Sign Writing and Branding worth it?

[Diamond Pool Finishers]

do you think all this fancy dressing,sighnwriting on vans,and advertising gets you more work,or just panders to how other parties want us to look/be in the tiling industry????????

[GirlRacerRed]

how else would you get work if you didn't advertise gooner?

[beanz]

There are two schools of thought about this where i live...

1. It does get you more work.
2. It makes you look like a Pikey!

I'm on the fence at the moment. Currently have a beaten up Escort van with no sign writing. I have thought about it, but thte van will probably die just after the last letter is put on lol!

[Diamond Pool Finishers]

BY WORD OF MOUTH, RECOMENDATION, CONTACTS WITHIN THE INDUST,

[jimbob]

I've certainly never used the logo on someones van as a source of inspiration when looking for professional tradespeople. Used word of mouth/recommendation, or internet or yellow pages.

If you see a van, usually you're in a vehicle yourself with nothing to write with and by the time you get yourself sorted, the van is long gone

That's not to say other people aren't attracted by it, just my experience....

[smurf21]

we are getting sign written van when we change our current van purely for cosmetic reasons i might add as we havent had sign written vans in 25 years and have allways had work from reccs in my opinion uniformity with the workwear and sign written vehicles is really for a more proffesional look it wont get you anymore work.. let your tiling do the talking and keep a portfollio of your work as an advertising stratagy a sign written van alone doesnt work imo

[Diamond Pool Finishers]

yes iv never botherd to sighn the van or get dressed up to go to work,and i must addmit im a bit suspicious of thoughs that do ie. are they straight off a four day course, are their tools brand new, do they know wot they are doing??????????

[mags]

its always nice to pull up outside a potential client to quote with a nice signwritten van, (no longer written generally printed on vinly and applied).

This I feel looks more professional, I currently use my car as I have not the funds for a van and see the clients looking or my van, when I do go for a vehicle however, I will be using a people carrier for my work because i have kids to take about when not working. Ill be using magnetic backed signage so I can remove them when not on business.

[Dan]

If you've got the money for it I'd do it. Van's sitting in the streets all the time while you're on jobs can help with recommendations. Mrs Jones might speak to Mrs Smith about her tiling, as she saw a tilers van there. It can help a bit with recommendations.

A guy I know did a competition locally for mobile car valeting, he gave one winner in the street their car valet for free, as a result of being outside working on the car and his van all 'car valeted' up with nice signage, he got three more cars to do from the street.

Okay a bit different to tiling. But I'd always opt to cut tiles on the wet cutter out the front rather than the back when possible, the noise will get people looking, and if they see your van then as a result you'll get the few neighbours around where you're cutting knowing you're there for sure.

I think A-boards and a car doesn't do it for me. I'd not choose that guy. Maybe that's me. (No offense intended, we all have to start somewhere).

[Diamond Pool Finishers]

dan i dont know so much , theres always two ways at looking at something, some scrot might see your cutter out front and think when he is at lunch ill nick that!! ,and i once stopped outside a kebab shop (working late) ate then whent back to diggs,next morning lady at breakfast said did you hear ,last night the two men in the kebab shop were murdered (by the way the kebab was not that bad) i thought oh no the boys in blue are going to want to see me, but no pull, now if id been signed?????

[pjc]

Used to have 3 vans never got one job from them but local peeps got used to the name and used to get mistaking for another local company so it was good for them :Pete

[davy_G]

My van isnt sign wrote as i only want word of mouth jobs.
However on the other hand there is a chap in the next town who has his van signwrote 'Gibson Tiling'. Everyone I know associates that with me and says 'I saw you last week in such and such'.
So I suppose it gets recognition and familiarisation without generating that many new leads. I suppose it cant hurt from that point of view.
However another reason I wont sign write my van is because folk will know whats in it. If someone was out to steel wet & dry cutter, fein & lasers they would know where to come first! It was a chippie mate who had his van robbed suggested that scenario.

[pjc]

good point Dave one of the plumbers i work with has something flowers on his van never had a break in yet lol

[Bolter]

how else would you get work if you didn't advertise gooner?

Ive never advertised. I either get word of mouth, recommendations or site work which we have to go find ourselves.

[Diamond Pool Finishers]

pjc now thats what i call throwing them off the scent!!!!!!!!!

[Eddie]

I have had jobs, from my van signs, when its parked outside houses im working in!

[jamie B]

I remember asking my old guvnor why he didn't have his vans signwritten years ago when I was an apprentice...he said everyone knew he was a tiler cos his face was 'signwritten' with despair...funnily enough I've never had my vans signwritten either....

[hillhead]

I have most definetly got work from my van,a woman drive behind me one day and took my number down,rang me 2 days later and said she seen marble wrote on my van !! Asked if i fit it,yes i told her and i then got her lovely hallway floor !!then 6 months later i got her bathroom! another man spotted my van 2 months ago a long way from home and asked if i could tile 9 houses for him !! i couldn't fit him in as he needed one done the following week.It works well for sure,most of my work is word of mouth but its nice to get more work this way! gets new areas etc.

[365drills]

Get your name on everything!



Even our letters go out with the company name at the top of the envelope
(so the postman know who we are?)
No: - Because if people put our leaflets back in the envelope then we are still visible.
Its a continuous presentation of the brand from the street to the uniforms.

[Dave]

My van is signed and i get plenty jobs from it when parked up on posh estates...Neighbours are nosey and nosey neighbours want to keep up with the jones's and DO write down numbers..lol lol....

Other trades see you out and about and always remember a well signed van, again i have been phoned by tradesmen that have seen my van and noted the numbers...

So for a small outlay , it is deffo worth it IMO....

[doug boardley]

mines signed too, nowt to fancy but looks ok, I've deffo had jobs through it, thanks in no small part to Kendal's snails pace traffic system, you can get stuck in the main street for half an hour and a lot of people walk by your van in that time

[stevee]

i havent been going long, but already had one job from the T-shirt,and another from the van signs, free adverts,why wouldnt you?

[strummerman]

I av mine done to and i think its looks better when you go to do estimates etc

[doug boardley]

I think if your van looks clean and tidy, that's as important as a cutting edge logo. It says a lot more about you imo

[whitebeam]

Never had a van sign written, work through the years I've been in the industry and contacts I've worked for. It's worked for me and have a very clean van.

[jamie B]

I av mine done to and i think its looks better when you go to do estimates etc

great avatar strumerman..nearly picked the same!...the only band that matters eh?

[lcjohno]

I only started out on my own 8 months ago and done quite a few things to get my name about, my biggest source of work has come from my van! It only cost me 60quid (through a mates mate) but i think it would only cost about 100quid anyway. The way i see it is you only need one job from it and its paid for. The first job i got from it was a local builder who lived across the steet from me, said he saw the van, if i didn't have it i never would have got that job, i also made about 500quid off the job . I've also had 2 seperate people come up to me outside tile shops for quotes, start one of them on monday . There just examples but imo its the best free advertising you can get.

[Thespanishtiler]

Hi guys

my van is sign written and not for advertising purposes, i feel you should be proud to show your name and what you do.

i wear smart/clean workwear ( panoply dungarees, throwback to working in spain ! ) and have never been near a tiling course.

most of my work is domestic high end and i feel my clients expect a proffesional, clean/smart tradesmen on there property.

but the choice is yours

[timeless john]

I think the Spanish Tiler has summed it up perfectly.
A personal choice.
Me 100% in favour of signage.

Timeless John.

ps - I find it helps to hide the rust spots!

[doug boardley]

Me too, nicely put spanish