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Still loads to do but can't get to most of it due to the rain!!
Get to year 4-5 and as long as you keep working hard and doing a good job that people are happy with it will come together.
Most importantly please put on an address and both landline and mobile number. Email is also good but make sure it is a respectable address. Use something like enquiry @mingham.co.uk rather than m1234@gmail.
Keep it short, sweet and to the point. First impressions count. I've had leaflets through my door which are hand written with atrociously spelt words. All of which have caused great mirth and merriment among my neighbours but no business.
Good luck.
I've always been a great believer in keeping it local. We had a small entry in Thompsons Local. Parish magazines also gave us steady referrals. When we were mainly landscaping, a good name board while working on site gave prospective clients an opportunity to view your work in progress and of course on completion. Virtually every job spawned spin-off work- some larger than the original and the conversion rate from these are way above those from advertisements.
The best form of advertising comes free of course and that is you. The work that you do, the way you talk and treat your customers, neighbours...........being professional. Something as simple as working clean, not blocking the public footpath with your vehicle, waste or materials could swing a potential client one way or another.
Finally, remembering that the most important customers are those you already have! Yesterday we spent a day pruning and tidying for a long standing weekly maintenance customer who we first worked for 35years ago - their annual spend in that time has been steady, with a number of 'majors' - patios, driveways etc - I will leave it to you to do the sums, but needless to say it runs into many tens of thousands and it is this type of customer the makes our business sustainable.
i have 2 websites, it cost me £200 each to be made and £100 per year for the lady to update things and domain name and web space, i have had them now for about 7-8 years and in my opinion the best thing i every done is advertising in this way, i have 1 bloke working with me, all hard landscaping and we are booked up until the end of april, when i first started i done leaflets with no success, never ever done door knocking, done thomson local, not bad but very expensive, yellow page a complete waste of time
phil
Mitch, there is no short cut to widening the web of your business. I started my FB page 2 yr ago. I started increasing people to the page by written updates of things they could do to better their own garden. Give them something for nothing. "Now is the time to cut your patio roses etc." Link everything back to your page and website. Then start writing a blog. Then pay a little from your marketing budget to widen the audience further. Then do demo videos. How to ........... Give some state of the nation chats to camera with a bit of your personality in it. People buy people before they buy and services or products. Any questions, message me back mate.
My website and my van. Everything else is just a waste of money in my opinion.
This month so far I had 4 calls from people who said they saw my van about last year and took a photo and now made a conscious decision that they need a gardener. I made appointments with them all to look at their gardens. One I declined as its not for me (they need burly men to clear), one I am taking on and one I would like to take on but have not yet heard back as they are still shopping around. The other I visit next month to make a decision.
So, yeah, I will not be doing any other advertising than to renew my website hosting and domain costs, as I build my site myself anyway. The van is paid for so there are no other costs. I may add my twitter handle as I still have a spare spot on the van, but I can get that done cheaply on the internet and stick it on myself.
Don't know what happened, but in my area all the noticeboards with business cards have been taken down. They never brought me any business though. As its mostly us gardeners using these nurseries anyway.
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