland before moving to Australia, where he worked for Australian software company BCAIT.

Returning to Ireland, with his business partner Declan Feely, he pioneered speed dating in Ireland in 2001 through Swifterdate in conjunction with Capital Bars.

Later worked for SoftCo in Ireland before setting up Onlinetradesmen.com.

Interests:Watersports. He is a keen sailor and represented Ireland at teenage level.

Most admires:Nelson Mandela for what he has achieved. In business Michael O'Leary, not so much for how he conducts the business but for how he went about getting his role. My parents Eddie and Peig - my father ran a number of companies back in the 1980s when it wasn't so easy.

Favourite book:Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

Favourite film:Wall Street