Door to door - Need to get some sales in

[rab1]

as everyone has said, dont cold call on peoples doors. nothing makes people think cowboy and desperate more quickly.

when dealing with the public you dont need to be a super slick salesman, this is just my opinion but i would rather deal with an honest tradesman.

[dig dug dan]

My mate put an advert in a local village newsletter. most villages have them. Since then he has had tons of work, and whats more, it only cost £60 for the year! he passes work to me through it too so we both get landscape work through it!
It turns out that the only other advert for his type in there had been around for years and was a bit of a bodger, so people were looking for an alternative.
Since then, word of mouth has spread. Its like a virus!
I would try this, pick your nearest villages, and find out if they have a newsletter or church magazine, and go from there.
make sure your ad has a landline and an address, as most of these magazines won't accept you otherwise

[GB_Groundworks]

All i need now is to sort my webby out, im royaly stuck and havent got a clue, so it may take a while........

dan give us a shout if you need a hand,

would never go door to door, dodgy as........

good website local advertising A boards outside jobs, or larger signs with permission.

just done some footing for a builder who is now building a garage took my sign down though didn't like the cut of their jib re the brickwork, didn't want it to reflect badly on me.

most independent bm will have an area for small free advertising. in my line of work invaluable for builders looking for groundworkers.

but try garden centres local shops/post offices.

i've advertised in national horsey mags and horsey web sites never brought anywork in few enquires and cost a small fortune 500 for a weeks advert!!!!

good work, and word of mouth can't go wrong.

you play sport i get a lot of work from my rugby club



Edited By GB_Groundworks on 1263763022

[lutonlagerlout]

even the old back of envelope ads in newsagents 50p for 6 weeks
I did one at 17 "all building work large or small"
i dug one guys garden for £30 in 3 hours,thought i was king of the world bowling in the pub with £30 in my pocket at that age
thing is (clique i know) but the mightiest oak grows from the smallest acorn.
a brickie i know,who during the last recession was scraping around for bits and bobs "asked to borrow a mixer at one point"
anyway he built a garden wall for a guy,who was a mate of the chauffeur of a seriously rich fella in kensington
anyway this arab fella is worth some silly amount of money ,but the brickie has worked for 15 years for him and his mates and is minted.
so it worked out well for him doing a nice job on that small wall
good luck
LLL

[DNgroundworks]

GB - i think i might take you up on that offer when i get round to it also when i get some more good quality pics, could realy do with a website.

Ive been tryin to build one through a company called Mr Site, you pay a one off fee and build the thing yourself, easier said than done spent 5 hours and done 1.5 pages. If you google Mr Site you will see what im on about.

[mickg]

try mybuilder.co.uk or myhammer.co.uk, people post jobs they need doing and tradesmen reply

[GB_Groundworks]

dan i build in dreamweaver creates a replica of your site off line on your comp then you upload all content etc but i have a head start in the IT bit but never really got taught html at uni i was more the hard core end. the servers that run the web and programming switches and routers.

the hardest bit is getting your head round it and the HCI human computer interaction. layout is important and less is more, have a look at a few sites see what you like, i really like mick's sites for nice simple clear layout lots of pictures of good jobs etc.

some of the irregulars on here have sites that are all pictures from marshals catalogue or website would make me weary as a punter. obviously dont put bad work on there and if you haven't got any pictures go back and ask the people if they mind, its always good to have a before and after shot or in progress shows you didn't rip it off someone else.

honesty is best policy dont make claims you cant back up

from patios to motorways haha etc

my dad always says promise little deliver lots.



Edited By GB_Groundworks on 1263777104

[mickg]

whats your domain name Dan ?

[DNgroundworks]

www.dngroundworks.co.uk, its not published yet, ill give you bell and hopefully get it sorted.

Bad work?!! i usualy adopt the policy that if i feel i am unable to do a particular job then ill get sumone else to give me a lift so that all the work i/we do is the best it can be. Im sure ive emailed you before Giles about a job over your way?

I get loads of contract notices from various places, somtimes 10 a week ranging in value from 25k up to mind boggiling 100s of millions - loads of sub-contract lots within them, i just dont have the resources, experience, or staff to undertake pricing such things, funny realy as i could handle a 25k job but all the smaller value contracts are all tarmac associated.

TBH it is hard when i receive a phonecall off a potential customer and then turn up for a site visit, some look at me as if to say "your the boss?!" i say ye i sure am! i also take a portfolio, and when i give them the written quote, it includes the quote, scale drawing, over head plan, pictures over simialer work and variations, and a terms and conditions page. After that there confidence seems to grow! Had three thankyou letters last year from customers who were over the moon with the work (and probably the price lol)

[GB_Groundworks]

bad work was tongue in cheek haha,

wasn't in Derby that school job? thats like 60 odd miles away. i do 600 a week as is haha, anything more than 25 miles from the yard is a pain with suppliers, muck away, plant delivery and lads traveling. leave it to the big lads who can put them in digs. i like my house and have my little boy 3 nights a week so not for me staying out.

did one job took caravan with us lived on site for 2 weeks with another lad good laugh for first week few beers watching tv playing cards, doing 10 hour days but novelty soon wore off.

do you pay for the notices? if not where you get them from ?

my mates part of a local business breakfast club thing, they pay £50 for breakfast once a month or so at 7am and loads of different industries lawyers, accountants, professionals etc he's the only builder and the idea being everyone looks after each other. they all exchange cards and then distribute to friends family and there own clients if they mention they need some work etc.

so a dentist might have a guy in and he'd say yeah just having some plans done, dentists give the spiel about the builder recommends him as a professional man with integrity etc and gives him a card.

he's got loads of work from it, bit masonic for m tastes i just get all his groundworks from the jobs he gets.



Edited By GB_Groundworks on 1263838262

[lutonlagerlout]

thing is DAN the blokes my age (41 ish) that i know, that are minted now (not me i spent a few years on the drink)
were all grafters in their twenties
there are 2 brothers in luton ,every morning they were driving to london at 5 AM plastering,getting home at 8pm at night 6-7 days a week
now they employ over 100 lads and turned over millions last year
a lot of people think they are flash,but they worked bloody hard for 20 years to get it
yours truly was too busy p**sing it up the wall to notice my twenties :;):
c'est la vie
LLL

[DNgroundworks]

Aye i could do with cutting back on the drink LLL, out every nite since the split with the ex, startin to get back on track now tho, i respect the wealthy people that i know most came from nothing and like you say worked unbeleivably hard but saying that me old fella works 6 till 6, 6 days a week and still struggles paying the bills but i guess thats the motor trade for you.

GB - i pay a one off yearly fee to a contract agency, priced a few jobs this year, went for a site visit teamed up with a bigger groundwork outfit than mine but we never got the jobs, most are just too big like the sea defences at blackpool, epic civil engineering jobs, there are sub contrancting lots within the larger notices, like paving and railing installation but even them on such a large project run in to the hundred of thousands, and to actually get to price the bloody things is soooo complicated in itself.

I emailed you about the groundworks for an extension on a school bout 20k, and two playgrounds in allestrees and chelaston valued at 140k and 50k respectivley.

For the time being im quite happy doing small stuff, driveways, patios, footing underpinning etc etc, without the aid of experienced companies that are financially able to take these things on then ill stick to what im doing for now.

Every now and then though i get a good one through, think im goin to price one this week a drainage job for a northwest based property refurbisher.

Ive got 8 in my inbox now that i havent even read yet, probably expired, they expect you to have a price sorted within a week...not a chance!

[lutonlagerlout]

the problem with bigger jobs dan is cash flow
we have done jobs up to about 150k average job is 20-45k
once you get to the big numbers the possibility of a career ending disaster multiplies
we were offered a 3 mill contract for the LA,but would have cost us over 100k in logistics etc,then suddenly your invoicing and getting paid 60 days later
theres loads of builders gone bust round here due to nothing more than cash flow problems
if you have 20 men on a job with plant and vans etc your weekly outlay might be 15-20 grand,if the bank doesnt want to play ball,thats it
pffft gone
LLL

[mickg]

i was in the middle of typing the same type of response Luton, let the big boys play with the big jobs because sooner rather than later your going to get taken for a lot of money, OK you will earn a good butty before hand but when that day comes you will wish you had never started that last job

I got knocked for 32k in 1987 off a national PLC company, we issued a winding up order on the company and was paid in full but the last payment was 15 months later, by todays prices that would be in the region of 250k of a job

when i was lay there in bed thinking how can i earn some money quickly i decided there and then never to put all my eggs in the same basket and to minimise the risk and have continued with that same approach to this day and thats why I do what i do - 99.9% private work

[ilovesettsonmondays]

only people to get paid properly off the massive companies correctly and on time are the people who work paye for them.