Patience is a virtue!

**colin178** · 06-05-2010

Hello, Just something that new starters might find useful. I attended a weeks course about 4 years ago at Lancs school of Trades in Preston.

The reason for this is that i work 3 day shifts and thought i could maybe earn a 2nd income tiling on my days off. I have also been reading this forum for a few years which i have found invaluable.

I havent been advertising at all as i just wanted to start off slowly, but i had no idea how slow it would be!

In 2007 (1 job) i tiled a friends kitchen walls.
In 2008 (1 job) i tiled a work colleagues oven splashback.
In 2009 (1 job) i tiled a friends utility room and toilet walls.
But 2010 is looking good, i recently tiled my mates mums conservatory (walls & floor), next week i am doing kitchen walls for a friends Dad, in 2 months my friend needs his kitchen walls and floor doing and also my firends mum wants her kitchen floor doing (1st repeat business).

So what i'm trying to get across is, if you are a new starter, part-time and you want your business to come from word of mouth only, it will take time believe me, just be patient. I am certainly not the quickest of workers but i like to think i have an attention to detail, i am always there on time and i am polite. Also i charge accordingly for my speed, skill level, but as the professional lads always say, speed will come with experience.

Col

**fluidthegreat** · 06-05-2010

that is very helpfull as i am looking at a course and want to start up on my own but will prob go with a firm first to build on my skills and speed then i will have pictures of work i have done and hopefully get some private work that way.

**mikethetile** · 06-05-2010

colin

this year I cut my advertising out as it wasnt working and was costing money

new leads turned off like a tap

I concentrated on one job at a time and it was very slow and patchy

I now have eight jobs in the pipeline and two more refferals to price

its a slow but solid way to build a business and does come good

**longboat** · 07-05-2010

Thanks for your advice colin178. I will be taking early retirement (or redundancy, depends which comes quicker....lol) in a few months and planning to build up a tiling business from the proceeds. IMO the best way to start is with the course, so planning the 4 week at Harlow. After that its practice on family projects before the local advertising kicks in.
Well thats the plan anyway