Tom Booth Posted October 3, 2014 Report Share Posted October 3, 2014 Right boys and girls, I'm planning on venturing out into the big wide world of full time self employment. I currently do kinda part time self employment working for myself when I have the work then falling back into my dads business when I'm slack. I intend on running a small spray shop, specialising in restoration/renovation of furniture, instruments, lighting etc. Anything and everything providing it's small enough for my premises. My concern is jumping in and just having nothing to do, so I need to be advertising! I know JD is abit of a marketing guru but unsure of any others. Where proves to be successful? My original thoughts where small magazine ads in the fields (guitarist, small ads in car mags etc) I'd like to work in and Facebook, Facebook seems ripe with small businesses pushing along. Business cards are an obvious choice and will be picked up very soon. It's a word of mouth business so just getting out there is the biggest step, but what shouts the loudest? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pashley26 Posted October 3, 2014 Report Share Posted October 3, 2014 It's ALL about Facebook these days. I know tuning companies that could fill up their diaries 24/7 just from Facebook. Try joining the local "Facebay" or "Forsale" page for your nearest town with a business page and slag yourself out to everyone. Good luck TB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vivian-Trial Posted October 3, 2014 Report Share Posted October 3, 2014 (edited) Facebook is a start Its free.... Plus the amount of multi million firms who use it doesn't stop you! good luck! Edited October 3, 2014 by Vivian-Trial Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD™ Posted October 3, 2014 Report Share Posted October 3, 2014 Its free.... This is very much not true. It costs either shit tons of time, or shit tons of money to shortcut it. It's one of the most competitive markets out there. Great businesses market themselves, with just little prods along the way in the right directions. Feel free to give me a nod on FB next week Tom if you want to bounce some ideas around. You have my NoPitch guarantee, you wouldn't be in a market I could be helpful for as fifty6, but I might be able to give some little dos and dont's anyway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jolfa Posted October 3, 2014 Report Share Posted October 3, 2014 (edited) As above, Facebook is the clear winner, magazine ads in my experience net very little trade - even full page spreads (although it is free if you ask the right people the right way). The biggest thing I had as a business was a proper website, the day we took the website down the customers pretty much dried up with it, where before we'd be dealing with half a dozen enquiries a day! Ideally you want an enquiries form that comes straight to your email rather than just an address And be sure to be careful with the text content to get it high up on google, we were in the top 5 results for "Flocking" (and anything similar) in a very short space of time There are people on here who know much more about websites and getting hits than I do Edited October 3, 2014 by Jolfa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark W Posted October 3, 2014 Report Share Posted October 3, 2014 If you do a "Like and Share" competition, I will find you and I will kill you. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N.Wood Posted October 3, 2014 Report Share Posted October 3, 2014 I'd say spread out in as many places as possible, too... Yeah Facebook is great for things like car tuning, where the target age is pretty young and more likely to be on facebook, but if you're aiming to Jukebox enthusiasts, certain guitarist types, classic cars etc they are probably an older demographic and are more likely to be reading, say, classic car mag or even use ye olde yellow pages. Also, have you looking into car / guitar / jukebox / whatever forums? See if you can buy a banner or similar? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jolfa Posted October 3, 2014 Report Share Posted October 3, 2014 We had banner ads on a few forums with promo discounts associated with them, which over 2 years won us one customer worth £8 (after discount) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark W Posted October 3, 2014 Report Share Posted October 3, 2014 With the amount of ad blockers people run now as well I assume that banner worth is even lower? Seems like a lot of forum apps don't even show banner ads too, and with a lot of people viewing forums on mobile devices I guess they're worth even less? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N.Wood Posted October 4, 2014 Report Share Posted October 4, 2014 Fair point. I'm typing this running adblock and the fact that I can't see any banners never crossed my mind Still, some forums have other ways of advertising that may work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Booth Posted October 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 4, 2014 All very very helpful chaps, I'm very greatful of it all! So far business cards are ordered as well as flyers, I've gone cheaper on the business cards for the time being and gone better quality on the flyers as they'll hopefully be pinned in music stores, furniture outlets etc. I'll spend a few weeks handing these around and seeing what response I get back from that before I push any further I think. I'll also get a Facebook page up and running so I can hit the ground running hopefully if this workshop turns out to be of any use to me. I hadn't considered the age thing Nick, that's a good point. I'll spend a few hours later scouring the net and try and find some popular forums that I can target hopefully. Yellow pages is a good shout too,I forgot those even existed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jolfa Posted October 4, 2014 Report Share Posted October 4, 2014 I hope you didn't get Vistaprint business cards, they make me die inside a bit! The more creative your business card, the more likely people are to keep hold of it and pay attention. Ours had flocked backs, which was hilarious at shows watching people wandering round rubbing them on their faces because they felt so nice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Booth Posted October 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 5, 2014 I hope you didn't get Vistaprint business cards, they make me die inside a bit! The more creative your business card, the more likely people are to keep hold of it and pay attention. But of course . I've had their 'deluxe' cards with my own images etc, they're not too bad for budget stuff. At college I did a whole term on branding and business cards etc, I made some from magnetic letters. They looked dope as f**k but didn't really say anything about yourself . Just the letters TB with a phone number and email on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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