Recently started business - getting work in the diary
Discussion
Hi all!
I've recently started a fencing company (sole trader). Its something that I had in the pipeline for a while, but due to circumstances I had to start up a bit sooner than I'd like! Currently The diary is ok until the first week of April. How do I go about getting more work in the book?
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I already advertise on Facebook, surprisingly expensive at circa £200 per month, brings in a lot of people who reckon "their gardener will put up x3 new panels for £50 all in" So I don't really get much work out of that as it is.
I also advertise in a local advertising paper, at £150, but it covers a decent area. Despite there only being one other fencer in there, it still doesn't bring in much interest.
I have a few builders that I do a bit for on their sites, but obviously that isn't constant. My question is, do any of you fine people have any experience of advertising in the local papers (i.e - Peterborough's evening telegraph/peterborough today) Im looking at doing a half page ad, but its £800+ vat.. Which will eat an awful lot of my limited "buffer fund". Would it bring in much interest? Or is it pishing in the wind due to the modern age of social media? If I was to advertise in there, it would be linked to a deal of some sort `- ``i.e x10 quality panels on concrete posts and gravel boards for £950 including disposal..
Can anyone offer some advice or experiences? Im peterborough based.
I've recently started a fencing company (sole trader). Its something that I had in the pipeline for a while, but due to circumstances I had to start up a bit sooner than I'd like! Currently The diary is ok until the first week of April. How do I go about getting more work in the book?
,
I already advertise on Facebook, surprisingly expensive at circa £200 per month, brings in a lot of people who reckon "their gardener will put up x3 new panels for £50 all in" So I don't really get much work out of that as it is.
I also advertise in a local advertising paper, at £150, but it covers a decent area. Despite there only being one other fencer in there, it still doesn't bring in much interest.
I have a few builders that I do a bit for on their sites, but obviously that isn't constant. My question is, do any of you fine people have any experience of advertising in the local papers (i.e - Peterborough's evening telegraph/peterborough today) Im looking at doing a half page ad, but its £800+ vat.. Which will eat an awful lot of my limited "buffer fund". Would it bring in much interest? Or is it pishing in the wind due to the modern age of social media? If I was to advertise in there, it would be linked to a deal of some sort `- ``i.e x10 quality panels on concrete posts and gravel boards for £950 including disposal..
Can anyone offer some advice or experiences? Im peterborough based.
The place you buy your materials from - can they recommend you for jobs if people ask, as long as you buy the material from them? Should be a win-win situation. Might be worth having a few beers with the manager/owner, show them what you've done so far to help them make their mind up.
Be really active on social media, FB can be great if you ignore/filter the time wasters, post pics of all previous jobs, try and post regularly even in the days when you are out working, post pics of the jobs while your working on them. Get people interested in what your doing and they will remember you and pass your name on when someone mentions needing a fence.
To begin with don’t limit your geographical area too much, join as many FB area buying and selling pages as possible and advertise your services. It won’t take long!
To begin with don’t limit your geographical area too much, join as many FB area buying and selling pages as possible and advertise your services. It won’t take long!
All quite passive ideas...
your potential market doesn't know who you are / may not realise they have a need for you and certainly aren't out looking for you...
so you need to fix that, find the people who need you and show them why you can help them...
that might mean going out on the road and introducing yourself to possible clients / orivate houses / local builders / housing associations / etc.
your potential market doesn't know who you are / may not realise they have a need for you and certainly aren't out looking for you...
so you need to fix that, find the people who need you and show them why you can help them...
that might mean going out on the road and introducing yourself to possible clients / orivate houses / local builders / housing associations / etc.
Word of mouth and people seeing you at work will bring you plenty... just takes a bit of time.
Neither the mechanic nor the central heating engineer I use ever advertise. And they're never idle for a second.
I got my fences done because I noticed my neighbour having his done, and so grabbed the chap doing it. The neighbour four doors down got his drive done, because he liked the work some lads did on my drive. I got a new porch door fitted, because I saw a chap fitting some nice stuff to the house across the road.
Advertising simply wasn't a factor in so much work getting done.
Neither the mechanic nor the central heating engineer I use ever advertise. And they're never idle for a second.
I got my fences done because I noticed my neighbour having his done, and so grabbed the chap doing it. The neighbour four doors down got his drive done, because he liked the work some lads did on my drive. I got a new porch door fitted, because I saw a chap fitting some nice stuff to the house across the road.
Advertising simply wasn't a factor in so much work getting done.
I really would not spend £800 on a half page ad in the local rag, definitely throwing money down the grid. Will be in the bin the next day.
How did your previous employer get leads?
First off, get a decent web presence, does not need to be expensive.
My son did mine for me, gets 3,000 hits a day and has trebled my business. I gave him £500, but he didn't even want that.
You can do it yourself if you know what you are doing, but MAKE SURE it is mobile phone enabled.
Remember, unfortunately you are always going to be pitching against some rival firms/cowboys on your patch, and people are naturally price conscious.
My other son had three quotes for ten panels, concrete posts and gravel boards.....£1600, £1400 and £1000.
Guess which one he went for? To be fair they have done a decent job as far as I can see.
How did your previous employer get leads?
First off, get a decent web presence, does not need to be expensive.
My son did mine for me, gets 3,000 hits a day and has trebled my business. I gave him £500, but he didn't even want that.
You can do it yourself if you know what you are doing, but MAKE SURE it is mobile phone enabled.
Remember, unfortunately you are always going to be pitching against some rival firms/cowboys on your patch, and people are naturally price conscious.
My other son had three quotes for ten panels, concrete posts and gravel boards.....£1600, £1400 and £1000.
Guess which one he went for? To be fair they have done a decent job as far as I can see.
Checkatrade/ratedpeople type sites to start of with.
Take lots of pics and build up a portfolio.
Round my way, landscaping type companies seem to bring a pallet with them, with a sign stuck to it, and prop it up at front of property they are working on.
Smart, branded clothing will also help, along with branded vehicle.
Take lots of pics and build up a portfolio.
227bhp said:
Put an advertising board outside where you are working...
Round my way, landscaping type companies seem to bring a pallet with them, with a sign stuck to it, and prop it up at front of property they are working on.Smart, branded clothing will also help, along with branded vehicle.
Edited by hyphen on Thursday 15th March 22:10
There is no magic bullet - all of the above are good suggestions. Get yourself in every directory that you can find online, Google my business, Bing, the Apple business listing thing etc etc etc.
Find every local builder & landscaper you can & make yourself available as a sub-contractor. It may not pay as well but it may keep you busy till your own work begins to take over.
Websites are the modern day "yellow pages". Google is the "go to " place for the majority of people to find anything these days. so as has been said above sort out a website ASAP and when you do realise a few things:
It takes time for a website to appear in search listings, it won't happen overnight. So the sooner you get it built the sooner it might start to produce something.
To make it rank you need a good site with good content. It doesn't have to be big, just good which means good photographs & good text that says something and is unique. That and some behind the scenes stuff that you can't even see on a site.
Also, its not the whole site that ranks on Google etc, its individual pages. So a single page website will do better than one with 10 crap pages. 1000 words of good text and some decent pictures is going to get it along the way to where it needs to be.
Additional/refreshed content is also important over time so don't build it and then not touch it for 2years. Add new pictures , descriptions of jobs you've done and testimonials etc as you go along.
Find every local builder & landscaper you can & make yourself available as a sub-contractor. It may not pay as well but it may keep you busy till your own work begins to take over.
Websites are the modern day "yellow pages". Google is the "go to " place for the majority of people to find anything these days. so as has been said above sort out a website ASAP and when you do realise a few things:
It takes time for a website to appear in search listings, it won't happen overnight. So the sooner you get it built the sooner it might start to produce something.
To make it rank you need a good site with good content. It doesn't have to be big, just good which means good photographs & good text that says something and is unique. That and some behind the scenes stuff that you can't even see on a site.
Also, its not the whole site that ranks on Google etc, its individual pages. So a single page website will do better than one with 10 crap pages. 1000 words of good text and some decent pictures is going to get it along the way to where it needs to be.
Additional/refreshed content is also important over time so don't build it and then not touch it for 2years. Add new pictures , descriptions of jobs you've done and testimonials etc as you go along.
Wombat3 said:
There is no magic bullet - all of the above are good suggestions. Get yourself in every directory that you can find online, Google my business, Bing, the Apple business listing thing etc etc etc.
Find every local builder & landscaper you can & make yourself available as a sub-contractor. It may not pay as well but it may keep you busy till your own work begins to take over.
Websites are the modern day "yellow pages". Google is the "go to " place for the majority of people to find anything these days. so as has been said above sort out a website ASAP and when you do realise a few things:
It takes time for a website to appear in search listings, it won't happen overnight. So the sooner you get it built the sooner it might start to produce something.
To make it rank you need a good site with good content. It doesn't have to be big, just good which means good photographs & good text that says something and is unique. That and some behind the scenes stuff that you can't even see on a site.
Also, its not the whole site that ranks on Google etc, its individual pages. So a single page website will do better than one with 10 crap pages. 1000 words of good text and some decent pictures is going to get it along the way to where it needs to be.
Additional/refreshed content is also important over time so don't build it and then not touch it for 2years. Add new pictures , descriptions of jobs you've done and testimonials etc as you go along.
Top advice,Find every local builder & landscaper you can & make yourself available as a sub-contractor. It may not pay as well but it may keep you busy till your own work begins to take over.
Websites are the modern day "yellow pages". Google is the "go to " place for the majority of people to find anything these days. so as has been said above sort out a website ASAP and when you do realise a few things:
It takes time for a website to appear in search listings, it won't happen overnight. So the sooner you get it built the sooner it might start to produce something.
To make it rank you need a good site with good content. It doesn't have to be big, just good which means good photographs & good text that says something and is unique. That and some behind the scenes stuff that you can't even see on a site.
Also, its not the whole site that ranks on Google etc, its individual pages. So a single page website will do better than one with 10 crap pages. 1000 words of good text and some decent pictures is going to get it along the way to where it needs to be.
Additional/refreshed content is also important over time so don't build it and then not touch it for 2years. Add new pictures , descriptions of jobs you've done and testimonials etc as you go along.
Nothing looks worse than a stale out of date website.
Sorry can't help re your trade as have no experience, but ... As a punter I would agree with others that a good, clean website is crucial, as is Google business (which I think is free, I've never had to pay).
Google busines means that when I type in "fence guy", it brings up all the fence guys local to me on a map. You can click on them, it gives you details, phone number, a website link and your customers can leave you reviews too.
As a business, Google then emails you each month to tell you how many times you have appeared on a search and how many times someone has clicked on your website or called you up from that search. This is REALLY easy to set up.
In a different field, but ... as a punter I am currently trying to find a CCTV guy. All the ones near me that pop up on that map either have no website, or really, really dire ones. All of them. Every one. Now... if you were 'that' guy, the one who had the map listing, a few good reviews AND a decent, clean, easy to understand website that lets me see what you are about, and the quality of your work... Well, I'd be calling you.
Hope that helps.
Google busines means that when I type in "fence guy", it brings up all the fence guys local to me on a map. You can click on them, it gives you details, phone number, a website link and your customers can leave you reviews too.
As a business, Google then emails you each month to tell you how many times you have appeared on a search and how many times someone has clicked on your website or called you up from that search. This is REALLY easy to set up.
In a different field, but ... as a punter I am currently trying to find a CCTV guy. All the ones near me that pop up on that map either have no website, or really, really dire ones. All of them. Every one. Now... if you were 'that' guy, the one who had the map listing, a few good reviews AND a decent, clean, easy to understand website that lets me see what you are about, and the quality of your work... Well, I'd be calling you.
Hope that helps.
Edited by Paul O on Thursday 15th March 23:00
Wacky Racer said:
You can do it yourself if you know what you are doing, but MAKE SURE it is mobile phone enabled.
Given the OP's question I think we can assume he doesn't know what he's doing, and so really shouldn't attempt to build his own website. It WILL end up s
te, and will probably end up useless for SEO should that be further down the line.OP, before you do ANYTHING else, or spend any more money sit down and figure out what you do. OK, you build fences but what does that solve for the punter? Why should they get a fence, a new fence, or come to you over someone else?
People with vested interests (or 'personal experience') will tell you to do A, B or C as above, but chances of success are limited unless you do the basics first. Just like I guess you put some sort of footing in before the fence, you need to do the same here. Understand the market, the area, why people buy, why people replace and what the competition is doing and charging. Unless you know all of that, and turn it into an attractive offer you will throw a lot of money away in advertising (and it won't be the fault of the paper, Facebook or leaflet).
I'd be willing to bet your FB ad could be better targeted, better written and better converting. I wouldn't dismiss anything either, even local papers (old folk still read them) but at £800 they've seen you coming. Our locals are closer to £300 for a half. And even at that I'd do multiple small ads, once a fortnight rather than spunking a wad in one go. Good marketing is about continuity and consistency, not one off splashes.
Oh and I'd avoid the BNI like the plague, unless you enjoy sitting at the crack of dawn with tedious bores and spending half your week working for other people.
Some great advice above.
I'd rather pay for a checkatrade subscription than advertise in a newspaper.
Certainly get yourself a listing on Google My Business - add a great description, photos and get some reviews. Link your listing to a brochure style website. Optimise said website for local search terms.
I had a new garden fence a few years ago. There's a guy with a gardening business who lives round the corner from me so went to see him and asked for a recommendation.
A liveried van, signage and cards pinned to recently completed work will also improve your visibility.
I'd rather pay for a checkatrade subscription than advertise in a newspaper.
Certainly get yourself a listing on Google My Business - add a great description, photos and get some reviews. Link your listing to a brochure style website. Optimise said website for local search terms.
I had a new garden fence a few years ago. There's a guy with a gardening business who lives round the corner from me so went to see him and asked for a recommendation.
A liveried van, signage and cards pinned to recently completed work will also improve your visibility.
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