Rocco
Active Member
- Reaction score
- 68
- Location
- Wyoming, USA
So six months ago, I finally officially opened my doors, so to speak. What have I learned? What should I have done differently/better? What am I going to do moving forward?
First off, I am lucky in some ways to live in a small city. (59k people.) Lucky, because I can get to any customer's house in less than 15 minutes during rush hour. So I can get away with doing some things that I think some people in larger cities cannot. For instance, I charge minimum of 1 hour. I have had a few times now that I have had the problem troubleshot and part ordered in much less than that hour. In each case, I have charged for that full hour, then when the part came in, installed it free of charge. Am I ever going to get rich doing this? No, but it works.
Unlucky, because it is very hard to break into business in this town. I have heard that from so many people. People from Wyoming are such creatures of habit, that even if it costs them 3 times as much with worse customer service, they will keep going back to the same place over again, because that is what they have always done.
Now onto the lessons learned.
1) Facebook is a godsend. I am on all the local garage sale sites (5 of them). If someone posts that they need help with a computer, myself, or one of my many friends will post and recommend me. Without paying for a single ad, I have received 9 customers from Facebook. I just wish I had the discipline to post something new and fresh at least every week on my page. I have started a security line on my FB page, talking about viruses, malware etc, that seems to have gone over very well. 3 calls just from last weeks post.
2) Radio ads were a bust. It was a waste of money. 6 months in, and not a single phone call. It was my only real overhead, and it killed me. I would never recommend them, at least not for a brand new business with no customers.
3) Going local for signs and printing is just great. I got a sign on my back window for my car. They asked me to leave a bunch of my business cards with them. A few calls already, and that was just 6 weeks ago.
4) Door hangers. I wish I had started with this instead of the radio ads. Cost me less than $150 for 1000 to be printed, 2 weeks ago. I think I have only hung 300 of them. 7 calls already. I put a coupon on them good through the end of June. Hopefully I can successfully track how well this works long term. But already I have made my money back, and paid for the kids to hang them up, plus some.
5) I wish I had done some more research for local ordinances. I just found out last week that I am required to file a report with my municipal building permit office to work out of my house. It cost no money to fill it out, but if they catch you without it, it carries a $250 fine.
Where am I going from here? Well, although the last month I have had more business than in the previous 5 put together, it is still not enough to live off of. But my immediate goal is to get all the door hangers hung. Probably do a lot myself on my days off, and pay some more kids to do it over Thanksgiving break or something.
While looking at my demographics, I think I want to try and focus on the older crowd. One way I am going to do that is teaching free seminars, classes at places they hang out, such as the VFW, etc. It won't cost my but my time, and hopefully I can get some customers out of it. Anybody do this, have some suggestions?
My goal is next year this time, I want to be fully dependent on this business to live off. I am 60% there this past month, and hopefully I can keep that up going forward.
Thoughts, additions, criticisms? Open to all.
First off, I am lucky in some ways to live in a small city. (59k people.) Lucky, because I can get to any customer's house in less than 15 minutes during rush hour. So I can get away with doing some things that I think some people in larger cities cannot. For instance, I charge minimum of 1 hour. I have had a few times now that I have had the problem troubleshot and part ordered in much less than that hour. In each case, I have charged for that full hour, then when the part came in, installed it free of charge. Am I ever going to get rich doing this? No, but it works.
Unlucky, because it is very hard to break into business in this town. I have heard that from so many people. People from Wyoming are such creatures of habit, that even if it costs them 3 times as much with worse customer service, they will keep going back to the same place over again, because that is what they have always done.
Now onto the lessons learned.
1) Facebook is a godsend. I am on all the local garage sale sites (5 of them). If someone posts that they need help with a computer, myself, or one of my many friends will post and recommend me. Without paying for a single ad, I have received 9 customers from Facebook. I just wish I had the discipline to post something new and fresh at least every week on my page. I have started a security line on my FB page, talking about viruses, malware etc, that seems to have gone over very well. 3 calls just from last weeks post.
2) Radio ads were a bust. It was a waste of money. 6 months in, and not a single phone call. It was my only real overhead, and it killed me. I would never recommend them, at least not for a brand new business with no customers.
3) Going local for signs and printing is just great. I got a sign on my back window for my car. They asked me to leave a bunch of my business cards with them. A few calls already, and that was just 6 weeks ago.
4) Door hangers. I wish I had started with this instead of the radio ads. Cost me less than $150 for 1000 to be printed, 2 weeks ago. I think I have only hung 300 of them. 7 calls already. I put a coupon on them good through the end of June. Hopefully I can successfully track how well this works long term. But already I have made my money back, and paid for the kids to hang them up, plus some.
5) I wish I had done some more research for local ordinances. I just found out last week that I am required to file a report with my municipal building permit office to work out of my house. It cost no money to fill it out, but if they catch you without it, it carries a $250 fine.
Where am I going from here? Well, although the last month I have had more business than in the previous 5 put together, it is still not enough to live off of. But my immediate goal is to get all the door hangers hung. Probably do a lot myself on my days off, and pay some more kids to do it over Thanksgiving break or something.
While looking at my demographics, I think I want to try and focus on the older crowd. One way I am going to do that is teaching free seminars, classes at places they hang out, such as the VFW, etc. It won't cost my but my time, and hopefully I can get some customers out of it. Anybody do this, have some suggestions?
My goal is next year this time, I want to be fully dependent on this business to live off. I am 60% there this past month, and hopefully I can keep that up going forward.
Thoughts, additions, criticisms? Open to all.
