What else can i do to grow this business?

[dominexsus]

not to sound offensive, but i do not think dominexsus is getting the picture. he is listening to what he wants to listen to. he is disregarding some very important points that was brought up here. one thing you can do to help business might be to begin with using "thanks" instead of "thanx." i know how hard it can be adding an extra letter after a word...

good luck with your business and i really do wish you the best dominexsus.

Dear Sir,

I apologise for being informal and careless on my spelling.

It surely is not hard to add an extra letter at the end of a word. Will do that from now on.

Please be aware that I do not use that kind of language when I am writing to my customers.

(I hope that you don't write to your customers like you did on your reply. That wouldn't be the proper way to do that. If you do so, please take my kind advice and be more carefull on your punctuations and capital letters)

Also please note that English is my second language and I am trying to do my best.


Kindly let me explain one little thing;
I do appreciate all the comments, advices and replies. I have done the changes on my website as some friends have adviced. This might not sound very nice but I am looking for more since I am struggling to keep my business alive.



Thank you for your advices and nice wishes.



Kind regards,



Dominexsus

 

[dominexsus]

Woa, steady on there fella, you've been given good advice which you apparently acknowledged but you have yet to put any of it into action. Don't expect every board member to jump at your request for help, especially when you adopt such an ungrateful attitude towards the board.

I notice since you've joined all of your posts so far have been on this one thread about your business. As someone who is qualified to MCP and CompTA Pro status I'm sure there's much you could offer other members of Technibble, maybe if you're seen to contribute to other threads other members might be more willing to offer up advice with yours.

You are right, I probably should relax a bit but I am struggling and looking for any kind of advice.

I really would appreciate some feedbacks about the business instead of criticizing my English.

Btw I would be happy to help other members as much as I can.

Thanks

 

[OfficerLahey]

you are struggling to keep your business alive by throwing money down various avenues all at once, as was said earlier in this thread by just about everyone.

Focus your advertising, think of a target audience and FOCUS on it.
Work on getting referrals, they're FREE and absolutely the best form of advertising. if you can get 5 customers to reccomend you to just one friend each you'll have another potential 5 customers, get them on board and get them to refer another friend each, your up to 15 customers.. and so on.

Think long and hard about what is effective for you, think about what the customer wants, what edge you have over the competition. etc.


in your initial post you said you had stock currently worth over £1000.... are you crazy? no disrespect intended but the speed that components can devalue is immense..

Buy stock as and when needed, keep the odd few parts for instant upsells (usb sticks/wireless routers/a few gigs of memory) and parts for testing. anything else thats needed get it WHEN its needed, when your pretty much guaranteed to get it sold as soon as it comes in. and work out a mark up percentage and stick to it.

you really need to take alot of advice from this forums, and please.. look at it as feedback, the best thing any business can do is take complaints, learn from them, amend them, and do it better next time.

Good Luck, there's a ton of advice in this thread other than just amending some text on your website, have a long read over it and please. take it constructively, if you build on it you'll only better yourself and your company.

 

[dominexsus]

I had 80000 leaflets cost me £700 already distributed half of them 40000 = leaflets dont really work that well in uk unless specifically targeted or captive audience.


7- I have 1 priority 1 other listing yell.com cost £1600 - waste of cash for a 25 mile radius just target local area should more than quarter the cost (plus noone should ever pay full price on any yell advert remember these people have targets so negotiate)



12- 4 car magnet on each side of my car and my girl friend car cost £60 - why not just magnets on gfs car and yours wrapped (especially at the back for people driving behind) also gives you oppertunity for strategic parking at busy train/bus stations, sporting events, concerts, etc


22- I had 6 months test trading under the control of business link and job centre ( according to them they can not advice anything for me as i already doing more than they can advice . - forget anything they have told you as mostly useless especially at marketing


28- I recently started faxing my business template for the small business near by. see if i can get any custumer this way. - wont work most faxes goto office junior who will just throw in bin with other junk faxes, better calling and getting a specific contact then try speak directly to them


I have other job That I relay on. without it I cant survive and I am not planning to leave the job before I reach end of 24 month target = very hard to survive on home market and businesses will be reluctant on an IT company who cant repond to emergency during office hours also not saying you are but some people start businesses but it never gets off the ground as it not getting the effort put in it needs to succeed as paid employment is too much of a crutch to leave aside.

Thanks a lot.

I will definitely consider your advices and comments.

I have to say that I am kind of suprised about your comment on leaflets.
Well, now as I have experienced that, I can see you might be right about that. It definitely makes sense.

I wish I knew this last year.

 

[SCR12]

"This might not sound very nice but I am looking for more since I am struggling to keep my business alive."
I think you need to accept that in our trade it will be quite and it is a sign of the times, people have not got the money anymore to get repairs done some can afford to get it down straight away, some have to save.
The amount of money you have spent on advertising so far has been abit over the top, like people have said, sit down and spend some time and look at where most of your business has come from and advertise in a few places, at the moment all the money you are spending on adverts your will be out of business before you know it, people on here can only help you so much, but its up to you what you do with it, i have only been in business 7 months and have not make alot so far and i have been quite for the past few weeks but everyday i hope i get a phone call for a job, but i keep positive, for every negitive there's a positive.

 

[dominexsus]

Honestly, I really think you should stop trying to be everything to everyone. You didn't listen to my advice, and I make 100k+ net in this business after only 2 years, so I think I can speak. You need to fill your time with WhATEVER billable activity you can at this point, PREFERABLY ONSITE LABOR and stop bleeding costs, or you'll find yourself on the street. Hand out BUSINESS CARDS LIKE THERE'S NO TOMORROW.

There's several PROVEN ways to get clients - google local/yahoo/craigslist - EVERYTHING ELSE SUCKS OR IS TOO EXPENSIVE!!!

Research the rates in your area, and start on the low side. Just shoot for 4 billable hours a day at $50/hour or something. That will get you around $200/day or $1k a week and allow you to live modestly and save up for a better website and SEO. As your time fills up to 6 hours/day I would start gently raising rates for new customers, around $5/hour until you get comfortable charging them what you want.

Also join Microsoft Action Pack - those licenses are GOLD, although 'TECHNICALLY' your'e not 'ALLOWED' to resell them, they're still useful in other ways . I just got Windows 7 to play with.

The point to take away is, if you're good at this, and hand out business cards, and focus on onsite labor, YOU WILL MAKE GREAT MONEY IN A YEAR. Just focus on cheap advertising that works, and hold on to every client - for now....DON"T BE PICKY!!! IT TOOK ME 2 years cuz I wasted my time on stuff that didn't matter!

Finally, MAKE SURE YOU COLLECT PAYMENT. NO LATER, NO IOU, DO CASH FOR NOW AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. CASH FLOW IS KING AT THIS POINT.

Thanks a lot!

I do agree with everything you wrote. It all makes sense to me.
I have to say this Microsoft Action Pack really sounds interesting. I will have a look at that!

 

[dominexsus]

"This might not sound very nice but I am looking for more since I am struggling to keep my business alive."
I think you need to accept that in our trade it will be quite and it is a sign of the times, people have not got the money anymore to get repairs done some can afford to get it down straight away, some have to save.
The amount of money you have spent on advertising so far has been abit over the top, like people have said, sit down and spend some time and look at where most of your business has come from and advertise in a few places, at the moment all the money you are spending on adverts your will be out of business before you know it, people on here can only help you so much, but its up to you what you do with it, i have only been in business 7 months and have not make alot so far and i have been quite for the past few weeks but everyday i hope i get a phone call for a job, but i keep positive, for every negitive there's a positive.

Thanks for the advice mate, everyday i hope i get a phone call for a job, but i keep positive, for every negitive there's a positive. i realy liked that

wich country your business based on ? here in uk it has been quite for 3 weeks. also some one else who is from uk mentioned that hes been quite for 3 weeks too.

 

[SCR12]

Thanks for the advice mate, everyday i hope i get a phone call for a job, but i keep positive, for every negitive there's a positive. i realy liked that

wich country your business based on ? here in uk it has been quite for 3 weeks. also some one else who is from uk mentioned that hes been quite for 3 weeks too.

Your welcome, i am from the UK, business will pick up, like i said this trade is like a rollercoster it goes up and down, but i am hoping with Windows 7 being released soon, that i may get a few jobs from that, last month i was very busy, this month no phone call in 2 weeks.

 

[dominexsus]

you are struggling to keep your business alive by throwing money down various avenues all at once, as was said earlier in this thread by just about everyone.

Focus your advertising, think of a target audience and FOCUS on it.
Work on getting referrals, they're FREE and absolutely the best form of advertising. if you can get 5 customers to reccomend you to just one friend each you'll have another potential 5 customers, get them on board and get them to refer another friend each, your up to 15 customers.. and so on.

Think long and hard about what is effective for you, think about what the customer wants, what edge you have over the competition. etc.


in your initial post you said you had stock currently worth over £1000.... are you crazy? no disrespect intended but the speed that components can devalue is immense..

Buy stock as and when needed, keep the odd few parts for instant upsells (usb sticks/wireless routers/a few gigs of memory) and parts for testing. anything else thats needed get it WHEN its needed, when your pretty much guaranteed to get it sold as soon as it comes in. and work out a mark up percentage and stick to it.

you really need to take alot of advice from this forums, and please.. look at it as feedback, the best thing any business can do is take complaints, learn from them, amend them, and do it better next time.

Good Luck, there's a ton of advice in this thread other than just amending some text on your website, have a long read over it and please. take it constructively, if you build on it you'll only better yourself and your company.

Thanks my friend,

I appreciate your advices. Will take them serious.

 

[dominexsus]

Your welcome, i am from the UK, business will pick up, like i said this trade is like a rollercoster it goes up and down, but i am hoping with Windows 7 being released soon, that i may get a few jobs from that, last month i was very busy, this month no phone call in 2 weeks.

ooo thats great, my business based on derbyshire / chesterfield. down here everybody complain about how quite is the business. at begining i was thinking it must be me but now i realise that market must be taff now days.
once again thanx very much for all the advices mate.

 

[DonsTechnology]

listen dominexsus,
In all sincerity, you are being completely ignorant.
Sure we all have faults, but you came here asking for advice, and these people are giving you the best advice they can from the deep bottom of their hearts. if they weren't that giving they would just tell you to blow off, but they don't.

The least you could do, even if you want to continue and blow off whatever they advise and think they are stupid, what not, is say thanks and not bash every single thing they say, and try to prove them wrong. Believe me, sometimes i think or even know that some advice given to me is wrong, but I just say thanks and ignore it.

If you keep this up nobody on this forum is going to want to help you in the future when you really need it.

 

[strategictech]

I noticed you mentioned SEO in a few of your posts, and i see you are using pretty generic names for the filenames on your website, for example: "untitled1" etc.
You should aim for naming those pages what they are!
For example: h-t-t-p://chesterfieldcomputer.com/chesterfield-computer-repair-services.html
This won't make SEO magic, but with SEO every little bit helps.

 

[callthatgirl]

Get out and network. Find free events locally and spend your $ from the business cards and meet people in person. It will take awhile, but it has payoff.

I have done over 100 marketing campaigns, I'm writing a book about it.

 

[Seatek]

chesterfieldpcsupport.com/ also does not look nice at all w/ chrome.