Advertising?

[PJ Tiling]

Just out of interest how do you guys go about advertising for work?

[whitebeam]

I don't, just me though

[Diamond Pool Finishers]

a web-site is a good way!!

[Dan]

There's load of advice about this in the tilersforums arms, so please do try to get in there!

[Dave]

Help Me Where's the door to the Tilers Forums Arms? - TilersForums.co.uk | Tile Forums | Tiling Forum

[jamie B]

don't want to sound like an old fart, but never have. Would be interested to see what you can do nowadays tho' as times are changing and I can see people use it more now..always looking for new work!

[united]

As Dan said above.

There are loads of ways to advertise but its very hard when you have a tight budget. Here are a few to get you started

Get a listing on Google maps
Get a website
Advertise in your local shops
Local paper
Local church magazine
Van signed up
Logo on tshirts

But the best form of advertising is recommendation and word of mouth

[mikethetile]

you are your own advert in everything you do and the way you present yourself

[PJ Tiling]

Thanks for the ideas lads

Alas though I have a way to go before I get jobs via reputation and word of mouth

Have many of you had luck with leaflet drops?

[jamie B]

you are your own advert in everything you do and the way you present yourself

having relied on recommendation alone for the last 17 years I consider myself an advert for 'work harder at school or you'll end up doing this!'

[Thespanishtiler]

Regarding advertising/getting established

in my opinion most forms of advertising for a sole trader are a waste of money.

from united's list i tick only one box and that is my van is fully sign written.

you have to invest your time and effort in building relationships with other like minded tradesmen and tile shops in your area who will then put you forward to there clients (this will become a 2 way street as you establish yourself)

too many people think all you have to do is have a few adverts here and there, leave you cards on the tile shop counter (with the other 30 or so), hand out some leaflets and the work will come to you.

[united]

Regarding advertising/getting established

in my opinion most forms of advertising for a sole trader are a waste of money.

from united's list i tick only one box and that is my van is fully sign written.

you have to invest your time and effort in building relationships with other like minded tradesmen and tile shops in your area who will then put you forward to there clients (this will become a 2 way street as you establish yourself)

too many people think all you have to do is have a few adverts here and there, leave you cards on the tile shop counter (with the other 30 or so), hand out some leaflets and the work will come to you.

I totally agree

This Forum is a great place to start building those relationships

[365drills]

Ive posted this before (so sorry for those who have seen this)

My mate is an "all rounder" and does a project from start to finish.

On arrival he puts a sign outside the house



His van is parked outside and his guys go in and start demolition of the old room.

While they do that he knocks on every house within two streets
ARMED WITH A FRIDGE MAGNET.

He talks to the owner and explains that there may be NOISE and DIRT and PARKING issues and if they have any problems to call the number on the magnet. He will
respond to any call and will resolve any issue.

Of course what he has really done is to alert the entire street that a bathroom fitter is at work. Gets them thinking. He ends up with a lot of jobs that way.

Of course the golden rule is to ask permission from the home owner to put the sandwich board outside during the week you are there...

Thats how he does it. Mind you he works in central london

[mikebidd]

2 months ago I put adds in thompsons, Yell , googlemaps and a couple off others.
The only peole that have rung off said adds are People trying to sell ME stuff. lol

[Slowly Learning]

I agree mikebidd. Ive only been in business since the end of last year, 1st thing I did was get on as many free listings as possible Thompsons, yell.com, vivastreet, gumtree etc. Absolute waste of time the only thing these listings have done is alert the telesales numpties to my existance! Registered my number with the nuisance telephone calls link from this site and know not even they call!

Ive tried shop windows not a single enquiry. I am currently doing the hard miles delivering 5000 flyers to try and get a sniff of a job.

All my work so far has been word of mouth, however did have a job last week that came from someone finding my website so was chuffed as I spent ages tweaking it here and there so as it looked the part ( could do with more job example pictures though).

Good luck mate, Keep plugging away and something will come up, PMA!

[365drills]

The only peole that have rung off said adds are People trying to sell ME stuff. lol

I get that ALL the time when we sign up to do exhibitions.

As soon as you put yourself out there the phone starts to ring... But its people trying to sell to YOU !!

I agree with MikeBidd

And its so annoying... The worst show for cold calls was the Gadget Show at NEC. We went down there and I think because we are 365Drills we are the first on the list of exhibitors (true for most of them) but the cold calls were especially bad for that one.

[PJ Tiling]

I know what you guys mean I done a couple of free listings and the phone has not stopped since ringing since! It's getting a little annoying now to say the least, although I am getting pretty good at my phonejacker impressions

[nybor62]

bin there pal i was pestered to advertise on yell.com. the woman kept telling me you have missed thousands of hits this week for tilers , so i thought what the hell . so i went ahead with it . like you said just folk trying to sell me stuff. i cancelled direct debit , they chased me for the money for a while ,untill i told them you misled me about how many times people were viewing for tilers , and that i would,nt be paying . not heard a thing for about 8 months, this is,nt something i would usually do , but they right got my back up