Starting your own business

[Welder]

From the perspective of a customer. If they call you, you cannot pickup then have a nice message for them to leave a voice mail.

After that call back everyone even if you are not interested in the job. The obvious ones are turn up on time, invest in some app or software to help you with dealing with admin, quotes, invoicing etc.

Be clear on pricing over the phone if possible, it will save you a wasted journey which you could spend marketing or brushing up on your skills.

Quite clearly JL, judging by your terribly Corbynesque (idealistic) post, you do not deal with the general public on a daily basis.

The public generally oscillate between Jekyll & Hyde and one never knows which face they'll present until they do.

If people were a little less self obsessed then trades could reasonably expected to act differently.

 

[Justice League]

Quite clearly JL, judging by your terribly Corbynesque (idealistic) post, you do not deal with the general public on a daily basis.

The public generally oscillate between Jekyll & Hyde and one never knows which face they'll present until they do.

If people were a little less self obsessed then trades could reasonably expected to act differently.

Nothing wrong with idealism - it's something to aim for or we can just become cynical.

Not sure what to make of your last sentence other than its a big generalisation.

 

[Millsy 82]

From the perspective of a customer. If they call you, you cannot pickup then have a nice message for them to leave a voice mail.

After that call back everyone even if you are not interested in the job. The obvious ones are turn up on time, invest in some app or software to help you with dealing with admin, quotes, invoicing etc.

Be clear on pricing over the phone if possible, it will save you a wasted journey which you could spend marketing or brushing up on your skills.

From your posts I can 100% see why no one has got back to you.

 

[Justice League]

From your posts I can 100% see why no one has got back to you.

Not sure how you worked that out.

 

[OffshoreGas]

Can’t help but agree with Justice League, how hard is it to have a professional greeting on your voice mail and call people back? I’m sure we all expect merchants etc to return our calls!

 

[firemant]

Its easier now due to facebook etc.

Do you actually find that is true? I am not SE anymore, but I see people asking on local pages for recommendations, and the commn thread is "cheap" or "not expensive". nd way too easy too be unfairly slagged, IMO

 

[firemant]

Do you actually find that is true? I am not SE anymore, but I see people asking on local pages for recommendations, and the commn thread is "cheap" or "not expensive". nd way too easy too be unfairly slagged, IMO

As I said a couple of days ago, my saying was always that no job is ever too small - but my quote may be too large.
If you quote for a "big" job, you may have to be cheaper than a few others, or be good at selling yourself. With "small jobs", I NEVER visited to give a quote. On the phone I always explained HOW I charge, and that I will be calling to do work not look at it. And I expect to be paid immediately on completion. On that basis, you are reasonably sure that when you go out, you will return with some earnings

 

[Rob Foster]

Look, facebook , twitter etc are just another way to promote your business, if you dont do,them you might miss out it can cost zero so why not....remember ...facebook etc are basically marketing venues
when you are a mes outfit in a local area then its sales you need...after a while facebook etc can become a direct sales tool but it takes ages. I can see both aspects as we operate in both areas ...Rob Foster aka centralheatking

 

[Rob Foster]

Thanks Rob, great advice. Most of the local companies have their vans sign written up here. Van theft is thankfully low.

Great idea for the local church. Definitely going to look into that further.

Cheers mate

Turn up to the Church on Sundays with your mrs and kids ...you will be never short of work...we got into some Mormons years ago
they lasted 2 or 3 years and then there are the ones with a fish on the back of their motor...if short of work follow them home and pop a flyer thro their door...its called targeted marketing .
all nice honest and good payers
...centralheatking

 

[firemant]

Hi, where in Central Scotland?
I'm a landlord with a portfolio in and around Falkirk and always looking for a decent (and decent priced) gas engineer for boiler installs etc.
Will be needing a back boiler replaced in a couple of months in Stirling if interested.

OP: Generally, DO NOT get tied up with landlord agents. They often either want commission or charge a massive mark up on your fee. The LL is not always aware, and you can end up being labelled as expensive.

Also they take the attitude that you dont get paid until THEY get paid. What if the tenant never pays rent - suddenly the LL's problem is YOUR problem. I always refused and had them sign to agree that THEY are responsible for the bill. But that was years ago and with independents, I don't expect the big boys will play fair. The main thing s to KNOW what you are agreeing to.

LL's are there to make money, and will often try to screw you down hard. I have worked for good ones, and terrible ones - it takes a bit of experience to work it out, although when I started there were no internet forums, so was pretty much learning alone.

RBC above is a case in point. Why are you (RBC) always looking for a new RGI? That rings bells for me. We know that when you find a decent tradesman, you try to keep hold of him, by treating them with respect. If you keep needing new guys, either there is something wrong with your way of dealing, or you are unlucky to live in an area thoroughly unblessed with good RGI's.

 

[rpm]

Look, facebook , twitter etc are just another way to promote your business, if you dont do,them you might miss out it can cost zero so why not....remember ...facebook etc are basically marketing venues
when you are a mes outfit in a local area then its sales you need...after a while facebook etc can become a direct sales tool but it takes ages. I can see both aspects as we operate in both areas ...Rob Foster aka centralheatking

Read the media Rob, there is a dam sight more going on than you know.

 

[Rob Foster]

Read the media Rob, there is a dam sight more going on than you know.

ok rpm , please inform me we can swop info. My input is derived from my frequent meetings with some of the main
producers and manus in Uk. In fact I will be with 4 over August and doing 2 board room presentations , our international plumbing and heating data is the best..on the market .so what am I and my colleagues missing ? what media are we missing ?

 

[rpm]

ok rpm , please inform me we can swop info. My input is derived from my frequent meetings with some of the main
producers and manus in Uk. In fact I will be with 4 over August and doing 2 board room presentations , our international plumbing and heating data is the best..on the market .so what am I and my colleagues missing ? what media are we missing ?

You can keep your spiel. Are you not aware of what they do collecting your data? There is a lot more than that going on.

 

[Mastermixlee]

You can keep your spiel. Are you not aware of what they do collecting your data? There is a lot more than that going on.

Can you share what your talking about? I'm intrigued

 

[OffshoreGas]

Can you share what your talking about? I'm intrigued

Amazon, google, Facebook etc scrape data on everything we do online. Not just the searches you make and the pages you browse and your email/private messages but subtle things like how long you spend looking at a certain image. They use this data to very effectively manipulate us into buying certain products and lifestyles.

On top of that you have companies for hire and nations running networks of bots that can shape of sway public opinion.

 

[rpm]

Amazon, google, Facebook etc scrape data on everything we do online. Not just the searches you make and the pages you browse and your email/private messages but subtle things like how long you spend looking at a certain image. They use this data to very effectively manipulate us into buying certain products and lifestyles.

On top of that you have companies for hire and nations running networks of bots that can shape of sway public opinion.

And that is only what we know.

 

[Mastermixlee]

Amazon, google, Facebook etc scrape data on everything we do online. Not just the searches you make and the pages you browse and your email/private messages but subtle things like how long you spend looking at a certain image. They use this data to very effectively manipulate us into buying certain products and lifestyles.

On top of that you have companies for hire and nations running networks of bots that can shape of sway public opinion.

Still don't get how that would stop you using Facebook for advertising?

I'm sure everyone uses Google still, so advertising on above platforms would be less invasive since your only posting what you actually want others to see?

 

[rpm]

Still harvesting and storing mate, more and more people are recognising this and dropping these parisites.

 

[OffshoreGas]

I do think there are orders of magnitude more time wasters and tossers contact you via Facebook than picking up the phone. There’s plenty of evidence to show businesses that people recognise are more successful than those they don’t.

 

[rpm]

I do think there are orders of magnitude more time wasters and tossers contact you via Facebook than picking up the phone. There’s plenty of evidence to show businesses that people recognise are more successful than those they don’t.

And this thread is about starting a new business so how does that square.

 

[OffshoreGas]

And this thread is about starting a new business so how does that square.

Well it doesn’t have to be an old business for people to recognise it. Spend enough on advertising and you can be a household name.
One pervasive and cheap method is social media.

The trade off is although you make contact with lots of people more than average seem to be fantasists and tossers.

 

[rpm]

Well it doesn’t have to be an old business for people to recognise it. Spend enough on advertising and you can be a household name.
One pervasive and cheap method is social media.

The trade off is although you make contact with lots of people more than average seem to be fantasists and tossers.

Can I ask what your budget is per year for advertising?

 

[Harvest Fields]

From the perspective of a customer. If they call you, you cannot pickup then have a nice message for them to leave a voice mail.

After that call back everyone even if you are not interested in the job. The obvious ones are turn up on time, invest in some app or software to help you with dealing with admin, quotes, invoicing etc.

Be clear on pricing over the phone if possible, it will save you a wasted journey which you could spend marketing or brushing up on your skills.

It is almost impossible to be 100% on time in the trade. My own opinion obviously.

 

[OffshoreGas]

Can I ask what your budget is per year for advertising?

I’ve just started a kitchen business and I’ve set aside £3500 for advertising/promotion in the first year. It obviously drops a lot over time as you find what does and doesn’t work.

 

[OffshoreGas]

It is almost impossible to be 100% on time in the trade. My own opinion obviously.

Very true and I think most people appreciate that, we are all juggling a lot of stuff these days. In my opinion it shows respect for people as well as professionalism to make try and communicate as much as possible. We’ve all been home waiting for a parcel etc with no idea when it’s coming. I tell people I will be there about x and that I’ll ring about an hour before I’m expecting to be there. Doesn’t cost much in terms of money or time and doesn’t start a job off on the wrong foot because they’ve been waiting in for you for 6hrs.