Where do you get your work from?

**forneamax** · 09-01-2011

Hello,

I'm George, moved in from Paris to London some months ago. Been a tiler,painter and plaster for over six years.
I was wondering if you can give me some tips/recommendations on how can I get work here. In Paris I got most of my customers through recommendation from satisfied customers (don't have any customers here yet).
Thanks!

**Dave** · 09-01-2011

Hello George and welcome..

It will not be easy to get work without actually going and sourcing it... visit tile shops/ kitchen showrooms etc etc and hand business cards out.. adverts in local press etc.. but you will be competing with established tradesmen..

**aph257** · 09-01-2011

I'd get some flyers out as well.
Welcome and good luck btw.

**tfs** · 09-01-2011

welcome to the forum George

I would start by contacting all the local tradesmen, building firms and agencies to start getting in some work. Then you can start advertising your services when you have some cash to keep you going.

Most of my work at the minute is coming from 3 local tradesmen.

**whitebeam** · 09-01-2011

Hi and welcome

Other tradesmen are good leads

**Ken Bruty** · 10-01-2011

forneamax,

The quickest way is to get in with a few plumbers or builders, and build up your reputation with them, then you will start to get recommendations off the back of them, a lot of my initial work came from this, it takes time, you will probably find that you have too much to cope with at some point, so start trimming back your contacts to the guys that pay you well and quickly, do good quality work, and actually care about their customers, then you will be at a point that you can actually tell them what you want doing before you start, which will then make their and your life easier. Best of luck mate and keep us updated with your progress.

**forneamax** · 10-01-2011

Thanks a lot guys!

doug boardley · 10-01-2011

Most of mine is recommendations from past customers

**Phil Hobson** · 10-01-2011

Most of mine is recommendations from past customers

Ditto, good luck

**forneamax** · 13-01-2011

I found two websites (Myhammer and mybuilder) and I was wondering if you guys tried them.
I think I will try one of them, because I don't have any work at the moment.

**andy8758** · 14-01-2011

forneamax - myhammer charge £80 every 3 months. When you win a bid you pay a percentage of what you bid - on a £1000 job this will be about £60 + VAT. It is very difficult to make a profit on this site unless you either work at a loss, do shoddy work, or work on a cash only basis using inferior materials. Oh and beware of signing up - myhammer tie you into a 12 month contract - so they guarantee £240 from you even if you never win a job!

Not sure about mybuilder - have not looked into that.

The cheapest internet job site is ratedpeople - they charge £40 + VAT per quarter, and a fee for every job you bid for (even the ones you dont get - you pay to buy the customer contact details). On a job the customer values at £1000 - the fee will be £18 + VAT.

The main advantage with internet sites is that you can go for jobs that you think are liklely to be profitable, achievable, and fit in with your workload. I have tried a few established trade directories - e.g. Yell - charging me £60 a month and I got just 1 job in 3 months! On balance, if you are going for internet trade I have felt that ratedpeople was the best for building up tiling business - I have used them for a year, and I am now getting referals of new customers from satisfied previous customers from this site. Hopefully another 12 months of this and I wont need to pay ratedpeople!

Lastly - I appreciate some excellent advice about trade contacts - but I found myself in direct competition with several very established tilers - so I stood back from that to establish my own name, and work to build my reputation up.