Gurmeet Judge
Encompass solutions founder and CEO Gurmeet Judge interview successful business leaders as he dives deeps into the world of business to help people like you become successful business leaders!
Gurmeet Judge
Why Smart Contractors Are Sharing Workers Instead of Hiring
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Smart software turns operational challenges into growth. Platforms like ALT Labor Solutions help contractors share skilled labor, stabilize productivity, and scale efficiently—boosting collaboration, streamlining workflows, and creating a real competitive edge.
In this episode, I had a discussion with Alex Thibault, President and Founder of ALT Labour Solutions. His software platform is an online marketplace connecting construction contractors to share, lend, and acquire skilled trades labour. The service serves both non-union and unionized companies in residential and commercial/industrial sectors, helping meet labour demands while minimizing layoffs and maintaining employer-employee connections.
https://altlaboursolutions.com/
Chapters
00:00:00 Intro
00:03:05 Introduction to ALT Labor Solutions
00:03:38 Identifying Industry Challenges
00:06:05 The Concept of Labor Sharing
00:08:05 Traditional Collaboration Methods
00:09:40 Benefits for Businesses
00:11:54 Financial Model of ALT Labor Solutions
00:14:50 Current Labor Market Challenges
00:16:56 Alex's Journey to Software Development
00:20:50 Rapid Market Entry and Development
00:25:16 Learning from Software Development
00:26:16 The Evolution of the Platform
00:27:19 Market Reception and Challenges
00:28:46 User Experience and Onboarding
00:31:12 Expansion Opportunities
00:34:04 Cross-Border Considerations
00:36:08 The Impact of AI on the Industry
00:39:13 Addressing Contractor Concerns
00:42:04 Health and Safety Considerations
00:45:09 Connecting with Alex and Final Thoughts
Intro
SPEAKER_01The one issue in the in the industry is uh keeping your workforce uh working at all times. Um it fluctuates throughout um throughout certain times. I I'd be like we noticed also in February, uh a lot of uh the workload uh drops off. But throughout the year, it's it's just uh it goes up and down. And to maintain um proper uh a labor force going, it's very challenging. At the end of the day, it's it's you gotta maybe look past that and and see that you know your worker is the one that needs the money, you know, to survive. You know, they're they're struggling paycheck to paycheck as well. And um, so it you know it benefits the worker, and you know, it benefits uh quite a few industries. Like the union benefits from uh their workers, you know, keep working as well. They lose so much per hour if their their members are sitting at home. If I'm gonna keep you working, you're asking me to keep you working 36 hours a week. And I'm gonna tell you what I'm gonna do to keep you working for those 36 hours a week. I'm gonna I'm gonna be on this platform and I'm gonna find some work for you. If I if I can't get any work, I'll find some work with you elsewhere, but I'm gonna make sure that I'm gonna pay you 36 hours a week. And by doing that, I'm gonna go get get you to work with another contractor, but I'm still gonna pay you. There was a few things that I've I wanted something to look at uh a certain way or have it done a certain way, and uh it just wasn't possible. And then uh sometimes just trying to understand um it's a different world.
SPEAKER_00Hi there, welcome to Business Leadership Podcast. In this episode, I had a discussion with Alex Tipalt. Alex is the president and a founder of ELT Labor Solutions. His software platform is an online marketplace connecting construction contractors to share, lend, and acquire skilled trades labor. The service serves both non-union and unionized companies in the residential and commercial industrial sector, helping meet labor demands while minimizing layoffs and maintaining employer-employee connections. Now, this was very interesting discussion. Alex did not come from a software development background, he came from a construction background, but he saw opportunity and a service gap in this industry, and he learned software development to provide that tool. Uh, so he talks about some of the challenges he had to deal with, some of the you know uh obstacles he had to get over, and some of the skills he had to learn uh, you know, along that period. And um, he also talked about opportunity and and how uh he provides a service and what gaps he fills in this area. So, very interesting discussion. Hope you find a value in this discussion as much as I did. If you like this discussion, don't forget to like, subscribe, share with your friends, and send us your feedback. Your feedback is very important to us. Allow us to focus on the right discussions to help you grow and scale your business. So, until next time, thank you for your time. Thank you for listening, and please welcome Alex Tipalt. Hi, guys, welcome to
Introduction to ALT Labor Solutions
SPEAKER_00uh uh business leadership podcast. Uh, today we're guest is Alex Tybald. Alex, uh you're from ALT Labor Solutions. Uh, you know, you built that great system. So I'm looking forward to learning from you, looking forward to a discussion. Thank you so much for your time today. Yeah, you're welcome, and thank you very much for having me. Yeah, likewise. So if you walk us through uh Alex, uh so what uh what uh you know inspired you to build us uh uh solutions, you know, let's talk about the business problem we try to solve first, then we'll get to the solution side of things.
SPEAKER_01Yes, the one issue in the
Identifying Industry Challenges
SPEAKER_01industry is keeping your workforce uh working at all times, it fluctuates throughout throughout certain times. I'd we like we noticed also in February, a lot of the workload drops off, but throughout the year it's it's just it goes up and down, and to maintain proper a labor force going, it's very challenging from from time to time. So what I've noticed is that no, we we share we share labor between uh several contractors, and I feel like sometimes it was only done one way. So I was sharing a lot of my workers with another contractor, and just whenever I was asking for help on my end, I just wasn't getting it because they were just as busy as I was. So there was a gap there in the industry, and then I'm I'm looking at it saying, Well, I need to open up my access to other contractors, and not all contractors would be available for you, but how can we open it up to a network of contractors that have their workers either sitting at home during downtimes, either they're waiting for permits, waiting for equipment? There's any variables that that could happen in between jobs, your pricing jobs, trying to get award jobs. And what's happening is that some of your good workers are sitting at home and they're not getting their weekly wages, and that's not fair to the workers as well, especially if there's another contractor out there that may need the extra help just for a week, and it's not worth them hiring somebody, or like on the non-union side, you're posting ads, you don't have access to a union hall like the union side does, so you would be posting ads, and by the week's end, you know, you're not you're not hiring somebody by the week's end. So why not have uh an access to a platform that you're able to see if there's anybody that can help you? And that's why I came up with alt labor solutions is to provide that option for contractors as a contractor that has workers sitting at home. You you you'd be able to put them on a marketplace for other contractors to view, and those contractors can borrow or sorry, subcontract your workers for minimum one day to however long you're able to help them out with. So it's more guided for the short-term,
The Concept of Labor Sharing
SPEAKER_01short-term periods that you need help. And let's say I'm a contractor that also needs help on a project, it goes both ways. So I could post an ad on the marketplace saying that I need help for a week or two or a day just to get over, just to meet that schedule. I'm struggling because something happened to my workers or just not enough workers. So, in that aspect, if there's another contractor's on the platform with some similarities as you, you could go on there and help them out. Like I could have workers that aren't that I'm not even slow or not sitting at home, but I'm able to help because we're not overly busy and I can stretch out my work a little bit more. So I might be able to throw a couple of bodies to that contractor and say, Yeah, I'll help you out for the week. And then uh just a collaboration tool basically between contractors. We have contractors that are a little bit wary about sharing their workers with other other contractors alike, so I do have the option that they don't need to do that in the platform, but they can reach out to general contractors as well. And same with general contractors, they can reach out to contractors themselves instead of same or contractors alike, and not only that as a gener as a mechanical contractor myself, I would be able to reach out to an insulating contractor or a welding contractor, any uh second-tier contractors that I would be using as well.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so how did how did people approach this kind of collaboration before your solutions came along? Came around. So, you know, what they were doing, was there ads on a Khajiji or some other platform they were putting ads on, or how how how they were reaching out to each other and how they were collaborating before this?
SPEAKER_01Uh it's just word of mouth before it was it was if you know somebody, that's all it was. Like when you're jumping from company to company, sometimes you have some cont contacts from another contractor, and then if you're struggling, you call them, you're like, Listen, I need some help. You think you can help me out? Then you start building a relationship with that contractor. We had that we
Traditional Collaboration Methods
SPEAKER_01have that relationship with two contractors right now, but it's uh again, like I mentioned, it was it was a one-way street almost, I felt like, because they're a bigger contractor, we're more of a medium-sized contractor. So they were they needed all their workers when they needed them. When I needed help, it wasn't available to me. So and that's why I just wanted to open it up. And I was thinking also, you know, like how many contractors are out there that if I'm if I I'm waiting, I've I have workers sitting at home, then there's gotta be thousands of contractors in the same position as me, right? And to me, having my workers sit at home, I'm I can't sleep at night. I I try to drum up some work in my head, trying to figure out what I can do. You know, sometimes I had them at my place, you know, building a shed platform or just finding work for them just to keep them, I get their weekly wage, right? But I think that this platform will help the industry bridge the gap. And and it's not something that's permanent that your workers are are full-time. And we have another module for that on the platform.
SPEAKER_00So worker side is easy to understand, they get more work, they they make more money, so so they stay busy, so then they don't have that ups and down where they have a free time or they're busy. So that that is very easily understood. But on a business side, for for builders or uh or companies, what are the benefits uh for for them? Is is you know, if you can outline some of the benefits for them, in you know, so they they they can labor when they when they need when they need it, right? So they they can find a skill set where they need it. Is that the only benefit,
Benefits for Businesses
SPEAKER_00or there's some other benefits uh for business side?
SPEAKER_01For business side, so the the the project schedules get met if you have, you know, if if there's no leg in between and you get all the workers that you're available to, as long as it's probably managed by the companies as well. You know, you have companies that have a hard time managing labor and they're just sticking to a certain number of labor because you know, sometimes labor you can go from 10 to 20 workers on a site, you'll be more profitable having 10 workers versus 20. But sometimes the project requires you to put more workers on just to capture different areas, and unfortunately, it is a cost to companies, but at the same at the other on the other side, you know, your relationship with general contractors and and the client for meeting a schedule means a lot more to them at the end of the day. And that's that's what you need to keep behind your back of your mind to maintain that relationship with them. Another benefit would be just in general, just having that ability to meet your schedule, you know, and showing that the contractors that you can finish a job on time and and that you're reaching out to resources that help you maintain their schedule that they want you to complete at.
SPEAKER_00Understandable. Very good point. How about uh so how how about your financial model? Is that more uh towards a business side, you know, financially, or is it more from the people who join us? You know, how does that financial model work for for for to compensate both sides? Uh uh, Alex. For you mean between the contractor and the workers, yes. For for for for for them to use your platform, it's just a one fix it's a such as a membership fees or or uh is it is uh you know percentage price, or how does that work?
SPEAKER_01So the labor side, um I'm it's uh 100% free on the on the platform. So if you want to share your labor, it's it's free. I have different modules that have a cost to it. The reason why I'm throwing out for free right now is that the the platform is it needs a lot of contractors in order to collaborate. And in order, like I like for example, I'm reaching, I might be reaching about 100 contractors in the next week or
Financial Model of ALT Labor Solutions
SPEAKER_01so. And not many contractors can collaborate at the moment because they there's four subscriptions to each trade. We have 25 different trades, and there's four different industries. We have the union and non-union sectors, and in both those sectors, there's residential and commercial, so those are split up into four, and there's no crossover. For example, the uh four out of the first 12 contractors I had on the platform, there were four plumbing contractors, and none of them can collaborate because they're all in different industries. So just that alone was an issue that I saw arising. That I just need to get a lot of contractors in here in order to collaborate. And we're open to 25 different trades. So that's that's over a hundred different industries, industries and trades mixed together. So each each one of those needs quite a few contractors to be able to collaborate uh properly because you're not you could be on the platform and and be okay with the manpower or the the workers, the labor that you have available to you yourself, and not need to post for several months, right? So I put that for free for the worker themselves. There's no there's no cost at all. We do have different modules. We have a job board and a resume center. We do have a fee for that for the contractors to use. The public can sign up for digital resumes, and there is no cost to the public for that. The other module we have is a uh product center, so it's contractors can sell, rent, or buy each other's uh equipment, materials, or tools, and within each other is just to keep it off those public marketplaces.
SPEAKER_00Got it, got it. So, so let's talk about the labor market. Do we have a challenge in Canada, especially now where we are with the labor? And is this your solution? Is one of that solution to help out with the labor challenges? What are we up against? I know construction is a little bit slowed down though with economically, but we're talking, you know, we're looking at, you know, especially in a uh you know home building sites or or uh whether it's uh is in a condo building, it's slow down a little bit. But there's always a I always heard that there's uh labor challenges in this market. Is there a labor challenge? What are you what are you hearing from the developers or people who are in that trade? And and also is that so the solution will help?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so what I'm hearing that on the residential side is slow. We're on the commercial side. Uh, we're seeing a lot of bids come in. It's looking it's looking good for the near future, and a lot of the policies that are being approached, I think the with the Canadian government, I think it's there's gonna be quite the boom coming up. And so my platform's kind of guided for both sides of things. So it could be when the the industry is slow and busy, because not everyone's always busy. Like for for example, I was throughout the holidays, we were we were screaming busy, and
Current Labor Market Challenges
SPEAKER_01what I was hearing around us is that everybody was slow, and we needed we needed workers, and it was an opportunity for us to to get workers to cover some of the of the slow times that other other contractors had. But the word in the industry was that everything was slow, but we weren't, right? So yeah, there are some contractors that are and and sometimes they're not, and it's just it just all depends on what's awarded at the time. If you have a larger project that you're able to float a lot of workers for a longer period of time, or you just you just were lucky and you have a lot of work uh ahead of you, right? So, and uh we do have a lot of work ahead of us, it just doesn't come in or the approvals don't come in as quick as you want sometimes, which is good because it kind of stretches it out for you. But uh yeah, I think there's two ways of looking at it. But the platform is designed for personal periods or or or are busy periods, too.
SPEAKER_00Got it, got it. Interesting. So I you know, let's why you talk about your background, Alex. You you were not a software developer. So, how did you get inv involved in uh building a software? You know, you you were in a trade, but how do you get involved in this? And let's talk about your journey.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. So yeah, that's it was an interesting, it was kind of spur of the moment. I was I was going frequently to Ontario She Metal Association meetings with there, you know, between the negotiations with the unions and all that. And I was sitting at some of those meetings and just you know, the union wasn't doing much, especially like uh after COVID. They weren't doing much on bringing in workers into the union, and we were basically left or told by the organization or the association to you know fend for yourself, look at each other and like share workers with each other, and everybody's like, Well, we're all busy, we're all busy. But I was sitting at the back of the of the hall, and I was like, Well, I said these times here is when we're we are struggling sometimes, we're busy, but there was a lot of issues getting permits, and equipment
Alex's Journey to Software Development
SPEAKER_01was delayed due to COVID, and there were some jobs that we did have to have workers sitting at home. And anyways, uh on the way home, I it just didn't sit well with me, and I felt like I needed to do something. I did voice something in the meeting, and I got kind of shut down, and it didn't sit well with me, so I decided to take action on my own. And the entire way home, driver on the 407, just I couldn't even listen to the radio, I was just in my thoughts, and I was like, I gotta do something. And I was thinking on the way home, like, what if I'm like the hub of everybody calls me if they got workers in that home? And then I got home, like boy, that's too busy, right? I'm not gonna accept calls all the time. So I got home, I went straight to my computer and I opened up a PowerPoint. I just started writing writing stuff down, and within an hour, I think my wife had come out. I started you know describing a portion of the platform. It obviously evolved with my with more thought to it. And then she was excited about it. She says, Yeah, so and then that night I did call the executive director of uh Ontario Sheet Metal Association, and I pitched him what I was what I had done within since the last time I saw him a couple hours ago. And he said he loved it. If he can if I can get this through, it would benefit the industry. And and that's I just evolved it from there, kept on working on it. Finally reached out some put a I'm not sure what the platform was, but I put an ad out to reach out to web designers. And a lot of a lot of uh really expensive costs. And I found a web designer in Canada that wanted to work with me, and they were they were reasonable pricing, and met with them, and they were the the excitement that they had to want to build this with me was the excitement that I needed to feel from someone, and I loved it. And I, you know, we shook hands and we moved forward, and and we we spend a couple years uh growing it and we're actually growing it some more. I do have another module that uh we're working on right now is for vendors. So the vendors are gonna be able to post any left uh overstock materials that they have, and they'll also have access to their own job board and resume center. So hopefully that the contractors will you know look at that and be another tool for them to collaborate with vendors on the platform.
SPEAKER_00Very interesting. Thanks for sharing that. So you you know, this is something uh a lot of uh software development companies don't do that. You know, you went to market very quick. So how by the time you got an idea, how soon did you go to market with the software Alex?
SPEAKER_01Oh, I think it was six months. Yeah, it was January. I well, I incorporated in January 2022, and if I'm not mistaken, it was June or July of 2022 that we launched or the first module, and then we grew it from there.
SPEAKER_00The reason I ask you that you know, a lot of software uh one of the common mistakes I see around the software or SaaS development is simply that the idea is there. They you know, people spend a couple of years just developing the software, you know, just trying to work out that issues and all that all the you know the the challenges on around the software, and then they go to market. By the time they go to market, market requirement change, or somebody else have a similar solution. So so they they lose that opportunity. But in your case, you had an idea, you start building, and you went to market in about five, six months. That's that's great. I think you want to go to market as soon as you can and then keep adding modules to it or keep working all the all the issues with the software, right? So, but I think you want to get to the market much faster. So, kudos to you that by doing that.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. The one advantage I feel like I had was that I'm a contractor myself, I've been in the trade, I've been in the field,
Rapid Market Entry and Development
SPEAKER_01I've I've known I there's a lot of concerns that I've have with like the platform itself and that other contractors have, and and it helps me also bring it forward. Like, for example, the I have a built-in contract in the in the platform. Well, sorry, I I had a built-in contract, but I was told to remove it. Anyways, there's a location that you can paste your own language as as your own contract. So when you go to the marketplace and you see that this other contractor has two workers available, and you click on the button that says get contract, you hit get contract, their contract pops up as long as they they put one in there, and then you read through the contract and you digitally sign the contract, and then that gets sent back to the subcontractor. At that point, they get to vet the business. Do they want to deal with this contractor or if they've known bad things, they can decline it or they can accept it. If they decline it, they the post goes back into active on the platform. And if they accept it, then they could either communicate on the platform with the other contractor or they can uh just contact them outside of the outside of the platform. There was one. Yeah, so that's a big thing. And in that language too, I include it as my co as my company. I include, you know, payment terms are 10 days. I'm not going, I'm not doing the 30 days with a like general contractor because I pay my my workers weekly, and so do they if I'm on their site. The other concern was about WSIB and insurance. A lot of contractors feel that if I'm gonna subcontract my workers to you, that you should cover my WSIB and insurance. But what's the difference if you're a general contractor and a subcont or another contractor and you got the subcontractor to subcontractor workers to either one of them? The general contractor is fine for you to carry WSIB and insurance and the other one's not, it doesn't make any sense. So you need to build that into your charge out rate at the start of the at the start of the platform in your settings, right? That you're charging out and you're gonna cover your own WSIB and insurance. It doesn't matter that you're a same trade as the other trade. You're still a subcontractor to them, right? The platform itself has a digital or sorry, a a scheduling tool that you could do on a day-to-day basis in order to stay ahead of your work schedule. That if you either require workers or you need help, and then you'd be able to just a couple clicks away from from the from that schedule that you have an ad on the marketplace. And that was another thing that you know, just to help contractors stay ahead of the game when when they're doing their scheduling. A lot of times, you know, I I get calls, I'll get calls from a foreman. I got no work for them. The guy is tomorrow. Like, well, when did you know about this, right? Then sometimes it's too late to even do anything about it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it looks like you add a lot of uh you know uh features and functions uh over the time. What are you learning right, you know, what people need, and you keep adding those uh features and functions to make it simple for people to use it or find a better value out of the system. On a software development side, what do you discover? What you learn by going through this process uh definitely you know, you've gone through that for a couple of years, it you know, software evolve. You you got you've worked with the developers. Anything you you discover, anything you learn from uh on a software development side?
SPEAKER_01Yes, not not everything I want can can be done. Okay, right. So yeah, there was a few things that I've I wanted something to look at a certain way or have it done a certain way, and uh it just wasn't possible. And then sometimes it's trying to understand it's a different world than construction, and uh trying to understand how they work background and them trying to explain it to me was was challenging at some times, but then you know, once they they can map it out uh versus you know using a certain language, they were able to map it out, and I was able to understand it better and to see where they're they're actually coming from, the how it wouldn't work, and and you know, it was a learn it was a learning curve. It was interesting to actually to see it all happen, but it was it was very refreshing
Learning from Software Development
SPEAKER_01to see the platform itself grow and and to be used in the way that uh it is used now these days. So I'm I'm really happy about it. I call it my baby, so it's uh it's nice. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So so how well is received uh in a market, uh Alice, if you talk about it, and and what are some of the challenges? You mentioned one that uh con there's not enough contractors to definitely try to encourage there more contractors to go in. What do you see that that you know how is it received and some of the challenges if you want to talk about what's so the bottlenecks are?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like we like everybody I talk to just love the idea. They I never get any negative feedback on it, you know, and I'm able to answer most of their concerns because I've addressed them already. And it's just the promises of of getting people to sign up, and they're like, Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna sign up, and then you know you follow up, and they're just you know, life is busy, maybe they just don't need the the the platform at this
The Evolution of the Platform
SPEAKER_01moment right now, but it's just you don't see the uh the the numbers grow as as as quickly as I would like to see it and and a full collaboration happening. But the honestly, like everything is positive. Like I did I did a a function at Hutco a couple weekends ago, a couple of Fridays ago, and we met with all electrical contractors up, they were coming into the supplier, and just at first, I don't want to hear it, they didn't want anything pitched at me, and then I started talking to them, and all of a sudden they had so many questions and shaking my hand when they left, and they just loved it and like, yep, yep, we're gonna sign up. It just you know, we had a few sign-ups, but not as much as what that were promised. But you know what? I just keep putting the word out, and maybe one day they will need the platform and they'll look they'll look me back up and sign up and and collaborate.
SPEAKER_00How easy it is if I'm a contractor, one of the contracts, how easy it is for me to uh sign up for it, Alex. Is there how the user experience looks like? You know, do I
Market Reception and Challenges
SPEAKER_00have to spend so much time to enter a lot of details and it, you know, how does that actually yeah?
SPEAKER_01So so there's a couple of things. So we designed it more like a social media platform that you have to you uh sign up as a user base. So the first step is sign up here as a user, and then you click on your icon and then you go and you create your company. So the user base is more for the digital resume and also for the worker itself because you can invite your workers in the platform when you do your scheduling, and they can share, they can also share uh documents on the projects. So the the company setup, we had I gotta say, probably about four contractors that I helped set up, and I didn't have to set them up going past halfway because they just told me how easy it was, and they just told me that they would do the rest on their own. So it was it's very, very simple. It's it's just clicks and and type in. It's nothing, it's basically your basic information. In order to set up for the marketplace, you do create your team. So every worker that you have, you put in their names, their trade, their qualifications, and your charge out rate for regular time, overtime, or double time, and any options that you would have to potential charges because what you're providing on the marketplace is an estimate of what
User Experience and Onboarding
SPEAKER_01it may cost. And some of the extra charges that you don't know at the moment are parking, local 30 has zone allowances, uh, you got mileage expenses, you have uh even zone allowances if you're going out of town. And so those are just options, and you can check those off so that the other contractor understands like what what potential costs are coming? But as long as you got your team set up, the transition from this the scheduling to the marketplace, it's like three clicks away, and you're on the marketplace with your ad. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Are you integrating with us of some other industry, like an ERP systems or bigger systems? So, how's that integration working? Are you are you looking into that or or what's the plan around that integrating with the bigger systems?
SPEAKER_01So, my web designer does have their own service module for for HVAC and plumbing, and there's a possibility of of integrating with them once once I feel like uh it's time and we we we both because they're they're fairly new as well, but we're not gonna do that yet. But yes, there is plans to integrate uh with uh another software.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so how's the opportunity looks like, Alex? Where do you see opportunity in this? You know, is it only for this market or can you expand it? What do you see the bigger opportunity is for the software?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I'm I'm uh so we're currently launching Ontario in Alberta, and I want to bring this countrywide. And does I give I have opportunities in Alberta now, which I'm my fingers are crossed. I had a really good meeting with the executive director at Alberta She Metal Association, and I just got to finalize a little presentation for them and uh so she can present to the board members, but she really loves the idea, and we're we're probably gonna move forward with like a pilot project in Alberta with the She Metal Association there. So that that's exciting. I was uh really happy and pleased with our in my interview a couple weeks ago. So that's that's one step forward on that side, and she also has a contact over at uh Mechanical Contractors Association in Alberta. And yeah, now I want to start reaching out to so I've been reaching out to all the labor ministers. I talked to the Ontario uh one McGinty was in charge. I did have a meeting with his labor team, the Alberta labor team I've met as well. And it they do mention that
Expansion Opportunities
SPEAKER_01you know they feel like my platform will increase the uh province's GDP and overall Canadian GDP. And so now I'm gonna probably my next province will be Manitoba, just to bridge that start bridging that gap between Ontario and and and Alberta and maybe go to Saskatchewan and and work my way across coast to coast eventually.
SPEAKER_00Anything can increase over GDP do so desperately needed in Canada, you know. So just just my take on it. So anything you can do to increase the GDP. I mean, that is that is crucial for Canada. We gotta increase that. That is a bigger problem to be trying to solve. But we gotta as a as a as a country, we gotta solve the problem. How about in a other market in a US? Do they have something exist in their market, or or I can, you know, does he have to modify do you have to modify a lot to accommodate that market? What are your thoughts? Have you looked into that or or have you considered that going across the border?
SPEAKER_01The only thing I would just have to duplicate the platform and remove the U in my name in the labor.
SPEAKER_00I see that that's the only thing so it's very uh simple enough to uh to to accommodate.
SPEAKER_01Yes, yeah, and like it could happen anywhere. The only research I I have to do uh at the front end is provide the local unions or to go through all the local unions and and put them manually in the platform so that they could be selected during the subscriptions when they they choose them. So I I've you know I started with Ontario and I've done everything with Alberta, that's all implemented, and now it's like every province, I gotta go one at a time. And that's the only legwork basically I have to do to to move on from a province to province. Technically, the non-union sector, it the platform could be used across Canada right now, uh right. But I'm not pushing it because it's not trying to concentrate on uh certain trades and trying to build it because I started to venture out too much. It's not grabbing uh if I could start smaller and then move out from there, well, I think it'll build build a little bit better.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the business logic you're trying to kind of get a handle on. You know, if you can do do better with a business logic in a small market, definitely it will multiply much faster. But if you try to capture so much business logic with a different market, it complicates everything, right? So you want to make sure that the logic, that business logic that you have, whether it's a union, non-union, all those different trade industries, you you get that logic right. Because if you get that right, people will follow you.
SPEAKER_01Correct, yeah. Yeah, right now we're really pushing the electrical and and the mechanical trades, she metal, plumbing, and HVAC. Those are the four trades that we're really pushing, but it is open to other trades if they want to join. But we're just not advertising it that much.
Cross-Border Considerations
SPEAKER_00Let's talk about one of the biggest items on everybody's mind these days, uh, Alex. Are you guys thinking about AI? Is it disrupting, especially if the SaaS market, software development market is uh disrupting quite a bit? Are you guys thinking about it? And and uh, how do you guys uh taking it and how do you guys uh planning to approach it? It's gonna change your industry. Or what do you what are your thoughts on that?
SPEAKER_01I started playing around with it with some videos, and I've posted a couple of videos there of some 3D Pixar animated videos, dipped my foot into that a little bit. It's you know, the first video took me like over a month to make. It is challenging for this. Like, I I did reach out to somebody for the sales side of things on AI. We were supposed to meet last week, she had the cancellation, but we will be meeting in the near future. Her I guess her platform is guided more for uh mechanical contractors or sorry, just construction contractors. The but then I I mentioned like how I want to build alt and and to capture and not and to use AI just to get over the hump if it does blow up, and uh but I don't want it to take over. I want to once it's just that sweet spot because the the platform can blow up and it'll just be overwhelming for me. And if that happens, is there something that AI can help me until I'm able to bring in uh bring in staff to cover to cover the rest, right? And that that's my perspective around that, but I just because right now I just don't want to be caught and not being able to service my clients as as they come in. So that's um that's in the near future.
SPEAKER_00Let's see what we can do. How about software development side? Can it speed up some of the software development piece? Because it can generate a lot of code for you for for your operations as well. Right. Is the development team looking into it? Are they looking to use some of those portions to speed up the development portion?
SPEAKER_01Well, the plat my platform doesn't really uh provide quotes or anything.
SPEAKER_00So it's not really, I don't really see anything that no,
The Impact of AI on the Industry
SPEAKER_00I'm talking about development code, the the writing of programming of it, you know, writing a source code for development. You know, can this speed up, you know, can it can it speed up development?
SPEAKER_01So my my web designers, they've been one of the first ones as soon as AI came out, they've been dipping their fingers into the AI stuff right away. So I'm I'm sure that they're using it in the background. I haven't really seen it myself, like in in action, but they there's a lot of stuff that I see that they were doing that that involved it.
SPEAKER_00Got it, got it. Good. So any any message you want to share with the with the contractors who's uh hesitant about uh you know you're joining, or companies who's hesitant about it, you know, how could they and one thing I forgot to uh mention, does he uh does your software also deal with that non-union and union separately, or or uh is it is it uh just one logic for both?
SPEAKER_01No, it's uh four different subs, each trade has four different subscriptions. So you got union union residential, union commercial, and then you got non-union residential, non-union commercial, four so four separate, and there's no crossover between them. And uh, yeah, there's you know, that was one of the concerns with the non-union contractors, too, that they didn't want the union side tried to try to steal their workers and bring them into the union, or or vice versa, but it's usually one way.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Interesting. So you know, if if I'm a business owner who who's uh you know have don't know much about it, or a contractor who's a little bit hesitant, what can I do to uh learn more and and uh how do I, you know, any message you want to leave for them, or where where do they start?
SPEAKER_01Well, you can go to www.alllabor solutions.com or you you all my contact is there as well. You can email me and we can have a one-on-one conversation. I'm sure I'll be able to answer all your questions if there's any concerns. Most of those concerns are already addressed on the platform. And and again, just another message is like when you join the platform, you're not forced to subcontract your workers to another contractor, or like you can subcontract to a general contractor as well. So it's not just one-way, one-way street. The options are there that you're sharing. I try not to use sharing because the union does like the word sharing, but when you're sharing your workers, it's not there's the risk is there of losing your workers if you do it to another contractor, but you're not you you need to have that agreement. You need to have that agreement with your worker. That like for I got some workers that I have an agreement with. If I'm gonna keep you working, you're asking me to keep you working 36 hours a week, and I'm gonna tell you what I'm gonna do to keep you working for those 36 hours a week. I'm gonna I'm gonna be on this platform and I'm gonna find some work for you. If I if I can't get any work, I'll find some work with you elsewhere. But I'm gonna make sure that I'm gonna pay you 36 hours a week. And by doing that, I'm gonna go get get you to work with another contractor, but I'm still gonna pay you. And if you have
Addressing Contractor Concerns
SPEAKER_01that agreement with your worker, you're maintaining your employee contract or your employee-employer relationship, and having that relationship means well, it means a lot to either either parties. But if you have uh an employee that you don't trust and you don't want to do that, just don't put them on the platform, let them sit at home if that's the case. That's it's plain and simple, right? What are you interested in?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, how about health and safety side? I think do you guys get into that piece as well, or does it integrate with any health and safety?
SPEAKER_01No, so the that that's a communication that both contractors will have with each other. So if if you're subcontracting to another contractor, let's say you're subcontracting an apprentice, when you have that communication that your apprentice is going to the other, like a foreman on that on that site, you you will need to communicate that with the other contractor and say, What's your health and safety policy? Making sure that my worker is going to be on there safe. And then you could have that conversation prior to even accepting the agreement. And if that doesn't, if it doesn't sit well with you on how they do things, then you just don't accept it. You can move on to the next contractor. But there's some contractors that are their reputation is very well known how good they are with health and safety, and you shouldn't have the that that concern to subcontract your workers to them. And then there's some there that's the opposite. Some of it it's gonna be, you know, trial and error, right? You're gonna you're gonna hear back from the workers that just never send me back to that that place again, and then they may, you know, just put that in back their mind that if it ever happens, that they're just not gonna contract to them.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, it's uh you know, there there's still some concerns that you you can have when you subcontract, but at the end of the day, but those are the concerns will be still there if they don't they don't use your platform, they try to collaborate with each other in a physical world, they will still have the same challenges no matter what, right? So yeah, you you just providing another platform to deal with it, make it much faster or much easier to deal with it. But yeah, they those challenges, a risk would be there if they simply physically go and say, Listen, I want to collaborate and and work with you guys.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, 100%. And at the end of the day, it's it's you gotta maybe look past that and and see that you know your worker is the one that needs the money, you know, to survive. You know, they're they're struggling paycheck to paycheck as well. And so you know, it benefits the worker, and you know, benefits uh quite a few industries, like the union benefits from their workers, you know, keep working as well. They lose so much per hour if their their members are sitting at home, right? So, and you know, for them, they think
Health and Safety Considerations
SPEAKER_01that oh, I I should be hiring from the hall for a day or so, but it doesn't pay the the the contractor to keep hiring, you know, for a day or so. Usually we have to commit to two weeks for somebody to take on a job. So if I need a if I need somebody to work a day or or even just under two weeks, it's not worth going through the union on the union side of things. So interesting.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm gonna include all your links below this video, Alex. Uh, you know, uh, email or a phone. What is the best way to people to connect with you? Is it email's the best way, or is it a call?
SPEAKER_01You know, how do you what's the email email is preferred? Yep. Alex at altlaborsolutions.com. And you can find me on pretty much all the social medias except for X. But yeah, I'm again it's altlabor solutions.com. You should be able to find me on any of them. There's some newer ones that I'm on Blue Sky and also uh Hey Cafe. It's uh it's all Canadian made, so I'm on that one as well. And I've got a cafe for trades, uh contractors and trades in there, so you can join me in that in that cafe and have a conversation with me. But yeah, I'm pretty much everywhere.
SPEAKER_00I'm interesting. Yeah, thank you so much for time. I you know, that definitely business owners who are watching, contractors who are watching or listening to our podcast, I will strongly encourage go check it out, sign up for on a free on a platform and learn about the platform, see how you user-friendly it is, and and uh and and understand or reach out to you for conversations, right? So, you know, definitely there's a new ways of doing things, new perspective. It takes a little bit of time for people to understand, people to get to know the system, but they gotta start somewhere if they're looking to uh make a difference, right? It's just it's an old saying that same same process, same thing, you know, it's the same result, right? So you gotta try something else. But it definitely, you know, I I learned different you know, the perspective from you, different way of looking at the labor, different way of looking at business. So listen, there's room for collaboration um to solve tons of problems. And I think the problem we're solving is a very genuine one for where you know the the contractors and for business owners and for union, non-union. There's so many areas you serve in from the soft the software. So kudos to you. Thank you so much for time. It was a great discussion, Alex. Any message you want to leave for business owners or contractors or anybody who's watching us or listening to our podcast, Alex?
SPEAKER_01Let's work together and bridge that gap.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and thank you for having me. Anything can do to uh increase our GDP and to the to your point that that's it. We need to solve the problem. If these kind of solutions could come and solve the problems, to you know, um, great initiative. We definitely have to help out in economy. Yep, you got it. All right, thank you so much for time, Alex. It was a great discussion. Uh, thank you for having me. Thank you. If you enjoyed this discussion, I'm I recommend to check one of these discussions on the top. Um, also don't forget to go back to that channel homepage. There's a playlist created just for you, whether you're looking for business discussion, technology discussion, or process discussion for business growth, all those categories are there, and I'm sure you will find something that you enjoy from those categories as well. So don't forget to send us your feedback, subscribe to this channel for any upcoming
Connecting with Alex and Final Thoughts
SPEAKER_00videos. Your feedback is very important to us, allow us to focus on the right discussion to deliver value for you on a weekly basis. So enjoy until next time. Thank you for your time.