Handyman Chronicles

[The Medway Handyman]

Hi All

Still struggling with the horrendous cost of advertising. You would not credit how much the buggers want. I came up with the following cunning plan;

A large (huge) sign to mounted on the roof bars of my vehicle. Something like 6' x 3' full colour, professionally done.

Checking out the car parks of local B&Q, Homebase, Morrisons, Asda, Tesco stores etc they all have the following restrictions;

Maximum stay 2 hours, customers only.

So, I park in B&Q car park in prominence position, attach sign to roof, buy packet of screws (therefore becoming a customer) and leave car there for 1 hour 55 mins. Remove sign, drive to Homebase & do the same. Then Morrisons etc.

Perfectly legal, not flyposting, doesn't annoy people like windscreen flyers, can't be banned for doing anything.

Result is that a HUGE number of people see my advert. Minimal cost, huge bang for the buck.

Anyone see any snags? Any thoughts?

[John Rumm]

You are spending large amounts of time that could be spent earning sat about in car parks? (probably not an issue when starting out though)

[Mike Halmarack]

How about a sandwich board? Then you wouldn't be confined to the car park and you'd be getting some healthy exercise walking around town.

[Dave Fawthrop]

|Hi All | |Still struggling with the horrendous cost of advertising. You would not |credit how much the buggers want.

I gave up advertising in the media, long ago because of this cost.

|I came up with the following cunning |plan;

The *best* form of advertising is Word of Mouth. Do a few jobs well and the work will appear.

|A large (huge) sign to mounted on the roof bars of my vehicle. Something |like 6' x 3' full colour, professionally done.

Proper high quality signage on the side and back of the vehicle would be good.

A 5 ft by 1 ft sign may be left permanently on the top of the vehicle.

|Checking out the car parks of local B&Q, Homebase, Morrisons, Asda, Tesco |stores etc they all have the following restrictions; | |Maximum stay 2 hours, customers only. | |So, I park in B&Q car park in prominence position, attach sign to roof, buy |packet of screws (therefore becoming a customer) and leave car there for 1 |hour 55 mins. Remove sign, drive to Homebase & do the same. Then Morrisons |etc. | |Perfectly legal, not flyposting, doesn't annoy people like windscreen |flyers, can't be banned for doing anything.

I wouldn't bet on it. Car parks are private ground and the owners can require you to leave for *any* reason.

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

Erm! a couple of flysheets and 2or3 buisness cards dropped into estate agents,property shops, soon gathers buisness, the more of these you visit the greater chance of success with an insight to permanent work should you be able to keep up with the demand rather than sitting on you're arse in DIY car parks.

[mrcheerful]

snip

It is probably legal, but annoying to the places concerned.

BUT, I do wonder at any attempt to advertise at all, I have found that word of mouth is the only real way to go forward. If you advertise you have no idea of the quality of people you are going to get, and it only takes a few non payers to wreck your business. Also, if you are any good you will get more work than you can do in any case.

My advice (as a self employed person for thirty years) is DO NOT advertise at all (not even on the van) DO a very good quality of work. DO NOT attempt to price match or be badgered down on money (walk away when they start making you silly, low offers or ask if you can do it cheaper) Always stay on your estimate price, and tell them first of any changes. ONLY work on recommendation. Also, know your limits, don't take on a job that is too big for you, for instance. I usually find there is more profit in a small job, like plumbing in a washing machine, rather than painting a house. So do several small jobs, these are also easier to assess accurately for costs.

mrcheerful

[The Medway Handyman]

I wish it were that easy, I've mailed every estate agent in the Medway Towns with an individual letter, enclosing a few business cards and one of fridge magnet business cards. I'm visisting them as & when I am in the area. Getting a little work from one or two of them.

[The Medway Handyman]

Now I wonder why I didn't think of that ...........................

[The Medway Handyman]

Entirely my philosophy, but I have to get those 'few jobs' in the first place. I need to kick start things.

Already done & very smart it is too.

True enough, but I can't see I'm annoying anyone.

[The Medway Handyman]

But if I haven't got the jobs to earn the money I have to spend time getting them. I was only thinking about Sat mornings anyway.

[The Medway Handyman]

So how did you get those first few jobs, that led to those next few jobs, that led to....... etc, etc. I've started a 'pipeline'. Customers are talking about future jobs now, but I want to avoid starving to death (metaphorically) in the meantime.

Good Advice

More good advice.

Even more good advice - thank you, I appreciate it.

[Cicero]

==================== Somebody will soon notice you and take exception to what you're doing if you make a regular practice of doing this. A pub near me was 'advised' that they needed planning permission when one of their regular customers frequently parked his very large van / advertising hoarding on their car park. The van disappeared.

Despite what other posters have said I think that many people (myself included) do take notice of signed vans when they visit DIY stores and I would suggest that this is a good way of attracting business. Many people visiting DIY stores are doing so because they've failed to find someone to do a job through normal channels. Perhaps you could limit your car park visits to weekends when you would be more likely to attract the attention of browsers rather than fellow professionals who are more likely to visit on normal work days.

Cic.

[mrcheerful]

I was lucky, I had a part time job with an employer, on the other days I was available for my self employment, if there was none the part time job was enough for subsistence, after a year or so I reduced the time with my employer, etc. After about 5 years I was totally independent. The rest is history.

Another bit of advice, don't borrow money to 'progress' your business. Don't pay bank charges either, shop around or use a private account.

mrcheerful

[Mike Halmarack]

Because you saw "Apocalypse Now" and was influenced by the statement: "Never get off the boat"?

[nightjar]

I would expect that to get you banned from the car park, to prevent the proliferation of such advertising. You may well also get a planning enforcement notice - around here even simple A board advertising gets an almost immediate enforcement notice. OTOH, really eye catching sign writing on a van (preferably a large van) will probably be as effective, works everywhere you drive it, and does not count as a static advert.

Colin Bignell

[Lobster]

I think Colin's probably right. I suspect your proposed stragegy is most dodgy in that you're going to attach something to the vehicle once it's in the carpark. That will attract adverse attention and get you banned far sooner than a van with professional sign on the side - that's a much better plan, less blatant advertising, and is likely to last much longer before you get 'found out' - maybe long enough for you to build up to a critical level of customers?

David

[Owain]

When I was an estate agent we had streetmaps with local business advertising on; we could not get enough of them to give away, as almost every enquirer about a property wanted a map. (This was before DTP and digital mapping made it easy to include maps on property schedules.)

A joint venture with complementary traders might be worthwhile if there is nothing already in existence.

People visiting estate agents will almost always have at least one of (a) a property that needs freshening up before sale, and (b) a purchased property needing small things done.

Business cards get lost easily; I would suggest pens with the website address on.

Owain

[Lobster]

Have you thought of specifically targeting residential property landlords and/or letting agents, as opposed to estate agents in general? Landlords who self-manage their properties are one group of people who are always in need of handymen, especially if they don't diy themselves, or have a lot of properties to manage, or have a day-job and need someone fixing during the working day. Certainly if you could get 'preferred-supplier' status with letting agents I would have thought you'd be quids in.

How to target landlords who don't use agents? For a start, one way would be to leaflet any house you see with a "To Let" sign outside, even if the sign belongs to an agent you may have already targeted - many rentals are let by agents but the tenancies are actually managed by the landlords.

David

[Owain]

Lacks subtlety and might appear a bit desperate.

You've mentioned work clothes before, but does every member of your family have nice colourful sweatshirts with MedwayHandyman.co.uk screenprinted front and back, which they wear all the time?

Not only does this possibly quadruple your exposure (and get it *inside* B&Q, Sainsbury, etc) but it means your family's leisure clothes become a tax-deductable business advertising expense.

Owain (currently advertising a scaffolding firm because the sweatshirt was cheap in Cancer Research)

Owain

[John Stumbles]

Have you tried what I suggested? Post a letter introducing yourself, and a copy of your card, through the letterboxes of a few hundred houses. Prolly a day's work altogether. I chose areas where it looked as if people could afford to employ me (but not out of my class altogether) and I'd be happy parking the van (and would _have_ somewhere to park - I hate having to park 50 yards away from the job!). First drop I did 30 houses and got 3 responses resulting in 2 jobs, one with repeat work. I've had similar response rates since. If you have a lot of customers in a small area you can sometimes do 2 or 3 jobs without even moving the van!

The other thing you mentioned in an earlier post was parish magazines. did you try that? I've had about half my clients through advertising in something similar (University newletter).