Time to act has come….

[LOST]

best of luck to u big G sry cant give u advice im still an employee mate

ps DONT FORGET YOUR ROOTS HEHE

[Innocent]

Hi bigG,

when we first setup, we had very few clients and decided to put out some flyers, not a good move in our experience. The design was professional, well thought out etc, etc. Out of 1300 flyers to targeted companies we had 3 responses and only 1 of them turned into a job !

We found the best way is to meet people and talk to them face to face. Business Link or similar setups have lots of events that attract buyers and sellers and are not too expensive. Spending a few quid on a ticket and going armed with just business cards works well for us. We don’t advertise (apart from a few listings, free of course, on the internet) but do employ a full time sales person.

It will be hard for around the first 3 years until you can establish your name but unless you have unlimited funds for advertising, there isn’t any shortcuts that I know of.

hope this helps

Gee

[Steve Lamb]

Big G
It is tough out there mate but I’m sure you’ll get going.

The way I started was the cold old fashioned and cheap way, of picking up the YP, selecting on a particular industry and phoning em up and knnocking on doors.

I would not just go out and spend lots of money on a whim. Thinnnnnk maybe first of farming out the production to someone local you can trust or maybe someone here on the boards, get a reduced trade rate off them, add a percentage and possilbly do installation where you can.

Its all costly lay out if you just dive in and it could hurt!

Cheers

[Andy Gorman]

Nothing spent so far, apart from a few quid on some leaflets. A good mate of mine who works more or less solely for one company who give him an awful lot of work is allowing me to use his kit until I feel confident enough to buy my own.

The business/trade link idea has been mentioned to me by a couple of people who rate it as a good method of meeting prospective customers.

Thanks for your comments so far, keep ’em coming.

Big G

[Phill Fenton]

Andrew

You will get work if you speak to people. Guaranteed 😀

The telephone is a wonderful invention and allows you to speak to lots of people in a very short space of time.

Get a mailing list of businesses in your area and phone the owner managers. On average, every 13 calls you make will result in an interest and possible sale. There are thousands of companies out there just waiting to get signs but never get around to it. If you phone enough people and tell them what you are doing (no need to give a hard sell – Just tell them you have started a small business making signs and is this something they might be interested in) you will get work – I promise you!!

That’s how I got started – I hated doing it but it works. Nowadays most of my work is repeat business and word of mouth.

Good luck – go ahead and do it. there is nothing more satisfying than running your own business.

As an experienced signmaker already you have got the advantage over many who become signmakers with no prior experience 😉

[keith]

BIG G.
Good luck with you new venture.
When you say targeted companies do you mean ones you had targeted or ones that had made enquiries?
We bought our business 3 years ago and although it was established it had rather a tarnished reputation (which we found out too late).
We have made all sorts of mistakes but only ONCE.
We are still far from being out of the woods but we keep experimenting with different ideas such as offering all the local businesses a bribe for a period of say a month. This could be something which is cheap but has a high perceived value which you could offer at a reduced rate if they spend more than a certain amount.
Be wary of joining such organisations as the FSB or bartercard. The FSB sounds good on paper but nothing really comes back from them. We are cancelling our subscription this year after 2 years. (We get at least one phone call a month asking if we’d like to join (:) )
Bartercard sounds good but it is very costly. We did our maths and didn’t join.
Whatever medium you choose to advertise you must monitor it closely and if it doesn’t work stop. If it works simply carry on doing it.

Remember don’t risk the whole farm on anything.

Hopefully I’ve given you something worthwhile

Keith.

[Rodney Gold]

The first thing to do is get a portfolio together – pictures speak more than a 1000 words
Then put together a concerted campaign using “free” or nearly free media.
Send out a press release to all the local and town papers – with a pic of some work , even better , d a few signs for a local charity free and let the newspapers report on that. Advertise in the local papers and area small-adds. Do the same with radio.
Design a decent poster and go to all the shopping malls and put it up on the moticeboards.
Join the local chamber of commerce and network. Go to hardware stores , motor dealers etc and give them some business cards and offer them a freebie if that put em on the counter.
Go thru the yellow pages and target a sector you think might use you , like factories for safety signage , employye signage etc.
Contact the local builders and offer either a freebie small name on their vehicles or a discounted price on a wrap etc , in exhchange for referrals.
Do something humerous for the local pup to hang or stand and put your name on it.
Use the internet – you get tons of free website hosting and put up a decent website.
Target an area and do the footslogging thing , go into businesses you think might use you , introduce yourself and give them a rundown of what you can do.
Dress professionally , have a VERY good card printed , inspire confidence in the potential customer.
DO NOT undercut the competiton by any huge margin if at all. Rather sell yourself in respect of ability , creativity , service and knowledge.
KNOW your products intimately , and give good advice to the customer without rubbishing their ideas or your competiton – for example red letters on a blue background are not that readable , they need white outlines , dont tell the client red on blue is rubbish , suggest the white outline and charge a little more.
Have something useful made with your name on it , give em out to exisiting good customers or potential ones – do not go ultra cheap here , rather less items to get good PR for a quality item than almost universally poor pr for cheapys.
Foe example we make a sort of memo holder with our name and details on it and go to larger companys and give it , with a rose , to the secretary of the boss you want to reach. Its on her desk , in her face , she is the passport to seeing the boss , the boss sees it on her desk and often asks , where did you get that.
Do your vehicle/van as a showpiece , drive it around , park it prominently in high traffic areas if you can.
Get your family and friends to do PR for you , let them talk to others about you and possibly get leads
Money spent on good PR is money really well spent , problem is , spending 3k without “visible” returns seems a waste of good money – it isnt.
A campaign should NOT be “blow the wad of cash on a 1/2 page advert”
It should be sustained and followed up , you need to “stick” in ppls minds and the more they see your name , the more you stick.
Multiple smaller ads spread over time is better. Remember the client might not need you now but later “Ah yes, that fellow from Grafix solutions has come in a few times and I saw his ads , lemme give him a call”
Try do something that is NOT run of the mill like black helvetica signs on .9mm white abs , try find some niche markets.
Find out the best places to get stuff that you do not do – prior to seeing ANYONE – its bad news to say No to requests , if you are armed with other companys products and prices , you can outsource and quote much quicker.
DO NOT do artwork free or without a firm comittment to an order.
Do not spam , send unsolicited faxes or do the telesales thing – you phone to ask for an appointment , I hate unsolicited telecalls offering me something Im not looking for.

[John Childs]

bigG….

When I started I found cold calling to be the most successful, but it takes time. Nobody is going to change suppliers without good reason as it is too much aggravation for them, they want the easy life, better the devil you know etc etc. I found the best way is not to go in with the hard sell but just keep gently reminding them that you are there. Visit them, regularly but not too often, don’t talk about signage, just have a pleasant conversation, don’t waste their time and try to come across as a nice guy who will be easy to deal with. Leave a card, flyer or even a promotional item such as a ruler with your name on it each time you visit. The object is to make sure that they remember you and have your contact details to hand when they need them.

The day will come when their existing supplier fouls up. It need not necessarily be a major foul up as I found that it was more likely to be a succession of small niggles that prompted my clients to change. This job was a bit late, that invoice had a mistake, etc etc. A succession of relatively insignificant things had got blown out of proportion in the customer’s mind and one day they have had enough and start looking for your phone number.

This approach is not instantaneous. Some you can catch quickly because they are already looking for alternative suppliers but for most you have to wait until they are ready for you. This can take six months, a year, five years or whatever but when they come it is really good news because you will have targeted the right customers for this attention, won’t you?

Of course, for long term success you have got to make sure that you don’t fall into the same trap as your predecessors. Attention to what might seem irrelevant detail will keep your new clients happy and therefore give them no reason to go looking for your replacement.

You are not that far from me so if you want to discuss strategy over a beer sometime that would be good. We might both learn something from each other.

[Martin C]

You could try organisations like BNI which I think stands for Business networking International. They have a website out there somewhere.

BNI is a ‘Breakfast meeting Club’ of about 20-40 members. You meet at 7am once a week, normally in a local hotel or similar, grab a coffee, chinwag for 10 minutes and then it’s down to business. Business is actually each member, and guests, talking for 1 or 2 minutes (can’t quite remember but a strictly allotted time) about your business, what you do, who you serve etc., After everyone has spoken, members have to contribute something positive to the meeting by way of passing leads which they have picked up for other members during the week.

There are some upsides to BNI and the like and plenty of downsides which I’ve outlined below:

The Ups: You are at least doing something to establish your name and personality on the local business community.

You can get some good leads if your in the right line of business or it’s the right time of year. i.e. Printers do well as do Florists close to Mothers day!

You will get business.

The downs: It costs several hundred ponds to join.

Because of the pressure on members to supply leads you may get a lead for a £2000 shopfront, a fleet of vehicle graphics or a £3 house nameplate for the mother in law!

It gets stale after a few months.

You HAVE to attend every meeting.

You need to be able to put across what you are doing concisely, and although you will improve your technique as the weeks go on, if like one chap I remember stand their scratching your bits, twiddling your hair and say ‘ I duz a bit of dis and a bit of dat, wotever you want really’ you might as well forget it!

I would definately find out about your local business groups, some of which are free, or will cost you a lunch and many like BNI have guest days where you don’t have to join but can still present your business to 50 or so people.

[Lorraine Buchan]

Rodney,

quote :

Advertise in the local papers and area small-adds. Do the same with radio

I don’t know how it is in S.A, but here in the UK even the free papers cost a fortune to advertise. As for radio – maybe we need to set up a pirate station for people looking for signage 😆

Big G,

The BNI & BRE (business referal exchange) have worked fairly well for us so far although we have only been in these a few months, there was nothing to start but as people came to know more about what we do the orders came in. The down side is as Martin says you do get alot of referals that are complete rubish, for stuff people have already had done etc…

Business link do a variety of networking events where you just pay a fee for each event you attend.

[Phill Fenton]

I am not very keen on the BNI.

I have had a number of letters from existing customers inviting me to join but have always declined. I have later noted that some of these same customers have had work done for their own business without inviting me to quote for this work. I believe this has happened because they are pressured by the group to keep all work within their particular “Chapter”. This I feel is unfair and limits the choice of individuals to use who they wish. I much prefer to have the freedom of choice to use whatever accountants, security firms, printers etc.

The BNI is a franchised business that exists purely to make a profit. I believe we should all be allowed to network freely with whoever we choose without lining someone’s pockets for the privelege 😕

[Lorraine Buchan]

It’s interesting to hear your views Phill.

As far as i’m aware there is no pressure to keep all your business in the chapter, there have been quite a few jobs we’ve quoted on for members of the BNI and they have come back and said they have got a better price else where, on has tried it on by saying as a member of the BNI can you not give me some extra discount. The reply was, if you can provide a written quotation that is cheaper for the same quality substrates we will review our quote and try to match the price, we never received the proof of a written quote, surprise surprise.

Of course you pay for the referals, the idea should be that it’s not the actual other members of the BNI that are placing orders with you, but people that they refer to you. It’s kind of like someone requesting a contact for a banner, we could all offer to sell that banner, but we don’t we refer the person to the company we find the best value for money. Of course that company gets a referal for free – great for there business.

The reality is that referals should be based on experiance, and with the BNI & BRE most of the referals are for companies you’ve never actually delt with. I would never refer someone to a company i’ve never delt with personally before

[Martin C]

Your right Phil, it’s a business that lines other people’s pockets and in our town there have been break away groups who have set up in opposition, charging only the cost of the breakfast and a nominal paperwork fee. Within these groups there is no pressure to supply referrals and subsequently not as much business gets done. You get owt for nowt I’m afraid.

Back to BNI….. there is no additional pressure to keep the business within the Chapter other than maintaining an unholy yankee style positive attitude which invariably leads to you only reccomending people you know and trust…those within the group.

Personally I don’t like a lot of what BNI (I’m no longer a member and only ever went under duress from my previous employer) is all about but if your sitting in a workshop on your todd somewhere it is a good way of reaching out into the business community, developing your networking skills and can in some instances work.

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Some very good comments above. I find newspaper & radio NOT worthwhile.
1. Decide on a business name.
2. Get it or a design with it put on your car/van, and on your work clothes. That’s the most inexpensive & valuable & most worthwhile advertising you’ll do.
3. Business cards, etc as per above V.G. ideas from Rodney and others. & know your products.
best wishes