I spent 15 years on the tools. Early on, I got burned by agency after agency who took my money and told me almost nothing, so I taught myself marketing the hard way. Toolbox Tribe is me handing all of that back, free, to the trade that gave me my start.
I’m Stu Clark, and I started Toolbox Tribe. Long before any of the marketing and websites, I was on the tools. I ran my own plumbing and bathroom renovation business for over a decade, with eight full-time employees and six subcontractors on the books. I know what it is to price a job, chase a late invoice, and lie awake wondering where next month’s work is coming from.
When I started out, I did what most people do. I went looking for the experts. I approached a few web design and marketing agencies to help me grow, and nearly every one left me more confused and a fair bit poorer.
One web designer, recommended to me by another company, quoted me £5,000. No breakdown. No explanation of what I would actually get for that money: how big the site would be, whether it would be built to get found on Google, whether I could edit it myself or would have to pay them every time I wanted a word changed, whether there was any help or support at all. Nothing. Just a number and a “that’s what a website costs, mate.” When money is tight, being handed a five-grand bill with no idea what is actually inside it does not sit right.
Then there was the marketing fella I met once a month. The advice was so vague and general it was almost useless, mostly “post more on social media.” He put me onto tools like Hootsuite to email my customers, without ever once asking whether I even had a list of emails to send to. A few months in, I was no further forward.
Another was cagey about what he could even do. He charged me £700, wanted £700 every month, and for that he handed me a list of jobs and left me to get on with them myself. He was not doing the work. He was charging me a small fortune to tell me what the work was, then walking away.
I got fed up of paying people to keep me in the dark. So I did what tradespeople do. I learned the trade. I taught myself marketing, SEO and web design from the ground up, made plenty of mistakes, and slowly worked out what actually moves the needle for a small business.
It changed everything. The phone rang more, I won better work, and for the first time I understood exactly why. That knowledge is what eventually took me off the tools and into digital marketing full time. Today I run EightySix Digital, helping trade businesses across the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand get found and win more work.
Toolbox Tribe is me handing all of that back. The tools, the guides and the plain-English answers I wish someone had given me when I was starting out. The stuff a lot of agencies keep behind a paywall, or simply will not tell you, because a confused customer is an easier one to charge.
I want it to be as transparent as it gets. Every calculator shows its working. Every guide explains the how and the why, in language that does not need a marketing degree to follow.
If it saves one tradesperson even a hundred dollars, it has done its job. And realistically, it will save you a hell of a lot more than that.