No customers, please review

[weezon]

Sign up for Google Ad words. They will give you $100 for free and it should pay for itself. Phone number should be in the header on every page. You should take advantage of this time to promote your site. Seems you have more time than money. Get the wife busy as well. Good luck.

 

[vdub12]

You may wanna re-examine your business hours. 8-4:30 m-f ? Only people with free time during those hours are the unemployed.

I have to agree. My posted hours are 8 to 5 but I am also open 7 days a week and available after hours.

The worse thing is many people that are unemployed will call to. They need there computer fixed but don't have any money. Its cool though I did a job for a lady a while back that was unemployed and needed her computer to job hunt so I traded the repair for the LCD monitors that I now have in my lab and a dual core AMD notebook that I gave my dad. So sometimes it works out for the best.

In regards to your website Look at mine for an example. I have my phone number not only in the page title but also in multiple places on the page. If your number is in the title it will also show up on Google and other search engines that way.

My site:
www.CyberCPU.com

Here is what my link looks like from Google, notice the phone number in the title. www.google.com

 

[cmonova]

Wow what a massive thread

Well I looked at the site and a few notes, not sure if they are all covered or not:

1. Main page girl with headset....alot of picture for no reason. I'd rather see a big server in that location.

2. About us page guy holding business card has no head...not sure why..I think he needs a head

3. Services page the "custom design" throws off the whole page with the dimensions of it.

4. On the blog page you have a post dated June 29th and the next one was Just 21st. If you are not going to be consistent with the blog then lose the page. Blog is useless if not used.

5. Contact page needs a contact form. It has a ton of things on that page and then a little e-mail address to click on". Well if I am not running outlook or outlook express what am I going to do copy and paste to email you from my webmail? Make it easy for the customer. The Survey I don't get. So I run across your site and then fill out the survey for what? For finding your site?
I'd probably get rid of the map also. I don't think anyone is going to drive cross country to your location. Make a bigger pic map that shows things around you, people will get the concept.

On the book appointment deal....Nice looking yes, but personally I think people want to pick up the phone and talk to you not just fill out the form and schedule you to come work on their computer and they have no idea who you are.

Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[Cerberus LLC]

Lol

Wow what a massive thread

Well I looked at the site and a few notes, not sure if they are all covered or not:

1. Main page girl with headset....alot of picture for no reason. I'd rather see a big server in that location.

2. About us page guy holding business card has no head...not sure why..I think he needs a head

3. Services page the "custom design" throws off the whole page with the dimensions of it.

4. On the blog page you have a post dated June 29th and the next one was Just 21st. If you are not going to be consistent with the blog then lose the page. Blog is useless if not used.

5. Contact page needs a contact form. It has a ton of things on that page and then a little e-mail address to click on". Well if I am not running outlook or outlook express what am I going to do copy and paste to email you from my webmail? Make it easy for the customer. The Survey I don't get. So I run across your site and then fill out the survey for what? For finding your site?
I'd probably get rid of the map also. I don't think anyone is going to drive cross country to your location. Make a bigger pic map that shows things around you, people will get the concept.

On the book appointment deal....Nice looking yes, but personally I think people want to pick up the phone and talk to you not just fill out the form and schedule you to come work on their computer and they have no idea who you are.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Thanks lol. I'll make some of those changes too. I agree with your Blog info. I'll have to make sure to update that every morning, every day.

I'll see if I can find a head for that guy lol.

 

[cmonova]

Quick thought. You said in an earlier post that is a Wordpress site? Is it? Or is it a template.

 

[Cerberus LLC]

Wordpress

Quick thought. You said in an earlier post that is a Wordpress site? Is it? Or is it a template.

I get my hosting through networksolutions.com The site is word press but I used their web builder tool to publish the site. I chose a template and add to it as I go. I'm a struggling web page designer lol.

 

[Cerberus LLC]

Updated

Wow what a massive thread

Well I looked at the site and a few notes, not sure if they are all covered or not:

1. Main page girl with headset....alot of picture for no reason. I'd rather see a big server in that location.

2. About us page guy holding business card has no head...not sure why..I think he needs a head

3. Services page the "custom design" throws off the whole page with the dimensions of it.

4. On the blog page you have a post dated June 29th and the next one was Just 21st. If you are not going to be consistent with the blog then lose the page. Blog is useless if not used.

5. Contact page needs a contact form. It has a ton of things on that page and then a little e-mail address to click on". Well if I am not running outlook or outlook express what am I going to do copy and paste to email you from my webmail? Make it easy for the customer. The Survey I don't get. So I run across your site and then fill out the survey for what? For finding your site?
I'd probably get rid of the map also. I don't think anyone is going to drive cross country to your location. Make a bigger pic map that shows things around you, people will get the concept.

On the book appointment deal....Nice looking yes, but personally I think people want to pick up the phone and talk to you not just fill out the form and schedule you to come work on their computer and they have no idea who you are.

Just my 2 cents worth.

I couldn't find a head for that guy. The focus was on the business card anyhow...even though you can't see it. It's actually my business card in his hand lol.

I like the girl on the front. It's for those older customers who don't really know what a server is lol. Also, I wanted a friendly face underneath my book now icon. I wanted the customers to know that we have a friendly staff just waiting to take their appointments.

On the services page "custom build" removed the non-matching icon. I couldn't find an appropriate one that actually matched the rest so I used the same one twice. It fits the category anyhow. I also trimmed down the content of the custom build information. It was too wordy.

I updated the blog and will do so every morning around 8am. No more being lazy lol.

I'm getting ready to work on the "contact us" page. Thanks again for your help everybody. You've kept me busy all day lol Very much appreciated.

 

[Cerberus LLC]

Good Point

It may seem like a convenient thing to do from your perspective, but you have to step into the client's shoes. They want to talk to a real person. They want to get a quote from a real person. They may hope that it's a simple problem that can be solved over the phone for free, and would prefer to call before and get some information before committing to an appointment time.

After you've built up a client base, you can show the returning users how to use the online scheduler, because they've become comfortable with you that they don't need to talk to you first, but I would wager that it's a huge deterrence for new clients.

Good point. I removed the hours and I'm currently revising my about us page. Thank you.

 

[Cerberus LLC]

Thank you

Sign up for Google Ad words. They will give you $100 for free and it should pay for itself. Phone number should be in the header on every page. You should take advantage of this time to promote your site. Seems you have more time than money. Get the wife busy as well. Good luck.

Wish I could hit my wife with a technology stick and make her understand lol. Just kidding. I'm integrating her into the business though lol. Slowly.

I'm heading over to google ad words now. Thanks for the tip weezon.

 

[cmonova]

I would hold off on the ad words myself. You need to get the site optimzied first and try to work things that way. In the long run that will benefit you more.

 

[14049752]

Yeah, don't do adwords yet. There are plenty of things to take care of first that will get you into the organic search results.

While your website IS important, I think you really need to be working on your offline presence even more. Don't depend on your website to sell your services. Hit the streets a little and be your own advocate.

 

[Cerberus LLC]

Yeah, don't do adwords yet. There are plenty of things to take care of first that will get you into the organic search results.

While your website IS important, I think you really need to be working on your offline presence even more. Don't depend on your website to sell your services. Hit the streets a little and be your own advocate.

I am slowly realizing the value of face time with potential customers. I'm wearing my uniform and ID badge every morning, clean shaven, and making my presence known about town in the service vehicle.

I'm handing out my business cards, but not to just anyone. I'm not coming off desperate but professional and I give them when the opportunity arises.

I have a couple of local business that have accepted a stack of my business cards that sit in a little clear acrylic card holder as well as a brochure holder with my color printed tri-fold brochure. Thank you all so much for your help. I have made lots of changes already.

 

[Appleby]

You've gotten a ton of great advice and it sounds like you are doing all the right things. From what I've seen alot of the advice has been centered around your website. Being from a small town also, I would say that, right now, you need to focus on getting customers through other means than the website. It sounds like you are out beating the bushes which is great and that is the way you are going to get this ball rolling in my opinion.

Getting work via your friends, family, church members etc is a great way to start. I would also make a Facebook push without running it into the ground and annoying people. But I'd get on there and post comments on you wall about how you are starting the business and looking for new customers. If you have the personality and the gumption to do it, cold calling on small businesses is probably a great idea. I just can't force myself to do it. I can talk to a stranger but going out and cold calling is HARD for me to do. However, I believe it works. I talk to so many small business owners who say "Oh man, I'm glad to hear there is someone else because we are really tired of our current tech guy."

I say keep your head up, it was really really slow for me getting started and you are WAY ahead of the game and doing alot more proactive stuff than I did. I also didn't find this forum until this year. This place is a huge resource of knowledge. Good luck sir!

 

[Martyn]

I've just started off working from home officially as a company the last month. All my jobs so far have come through friends although I have advertising and a website.

My plan is on every call is either:

I send a follow up paid invoice/receipt by post with a covering letter and three business cards. If the person receiving the cards gives them to people needing my service then each person will get a 10% discount and the originator will get a 10% discount as well off their next problem.

or

I give the cards out explaining the discount scenario.

Not sure which is best.

 

[ProTech Support]

It may seem like a convenient thing to do from your perspective, but you have to step into the client's shoes. They want to talk to a real person. They want to get a quote from a real person. They may hope that it's a simple problem that can be solved over the phone for free, and would prefer to call before and get some information before committing to an appointment time.

After you've built up a client base, you can show the returning users how to use the online scheduler, because they've become comfortable with you that they don't need to talk to you first, but I would wager that it's a huge deterrence for new clients.

I 100% agree with this, and I also think this is a reason you should make your move into the store front. You don't need to make it a retail store, but just an office. When I first started my business, I ran it out of my home office like many here did, but as soon as I got the chance, I got a store.

Now I cannot say my business increased by 100000% when I made the move, because that would be a lie. In my situation the store was just in a really bad spot (was in a strip mall, but hard to see from the main road). What I can say though is I saw my customers coming back a LOT more when I had the office. So many of them said, "it is nice to be able to just stop here quick on my way home vs. having to schedule at my home".

The moral of the story is I truly believe a business needs to do the most that it can to cater to its customers, and I think using the office would be more beneficial for you and the customer.

 

[bagellad]

I don't know why everyone is just focused on the website, the OP said that he does not have any business! Like Zero and he needs money. Honestly you need some money to start a computer business, I would look for something part time while starting it at least.

Because its going to take at least a year or two before you start making enough to really be able to do more then break even.

You need to bring in some customers, You can do this with advertising or cold calling. Having a store front w/ signs etc. would count as advertising.

 

[Cerberus LLC]

I don't know why everyone is just focused on the website, the OP said that he does not have any business! Like Zero and he needs money. Honestly you need some money to start a computer business, I would look for something part time while starting it at least.

Because its going to take at least a year or two before you start making enough to really be able to do more then break even.

You need to bring in some customers, You can do this with advertising or cold calling. Having a store front w/ signs etc. would count as advertising.

Damn you guys are good. I really appreciate all of the feedback. I have made some major changes to my website. Somebody said I wasn't capturing the attention of those who dropped by. Please check out the site once more and let me know what you think of the home page. Some of you may want to ditch the girl but I really do think I need a smiling face as a welcome and an "it's ok to call us" feel. Maybe it's just me

In all seriousness though. I had a call this morning from a woman who has my business card. She is renting a tiny...and I mean tiny...but brand new store front in the dead smack middle of my town. Our town has like one traffic light but none the less, it is in the middle of town and right on a major street corner/crossroads.

I am taking all of your advice very seriously and now I am considering taking on a part-time job so that I may get this store front. Oh yea, the price. The lady called and offered it to me for $110.00 per month with a one year lease. I am going to take a picture of it and post it here if I can. Can I post this image here for you guys to see? It's only been 2 days since I officially started posting here so I don't know if I am still considered a possible spammer lol. Who can I email to ask if I can post this image? Sorry guys, I'm REALLY busy implementing all of your suggestions and my head is buzzing from having 2 cups of coffee this morning. My heart feels like it's gonna explode ha ha.

I'll follow up with this post soon. Thanks again so much.

 

[ProTech Support]

Yes, you will be able to post a photo.

For information regarding user permissions for new users, check out the FAQ

I look forward to seeing the place, I think you are making the right move.

 

[Cerberus LLC]

Thank you sir

Ok. Here are the pics of the tiny but cute possible store front. I just realized that customers must stop at the stop sign right in front lol. Also realized while taking pictures just how much traffic goes through. It's quite a bit. $110.00 per month with year lease.

 

[ProTech Support]

I think that is a nice looking spot for $110 a month, possible pics of the inside?