Looks like another one bites the dust

[Geordie Spark]

To the OP
Sorry to hear this too , but I think things are on the up in general !? So it may be worth keeping going that bit longer .
As for these sites , I think you can not have better work than word of mouth .
I know you have been getting good reports , but how many personal referrals do you have come in . I would use this as yard stick to customer satisfaction and start looking for the reason why , if it is anything but good .
We were duped into using Yellow pages once about 10 years ago , and wish I had just burnt the money instead !
All it did was put us on the map for never ending marketing calls and several customers that were just chancers .
As a upshot we seem to be on google as a free listing , and get maybe three or four calls a year because of it , and almost always they will be a liability to work for .
Not sure if that will be any help to you , but that is what I have found

I agree - they're a complete waste of time and money.

What I found that worked was a simple one-line ad in the local paper, small ads in local shops and flyers dropped through the letterboxes of the street I happened to be working in at the time.

AND never underestimate word of mouth which is THE BEST advert there is!!

 

[telectrix]

I agree - they're a complete waste of time and money.

What I found that worked was a simple one-line ad in the local paper, small ads in local shops and flyers dropped through the letterboxes of the street I happened to be working in at the time.

AND never underestimate word of mouth which is THE BEST advert there is!!

MOUTH being the operative word with a geordie.

 

[Geordie Spark]

MOUTH being the operative word with a geordie.

Oh here he is ..... the mouth of the Mersey - bang on cue.

 

[trev]

I've had a fairly long fallow period, I was relying on work coming in from a couple of builders I know. As their work dried up during the recession so did mine. As a result I was treading water for a couple of years.
I decided on one more roll of the dice and built a website (which is nowhere near the finished article yet but it's there and people have found me through it) I spent a few quid on properly branded workwear (customers now expect you to be dressed in a certain way, it's what they're used to now) and bought a few thousand flyers (doesn't work for everyone but it's working for me just now so it has to be worth £60 for 5k flyers)
Then it comes to the networking, you have to work at it. Start giving your contacts a call just to shoot the breeze at first but turn the conversation round to work and how much they have. Tell them you're a bit slack (don't tell them you're on the bones of your arse whatever you do)
Stand outside your local shed of a Saturday handing your flyers out, there's always some muppet who will buy a light fitting and cock up the connection of it. If he has your details you'll be the one he calls
If you have any fairly recent commercial customers, offer to give them a free hour of assessing their energy useage to identify any possible savings (if you have nothing to do it's worth a punt) if you identify any them shout about their options and give them a payback timetable (accountants will love it)
I'm in no way an expert on this stuff mate but give stuff like this a go. Shy bairns get nee sweeties.

 

[Geordie Spark]

I've had a fairly long fallow period, I was relying on work coming in from a couple of builders I know. As their work dried up during the recession so did mine. As a result I was treading qwater for a couple of years.
I decided on one more roll of the dice and built a website (which is nowhere near the finished article yet but it's there and people have found me through it) I spent a few quid on properly branded workwear (customers now expect you to be dressed in a certain way, it's what they're used to now) and bought a few thousand flyers (doesn't work for everyone but it's working for me just now so it has to be worth £60 for 5k flyers)
Then it comes to the networking, you have to work at it. Start giving your contacts a call just to shoot the breeze at first but turn the conversation round to work and how much they have. Tell them you're a bit slack (don't tell them you're on the bones of your arse whatever you do)
Stand outside your local shed of a Saturday handing your flyers out, there's always some muppet who will buy a light fitting and cock up the connection of it. If he has your details you'll be the one he calls
If you have any fairly recent commercial customers, offer to give them a free hour of assessing their energy useage to identify any possible savings (if you have nothing to do it's worth a punt) if you identify any them shout about their options and give them a payback timetable (accountants will love it)
I'm in no way an expert on this stuff mate but give stuff like this a go. Shy bairns get nee sweeties.

Aye .. that's varry canny Son, but up at this end of the river we have ..... water.

 

[trev]

Aye .. that's varry canny Son, but up at this end of the river we have ..... water.

Aye ye posh auld get since ye moved in wi wor Ma in Horsley Hill
Tha still eatin tha bairns on Quarry Lane ye knaa so ya not that civill.....ceviley.....sivileyesed.....bolox Aal stop wi posh.

 

[Silly Sausage]

Oh here he is ..... the mouth of the Mersey - bang on cue.

Just be grateful you're over 150 miles away, the gobby buggers are almost on my doorstep.

 

[Marvo]

I've had a fairly long fallow period, I was relying on work coming in from a couple of builders I know. As their work dried up during the recession so did mine. As a result I was treading water for a couple of years.
I decided on one more roll of the dice and built a website (which is nowhere near the finished article yet but it's there and people have found me through it) I spent a few quid on properly branded workwear (customers now expect you to be dressed in a certain way, it's what they're used to now) and bought a few thousand flyers (doesn't work for everyone but it's working for me just now so it has to be worth £60 for 5k flyers)
Then it comes to the networking, you have to work at it. Start giving your contacts a call just to shoot the breeze at first but turn the conversation round to work and how much they have. Tell them you're a bit slack (don't tell them you're on the bones of your arse whatever you do)
Stand outside your local shed of a Saturday handing your flyers out, there's always some muppet who will buy a light fitting and cock up the connection of it. If he has your details you'll be the one he calls
If you have any fairly recent commercial customers, offer to give them a free hour of assessing their energy useage to identify any possible savings (if you have nothing to do it's worth a punt) if you identify any them shout about their options and give them a payback timetable (accountants will love it)
I'm in no way an expert on this stuff mate but give stuff like this a go. Shy bairns get nee sweeties.

If I did that kind of work this is pretty much how I'd go about it. Website is a must nowadays as is some branded shirts and a logo or two on your vehicle. I think flyers are good if you keep them very targeted. Every job you do take the time to knock on a few doors either direction and give them a flyer, you're hit rate will be much higher if they know you've worked for a neighbour and they were happy with you.

Also keep a database of your customers and give them a follow-up call every few months....but not too often and if they sound unhappy offer not to call them again. It's also worth giving you domestic customers a business card or two and enquire if they might have a call for an electrician at their place of business.

I would suggest instead of getting thousands of flyers rather get a hundred or two and spend the rest on some branded items that would make the customer want to keep them. For example some branded fusewire holders and if they've got an old type CU you leave one tucked in the front of it. Maybe a small keyring type LED branded flashlight that you could secure to the CU with a clip so if there's power failure it's there for emergencies. If I went with flyers I'd keep them small and focussed and put some info on there that might make them want to keep them such as phone numbers for electric billing enquiries, council or DNO fault report numbers or anything else you can think of.

 

[trev]

I would suggest instead of getting thousands of flyers rather get a hundred or two and spend the rest on some branded items that would make the customer want to keep them.

The thing is, a couple of hundred is going to cost not much less than a few thousand so it's worth spending the extra few quid and getting a boatload of them. You don't have to shove them all into houses and businesses straight away. Other giveaways are going to cost more money, as things grow for me I'm going to get keyrings done, I can get them for £1.50 a pop for 300, I'm also looking at mugs (no one ever has enough) give them to commercial customers.
There's loads of marketing stuff you can do that won't cost you massive amounts of cash mate, get your thinking head on, it will pay off. Like you, a few months back I was ready to throw in the towel, this month I'm looking at a turnover of 3.5k
I'm not prepared to put my profit on open forum but trust me, it's worth getting out of bed for

 

[tidyboiler]

Aye ye posh auld get since ye moved in wi wor Ma in Horsley Hill
Tha still eatin tha bairns on Quarry Lane ye knaa so ya not that civill.....ceviley.....sivileyesed.....bolox Aal stop wi posh.

Horsley Hill???? Horsley Bloody Hill? You'll be accusing us of wearing UGH boots next!!!!!