Marketing and growing a business... so many questions

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relochris

relochris

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North Carolina
My business will be celebrating it's first anniversary this month. I've experienced moderate growth in revenue, but I don't feel that I'm living up to my potential. I use every free online advertising site I can, have a decent web site, a small classifieds in the local newspaper, and in the past few months have gotten a substantial amount of repeat business and work on referrals. Working with my limited advertising budget I would love to hear about experiences with different types of marketing. There seems to be an endless supply of gimmicks and scams. My phone book ad has netted a whopping 0 calls for $600. Just hoping for some insight and maybe some good/bad experiences (maybe even a horror story or two).
 
I was on my own for many years and will say that the phone book is more of a headache but it all depends on what you are doing for work. Networking and building relationships is what I rely on myself.

If you are into commercial bid work than online bif resouces like cdc news pays for itself. HB
 
relochris said:
My company is strictly residential. Who do you network with?
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The answer can be found reading your last statement, think about it, sounds like you are the one limiting yourself? saying that you are "Strickly resi"

THINK BIGGER
 
One of the problems that I found about doing ONLY residential is that, your competing with everyone that has a pair of sidecutter, a pickup truck , a garage and a time life book on "do it yourself wiring". The more you grow the more overhead you have and the more overhead the less competitive you are.
 
You always hear the first couple of years are the hardest, You really don't believe it until you experience it first hand.

It takes time to develop a solid customer base, It can only be done by doing quality work and making a good impression on every customer. Repeat customers and good referrals are the heart of a service based business.

Don't fall into the trap of building a customer base quickly by doing work at crazy low prices, You will just end up with a customer base full of cheapskates and price hagglers that will refer you to other cheapskates.

Like the others said, don't limit yourself to one type of work, especially Residential. There is good money in commercial service and it is easier work. Grid ceilings, all conduit etc.. Yeah it may take 30 days to get paid, but in a way that is good, it weeds out all the guys working out of their station wagons charging $45 to assemble and hang a fan.


I found for me the best advertising to be non contract type ( month to month) like BidClerk or local paper. Track all calls to make sure your money is being spent well. I ask every customer that calls us, where they got our name from. I am not going to even get into how much money I have thrown down the drain with yellow pages. That type of advertising has gone away along with beepers and the brick cell phones
 
ches2443 said:
One of the problems that I found about doing ONLY residential is that, your competing with everyone that has a pair of sidecutter, a pickup truck , a garage and a time life book on "do it yourself wiring". The more you grow the more overhead you have and the more overhead the less competitive you are.
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Oh don't forget the high class Side Jobbers that use the company truck that the boss lets them take home.
 
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The side jobber feel that it ok to do extra work on their own time. But if it's done with your truck and tools, it's more over head on you. I'm sorry but it cost money just for the wear & tear on the truck and tools. And who's paying of the gas.(that not cheap anymore).
 
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