So how are you guys advertising yourselves? I'm thinking of making up a ton of business cards and handing them out to EVERYONE and making a website & putting it on the cards as well. Also my grandfather is a real estate attorney so he may have some leads for me; but he's says its really bad out. I realise word-of-mouth is obviously the BEST way, but when you're just starting out??..........
I have business cards and a website I'm working on. I don't want too much because it's my second job, side business, but I think both are essential.
Just a word of advise, everytime that I've tried very much advertising, I've ended up with more jobs where it was hard to collect money. I'm not saying advertising is a bad idea necessarily, but when people start calling out of the blue (as opposed to known or regular customers) it's more of a guessing game if they'll pay or not...around here anyway.
we have a website www.clearviews4u.com and business cards also we use small roadside signs on our jobs and I hand out t-shirts to people who I think may lead to work...also truck lettering has proven to be VERY profitable for us..I will get some pics of my trucks..they have a bit more lettering than most
Business cards,yellow pages,truck lettering,Pennysaver,job signs,but the best is always word of mouth.
HeyUvaVT nice site. Did some one do that up for you? If not nice work. Is it difficult? So what do you clear with, you've probably mentioned or commented, but refresh my ignorant memory.
dont want to hijack so check out this thread we didnt do the site ourselves PM me if you want the details and costs and who did it
We use the local paper, yellow pages, and listing in a trades directory on the net, cards and signwrite our truck and machines. The yellow pages is useless...not one call in a year. Referrals and word of mouth now account for about 30% of our jobs and something like 50 to 60% of our turnover. The local papers, with an upmarket add, and placed in the right areas brings us the rest, but that takes some weeding out of the Dunlop brigade. The web enquiries never seem to get off the ground...but I'm working on our own site. Getting them to call is one thing, getting the right types to call is another. Our best tool for closing good deals is plenty of photos of our work and our reputation. Good reputation is money in the bank.
Roger! Thanks for the refresher HeyUvaVT
Anyone have any websites they'd like to share so I can get some ideas? Thanx in advance!!
word of mouth and work signs, as well as the lettering/ phone # on our equipment, and we have more work then we can handle
We just have a 3x5 ad in the phone book. Seems like word of mouth has about the same results. Do a good job and people will tell others or call back. As far as putting company names and numbers on the equipment and trucks, we don't, no yard signs either. Still have several months worth of work lined up.
Thanx to HeyUvaVT I'm starting to work with a website creator. I then think I'll just buy around 2500 business cards and put the website & phone # on it. Give them out to everyone. Only thing I have to put a name & number on is my personal pickup truck. (Which I'd like to keep "clean" for now.) I think I'll also buy some of the cheap $12 signs to put on a jobsite with my name, # & website adress. Anything else you guys can think of that doesn't cost a huge amount of money?
i have had my truck lettered for about 6 weeks now and I have gotten 7 jobs from people stopping me at the gas station, supermarket, etc etc it cost me $400 including the installation... i will get some pics on here shortly
my site is www.idecdemo.com
Very cool website! How much to build and how much to maintain?
Thank You. After getting several quotes for over $7,000-$10,000. i posted my job on elance.com. It is a site that freelance web designers and graphic artists. I selected a company called cymak technologies, who completed it for just under $1,000.00. i had alot of involvement in it, so that may have lowered the price. check it out
AWESOME website man!!!
you can call me at 914.490.0644 on wendesday and ill give it to you
How Do you Advertise We've made the decision to become a site sponser for this forum because it is simply the best on the web. Having spent the past 8 months studying all of the online forums, Steve Frazier and his team conducts the most professional approach to this type of venue. We are delighted that Steve has accepted our interest in becoming a site sponser and we look forward to delivering Quality Products and Value to our fellow forum members and visitors. We've also looked extensively at Billboard Advertising, very expensive! A more practical approach is to have vehicle wraps produced for your company vehicle and you are instanly a "rolling billboard". Another technique that we are implementing is to send a representative to prominent equipment auctions [Ritchie Bros., Yoeder & Frey, etc] sporting our gear with the "No Retail Pricing Allowed" insigna. This generates alot of interest in what we are all about. Delivering a Quality Product, at a Competive Price, at any level of business will insure your sucess and the "word of mouth" factor will only serve to bolster your market position.
Chris, thank you very much for the info. These guys are AWESOME to deal with & offer a much higher quality job for very reasonable prices. I will post a link once the site is finished. Thanx Again, Jared
I started out by making my own business cards with a program that I bought on my computer. I also advertised in the free classifieds paper that comes out once a week. I got jobs this way, but it wasn't very consistant. I decided my business cards were too amaturish and had some printed up from Office Depot that look real nice and profeshional. I also created a website on google.blogspot that is free that I post all sorts of picture on that show what I've done. Some jobs don't work for pics, but some are great for this. Before and after type pics as well as just some cool stuff I've built. I also have a picture of myself and my wife on it with some personal information about myself. Clients have said they hired me because of my website who didn't know me already. They said that after reading it and looking at my pics, they felt I was somebody who would take care of them and who they could trust. That's a huge compliment and something that I tried hard to get across. A suprise to me was putting up 3x5 yard signs. I bought them because a client kept recomending them to me and they said they'd put one up in front of their home, which was on a busy street. After awhile, I orderd them online and started putting them up on the homes I was working on. The results have been huge. People see the sign, see me working on their neighbors home, and automatically assume that I'm doing a good job. Some contact the homeowner to ask about me, but others just call from the sign and we go from there. Once I'm in the front door, I pretty much always get the job. I haven't run an add in the free classifieds this year and I have jobs booked up into October. It's all word of mouth right now and those yard signs that I put up and leave with my clients. Some keep the signs up for months, others take them down when I'm done. What's funny is they keep the signs and don't through them away. Eddie
Eddie, What is the majority of your work?
No problem, Jared. Yes, they are good to work with. good luck with them
I'm a licensed residential general contractor. I'm pretty much split between remodels and the other half of my work being repairs. Of the remodels, I do bathrooms more then anything by a large margin. Not sure why that is, but it's good money and something I enjoy. Once or twice a year I also end up doing an addition to a home, but that's about all I can take of those jobs. I like moving around to new jobs all the time and doing soemthing different. I don't know how somebody can be a framer or sheetrocker or whatever and do the same thing every day, all the time. I also build a few houses, but again, it's usually too much time at one place for me. Eddie
Eddie, That's just about the exact route I took, when I decided to go out on my own. Those yard signs really are an excellent way to bring in clients. I'd guess almost 50% of my clients came to me through those signs. The other half is typically from personal referrals. When I was the Project Estimator at a large Pacific Northwest company, I was the contact point for all of the subs that wanted to work with us. It always helped their stature with us when they took the time to introduce themselves. As long as they were professional, stood by their work, didn't overstate their abilities and were good communicators, I gave them an honest chance to participate in some of our projects.
Here are the pics of the truck I was talking about that we lettered...sorry for the delay...been busy...and for those who doubt that it works or say "ugh why so much lettering?" I just landed a 15acre job yesterday that started with a phone call off of someone following me down the road sooooo :drinkup
........
HeyUvaVt, Is that a personal vehicle? I use my truck for getting to my jobs and carrying my tools, so I don't think I'm commercial, but I'm afraid that if I letter it or put a magnet on the door with my info, I might become commercial. I'm even afraid to ask my insurance abou this just in case they want to charge me commercial rates. What's the rule on advertising with your truck? Thanks, it looks great!!!! Eddie
I dunno.....I really couldn't get a clear view of that..................
Looks like a billboard on wheels...great way to advertise. Lol...just can't help yourself can you...
checked with ins company and they didn't have any issues with me doing it... squizzy squizzy squizzy:lmao
Have to agree about the signage on the truck, it works. Might also be better down under here, but it seems the more I work the more work I get from people seeing the truck on the road. It stands out a bit round these parts, and people like to use someone who is busy. If your busy you must do a good job.
I have my business information on my truck, clothing and have business cards. I work some of the tradeshows as well. Newspaper ads haven't been paying back. I'm looking more at the internet now and word of mouth from satisfied customers.
I do both business cards & website. Also local advertising in those small local papers do well.