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[GazTech]

Hey Vince chin up old chap,the true English way fart and carry on,like Wivs said jobs are really like the proverbial bus.Patience is the tilers forte,it is the best attribute youv'e got if you want to suceed ( hope you feel a bit better now) GAZZER

ps welcome to the forum m8

 

[tjsmiler]

Hi mate Wivers is right.... I had been totally busy since last october then suddenly i hit a quiet patch where the phone didn't even ring for about 10 days or so, then Wivers phones me up to pass a job my way and on that same day when i went to do that quote i had 5 phone calls, went and done the quotes straight away and suddenly my diary was packed until mid June... i now have someone work with me most of the time because i can't do it all on my own..

I had one job 2 weeks ago that i passed on to my mate, all i did was quote it and work a saturday morning on it grouting up what my mate had done and got paid £400 for it, my mate got £700. was all natural stone, looked superb too.

Keep your chin up mate, keep busy and take this quiet time to learn and open new doors, it will come mate

TJ

 

[Leatherface]

Hi mate
welcome and good luck

how do you market your business and youself ??

I have been fully self employed for 2 years and have only had a few quite weeks.
Keep trying - call in to every kitchen and bathroom shop in a 10 mile radius.
Phone plumbers out of the phone book and yellow pages.
Put your business cards under peoples windscreen wipers outside tile shops and B & Q. Print up some flyers and post through letterboxes on housing estates.
Do a good job for every customer and leave them a few of your cards.
Chat to every single tradesman you meet - plumbers, electricians, plasterers, joiners - ask for one of their cards - they may ask for one of yours. Pass the work around.
Speak to ane of the lads at your local tile shop - get on speaking terms, slip him £20 and tell him there will be more back handers if he hands your cards out and gets you some work.

Advertising in the paper should be a last resort - costly with little return. Same for Yellow pages. There is plenty of work out there - you've got to make the effort to find it - it won't always find you. All you need is a handfull of good contacts, they will be your bread and butter.

 

[DHTiling]

well said leather face couldn't agree more hard sell brings it rewards.

 

[DevonR]

Welcome and enjoy the forums.
Hope things pick up soon.

 

[Leatherface]

As a last resort - put an ad in the back of the Sunday Sport as a nude Tiler - if you offer a few "extras" , that may pay the bills until some other work comes up :wink_smile:

 

[vince]

You are right about newspaper ads as i have spent quite a lot of money on them with no return. I am going to do some flyers, everone i have done work for has been very happy & want me to go back to do more, but that hasn:t happened. Thanks for your advice.

Vince
----
That either means i will be paying them or a career change

Vince

 

[grumpygrouter]

Picking up on Leatherface's post, I agree wholeheartedly. However, I tend to put business cards through letter boxes. Flyers have a tendency to head for the nearest rercycling bin. Business card seem to be retained for some reason. I also walked around a local town centre car park putting business cards on cars. Unlike leatherface though I stuck them into the seal on the drivers door window. Has to be seen before they get in - don't you get pissed off when you drive away and not notice something under your wiper until it's too late? I watched a number of drivers go to their cars and drive away, not 1 card was "disposed of". Business cards in letter boxes resulted in 4 enquiries within 3 days.

 

[Varley]

As a last resort - put an ad in the back of the Sunday Sport as a nude Tiler - if you offer a few "extras" , that may pay the bills until some other work comes up :wink_smile:

Going to be tough competing with wivers though :wink_smile:

 

[tjsmiler]

OK don't put ads in your paper if it has already failed you enough 🙂 lol... do whatever it takes to get work in...personally i do all of the things Leatherface says in his post and it all works, i get quite a few jobs via other tradesmen and tile staff handing my cards out for me, i tell them to write their name on the card as they hand it out so i know who to give a drink too when the job is finnished (i am very generous with it too mate :wink_smile: )

You have to get out there and get mega and i mean MEGA busy.... advertising works really well for me, probably get 80 - 90% of my work this way, many of these refer me to others too so it more than pays for itself. Any work that i cant take on personally i sub out to someone else. My ad costs £105 for 6 weeks so i suppose i'm quite lucky that it don't really cost me too much.

Whatever you do just make sure you do something....... good luck mate and keep us posted

TJ