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Ex-lawyer gets Buzzy with chores

Buzzy Tasks founder Lauren Trlin. The website is a market place for people offering odd jobs around the home and garden. Picture: Michael Wilson/The West Australian.

For Lauren Trlin, working as a commercial litigation lawyer at one of Perth's leading firms just wasn't going to cut it.

"Law was a great starting point," the 26-year-old told _WestBusiness _.

"But I realised pretty quickly I didn't want to sit in a cubicle for the rest of my life. I knew building businesses was what I wanted to do."

That pathway became a little clearer when the lawyer-turned-entrepreneur moved out of home for the first time and found she did not have time - or the ability - to complete basic tasks around the house.

It inspired Ms Trlin to create Buzzy - an online marketplace to outsource odd jobs such as handyman work, gardening and moving - to members of the local community.

Like Uber, every user creates their own profile, they are rated and the marketplace is self-regulated. Taskrabbit in the US has been pushing the idea since it went live in 2008.

In Australia, a similar site called Airtasker has been gaining a foothold in Sydney and Melbourne but it has yet to gain serious traction in WA where online site Gumtree tends to dominate.

Being a WA-based company, Ms Trlin believes Buzzy, which is set to go live next week, can offer something different.

"I think it's nice to know you're using a website that's Perth-based, not from a company from overseas," she said.

"But I think people will eventually embrace it.

"I know some of my relatives still don't know what Uber is . . . but once people get comfortable with it, it becomes part of life."

Buzzy, which has been self-funded by the young entrepreneur, takes a 20 per cent transaction fee, with the rest going to the person who completes the task for the client.

In the cutthroat world of online start-ups, the failures far outweigh the success stories.

But Ms Trlin believes she can be the exception to the rule.

"I've seen some business with similar ideas fall flat," she said.

"But I am absolutely determined to make it work."