On the verge of giving up

[rusty.nells]

If you're not working on computers, you should be working on customers. Get out and introduce yourself.

I agree that your rates seem low. You might try doubling your rates and offering a discount to senior citizens, military personnel, first-time customers etc. You might also try bartering for 50% cash and 50% trade.

 

[Andyuk2007]

OK, I understand that your morale must be low but you really need to pick yourself up since when working for yourself nobody else will!

Lets take a look at this month.

Have you had any work come in?
What business activities have you done? What marketing?

How about this week?
Have you had an enquries? What have you been up to yesterday and today?

At the moment I had a call yesterday in which a computer needs a new cpu, so thats 1 I've had this week. I had one a few weeks back to fit a new dvd rewriter but the rest of the time has been a bit slow,

My adverts are up in 4 villages near me and in a few magazine publications but i fail to get any calls from it, it might be just be a slow week....there is not alot more i can do inprove advertising as people know I'm around and still in business but its up to the public to call if they need my services however with people cutting back they are probably reluctent to call out a luxury service such as a computer repair guy.

 

[dasaybz]

It sounds to me like you're not very driven.

If I was you, I'd be hopping on my bike and putting flyers in every single mailbox that I see.

I would do this every single day.

It is the easiest way to advertise for sure. And if you're home doing nothing, what does it hurt?

 

[Andyuk2007]

It sounds to me like you're not very driven.

If I was you, I'd be hopping on my bike and putting flyers in every single mailbox that I see.

I would do this every single day.

It is the easiest way to advertise for sure. And if you're home doing nothing, what does it hurt?

As i said in an earlier post I tried leaflets but it didn't work and it would take a few hundred pounds to make and have them printed, its money i dont have right now to spare. i agree its the easiest way but its probably not the best way as no one took any interest in the 3000 that i posted.

 

[ITMAN]

Hi im new here, but just my 2 pence worth as i see people have metnioned it - I charge £35 per hour, (normally max £70 for large job) and no-one moans about it, i mean lets face it most things can be done in an hour, and people are gratful (no, VERY gratful) if you can fix it quickly so they can carry on.

Oh, and advertise, locally in small "parish" magazines - their cheap, and well ciruclated

 

[Suther]

Just to echo some other's comments, do try to stick at it.

Here's my own experience. Based in Northern Ireland myself in a small town. The income bracket of the population would range from very low to medium. There are a few computer repair places in the town but I can still get away with £30/hr. In fact I'm raising it to £35/hr because I have a physical shop and the bills sure aren't going down or even staying the same.

Most things can get done in an hour or two at max, so people are still only paying max £60 + parts (with a markup on the parts).

We tried radio advertising for a while. It did bring in some repairs, but not enough to pay for the advertising.

The Yellow Pages has brought in a few customers, maybe enough to just about pay for the advertising.

Haven't tried Google Adwords yet, but I want to.

To be honest, the best results so far (apart from word-of-mouth recommendations) have been seen with some DIY leaflets.

If you have plenty of time between jobs, you need to use as much of that time as possible finding new customers.

I see you already have postcard-type designs. Great!
If you have a printer and some paper, print yourself off a couple of thousand flyers. It's not going to cost you anything apart from the paper and ink/toner.
If you have a colour printer, they'll look even better.

And then (and this was a tip I picked up from Technibble, thank you Bryce) get your walking shoes on and post them through the letter boxes of houses in the 'richer' parts of town.

I don't even like the way that sounds myself, 'the richer parts of town', I'm cringing as I write it. I want to be able to help everyone. But, at the end of the day, to get the business going, we need income, money. And people on larger incomes, perhaps professionals, tend to live in the better areas of town and tend to know the value of the work you will provide. And will be happy paying for you to do your job.

And these folks tend to have more than one computer in their house, so if you do a good job, who are they going to call next time.

You're far better off getting a few of these customers than someone that's going to try to bargain with you, or ask you for your 'best price'.


Any that's just my 2p's worth.
Good luck.

 

[Simmy]

You've still yet to explain what you're doing in between these jobs. In the past 6 weeks, what have you done with your time, minus the few hours of callouts.

 

[joydivision]

I've been doing this for 3.5 years now but I work in a wealthy and high tech area (there are threeuniversities within 4 miles from me).

I started with leaflets and got a lot of recomendations from that, I still do leaflets now as I don't have enough solid work. The main problem I have is many jobs I cannot charge enough for

I cannot understand why your bookings are so low. I suspect you already have a major competitor and there isn't the market. I would also be put off by not having your address on your leaflet. Customers like to know where the person they are letting into their house is based.

 

[@ncient geek]

With all the advice in the posts above, I think that you must have a pretty good idea about what your fellow techs are doing to survive

I have found that radio, drop box and leaflet advertising work ok in times of regular business to get a current flow of new customers. They will however not work in times of recession (in most cases) and especially in neighborhoods where you can not charge decent minima.

I believe firmly today that you can not do advertising without investing yourself maximally. The times where a simple newspaper ad would bring the customers running are over, and for good.

Good advertising relies on footwork, your own !

What we do as a standard when we open a new shop is :

- have pamphlets printed with by a professional on glossy paper
- go out and introduce yourself to all storefront businesses, tell them what you do, ask them for advice (people love to give advice), ask them to forward potential clients to your business (you may even propose a fee for every final customer they send you; that works quite well on the less fortunate areas), and finally ask if you can leave some of your pamphlets along the counter (customers often wait at the counter, they read anything they get their hands on).
- go and see the institutions in place (get a list of all clubs, associations etc.). Again tell the secretaries what you do, propose your services (after some small talk), leave pamphlets, business cards and your telephone numbers.
- go to church !! See the preacher, talk to him about his activities, see if you can be of any assistance (designing flyers, printing handouts etc.). Propose this service for free if you so see fit. Il will cost you little, but will open many doors otherwise shut to you (especially in the south-west in the US)
- do not drop box your fliers !! They will end up in the trash with the rest of the ads. Instead hand out your fliers in the street, or put them behind the windshield wipers on the driver side. People will hesitate more to drop you ad in the street, will not walk to the nearest bin, so your flyer will end up in the car or the pocket/purse.
- have decent prices, but offer discounts ! This is a largely neglected way of working today. People like discounts. Give discounts to students, families, seniors, etc.
- give discounts to returning or referring customers (coupons)
- go for the businesses. Noone can survive with residential customers only. One business customer will equal very many residential customers in the long run.

I hope that things will pick up for you soon. Every crisis is good luck for the innovative, bad luck for the inactive.

 

[Tesla]

I've noticed Andy on the forums a couple times now but no reply to our input to this thread?

 

[Andyuk2007]

With all the advice in the posts above, I think that you must have a pretty good idea about what your fellow techs are doing to survive

I have found that radio, drop box and leaflet advertising work ok in times of regular business to get a current flow of new customers. They will however not work in times of recession (in most cases) and especially in neighborhoods where you can not charge decent minima.

I believe firmly today that you can not do advertising without investing yourself maximally. The times where a simple newspaper ad would bring the customers running are over, and for good.

Good advertising relies on footwork, your own !

What we do as a standard when we open a new shop is :

- have pamphlets printed with by a professional on glossy paper
- go out and introduce yourself to all storefront businesses, tell them what you do, ask them for advice (people love to give advice), ask them to forward potential clients to your business (you may even propose a fee for every final customer they send you; that works quite well on the less fortunate areas), and finally ask if you can leave some of your pamphlets along the counter (customers often wait at the counter, they read anything they get their hands on).
- go and see the institutions in place (get a list of all clubs, associations etc.). Again tell the secretaries what you do, propose your services (after some small talk), leave pamphlets, business cards and your telephone numbers.
- go to church !! See the preacher, talk to him about his activities, see if you can be of any assistance (designing flyers, printing handouts etc.). Propose this service for free if you so see fit. Il will cost you little, but will open many doors otherwise shut to you (especially in the south-west in the US)
- do not drop box your fliers !! They will end up in the trash with the rest of the ads. Instead hand out your fliers in the street, or put them behind the windshield wipers on the driver side. People will hesitate more to drop you ad in the street, will not walk to the nearest bin, so your flyer will end up in the car or the pocket/purse.
- have decent prices, but offer discounts ! This is a largely neglected way of working today. People like discounts. Give discounts to students, families, seniors, etc.
- give discounts to returning or referring customers (coupons)
- go for the businesses. Noone can survive with residential customers only. One business customer will equal very many residential customers in the long run.

I hope that things will pick up for you soon. Every crisis is good luck for the innovative, bad luck for the inactive.

Good Advice

 

[Tesla]

Good Advice

Is that all you're going to post after all of the input and questions?

 

[14049752]

There was a reason why I said that maybe it's time to give up. Basically, all of this advice has been offered time and time again.

As I said, I'm sure there isn't any one thing causing such dismal business.... but a person really has to be motivated to run a successful company. Sitting around and eating cheetos while watching "Tom and Jerry" 28 days of the month won't do any good. Taking those 28 days and really marketing your business, going to visit businesses and introduce yourself, and taking an active role in getting business WILL grow the business.

 

[Tesla]

So, what's the outcome?

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

So, what's the outcome?

If he is as motivated with his business as he is with this thread, no wonder.

But I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say he wasn't just here for a pity party and has been busting his hump trying to hustle up new business. Maybe that's why he isn't posting?

 

[Instant Housecall - Corey]

I'm in agreement with everyone else here: raise your prices. I've seen lots of companies come and go, and when someone signs up for my service and they're charging too little, I know right off the bat that they won't be a customer for long. Charge more and you'll be happier and you'll get better customers.

Second, here are a few "shoestring" marketing ideas for you:

1) Join your local chamber of commerce. It's cheap and you'll meet lots of local businesses who are too small to have their own IT department

2) Advertise on Craig's List. It isn't a panacea, but it's free and it works.

3) Do you belong to a church/synagogue/mosque/whatever? A local community organization? If not, consider joining one. When they have a charity auction (and most of them do), donate one or two hours of service for the auction and let people bid on it. This is great marketing for two reasons: first, it monetizes your services (ie, they're worth something!) and you get people thinking about how much your services are worth. Second, only one person will win the auction and potentially hundreds will see your brand

4) Market yourself to businesses more than homeowners. For businesses, time is money, they need you more often, and they need you quickly. Since business is slow for you right now, you can definitely respond quickly -- a big benefit and selling feature for you.

5) Knock on doors and make phone calls. You can get a copy of Scott's directory from your local library if you need phone numbers. I know it's painful and the rejection sucks, but it works. You've got time right now, so consider distributing coupons with "30 minutes free" so that people have a reason to try you out instead of their usual guy. Be sure to put an expiry date on the coupon, so that when things pick up, you're not bombarded with freebies.

6) Don't try to sell to the whole world. Some of my most successful customers have crazy-tight niche markets. One sells his services only to dentists, another only to woodworkers -- and both have booming businesses. Focusing on a niche market (if chosen successfully) can help with word-of-mouth a great deal, and makes it easier for you to narrow your efforts.

Lastly, take out a free trial of the business edition of Instant Housecall, then PM me with your user ID. I'll hook you up with a little gift to help you get back on your feet.

Corey Fruitman
Instant Housecall - Remote Support Software
1.888.838.4050 (Toll Free USA & Canada)
1.416.871.4725 (International)

 

[coolnezz]

not everybody can be entrepreneurs...

 

[NickCat11]

not everybody can be entrepreneurs...

If you are referring to the poster before you which I am assuming you are, he was simply offering some good advice. Why reopen a 4 month old thread for a comment like that? I apologize in advance if I read your post the wrong way

 

[JosephLeo]

I never noticed this thread before- so here is my input, sorry if it sounds harsh but that's the way the business world is.

If you're giving up after only a couple months of being in business then you've clearly never been a business owner and shouldn't be one in the first place. I believe one of Murphy's laws for business is "Everything will cost twice as much as projected" which in turn means "You will only make half as much as expected".

If you're advertising isn't working have you considered getting in touch with an advertising agency? How about a graphic designer to help build a brand for you? What is your current target market? Do you know the population statistics of your town? How many competitors do you have? Are your prices good for your local area?

These are all essential questions I think you should answer before anyone can give you any advice that will help point your company in the right direction.

 

[coolnezz]

If you are referring to the poster before you which I am assuming you are, he was simply offering some good advice. Why reopen a 4 month old thread for a comment like that? I apologize in advance if I read your post the wrong way

just referring to business/entrepreneurship in general. anybody can start a business but not everybody will succeed per statistics by sba.gov. it seemed to me he (original poster) hasn't done any serious research on what it takes to survive in starting a biz. my bad, i saw this thread on page one, top ten, in the business section so i thought it was fairly new.