another one bits the dust..

[doug boardley]

a few weeks ago I thought I was staring down both barrels,had no work for 2 weeks, did the card dropping, tile shops etc, but busied up again nicely now. Stick at it as long as you can, as long as you don't make yourself/family suffer too much

 

[hillhead]

So important for us tilers to build up a savings pot and protect it for hard times !!
i know it's easier said than done but its so easy to spend when it's rolling in!!

 

[Trevor Harmer]

Hi Allan,
when I started my company up "Passionate About Tiling." a year ago I got involved in all the usual marketing tricks but one bit of advice I was given has been an absolute godsend.
I joined two business networking breakfast clubs a local one called Business To Go, this cost me £75.00 one off joining fee and then £10 per week and the BNI (Business networking International). The BNI costs £500 to join (split £100 joining fee & £400 per year there after) plus £35.00 per month a total of £1000 per year considerably more to join a lot of money you may think, however, you get to network with other business people and they will find you work by referring you to clients and visa versa. Once you have joined a "chapter" you lock out your competition no other tiler can join. As I say I have spent the same amount of money on Thomson Local yell.com, local papers etc with no or very little return!! The BNI and Bus2go have brought in over £14,000 directly so far this year and I am going strong, I don't know of any other marketing that gives this sort of return.
There are many other benefits to joining for one 20-30 other business brains to help out in times of need Accountants, Lawyers, Business development managers, Builders, Architects the list goes on.

Networking is the best thing I have ever done.
Hope this helps, Keep your head high mate and look to getting involved check out these web sites. Business 2 Go! - Home page and BNI International - Business Networking and Referrals to give you some idea how they work.
Best of luck Allan and let me know how you get on.
Trev.

 

[tileexperts]

thanks a million trev, i was in bni before here i dublin, i was i the castle chapter. it was great i loved it, went every week and met loads of people in it, got two jobs out of it, but one guy in the chapter stung me, for a few hundred euro. kept saying to me i had to talk to his empoyee and all this crap.
my work was perfect, not one thing went wrong for me.
and then he became the head of the chapter.
and pulled me aside one day and said do you really want to be in this chapter, i lost it,
the reason he said this was because i was not getting much out of the chapter.
so then i decided to shame him after 4 months.
and i walked out. but i made some great friends, and we pass work sometimes.
but i might join another chapter again soon though. once i get sorted and decide wat ill do.
am going to look at business to go for sure aswell.
thanks again mate.
great advice

 

[brian c]

Good to see you being more upbeat m8,what a difference a day makes.

 

[tileexperts]

Good to see you being more upbeat m8,what a difference a day makes.

ha! ha! well i tell ya, my girlfriend gave me about 1% of the support and advice you all have given me. honestly!
she broke up with me there last week cause things were getting tight for me. i was not the guy with all the money anymore.
so there you go.
i was a silly guy. ha ha.

i am amazed really. great site.
am going to make a donation to the site for sure.
so ill be sending sterling bankdraft b4 the weeks out.

thanks mate