Advise on a startup business

[Wirralspark]

Hi . New to the forum and this is my first post. I am after some advise if you’ll Help please ? I am an electrician with 20 years experience. I am looking into opening my own company. I know all the info on creating the business . Where is the best place to advertise for free? Also, I don’t have premises as of yet. But I want to offer the service of building control panels. As this is something that I want to base my business around, as well as installations. Should I approach big panel wiring firms and ask if they want to sub contract any panel building to me? Like I said I am new to trying this on my own and would like advise on what avenues to take. Thanks a lot in advance.

 

[Deleted member 105166]

Not sure there is anywhere to advertise that's truly "free", anyway your discipline appears more specialist, which can work greatly to your advantage with the search engines. As you are starting a new business, pick a company or trading name that you can buy the .co.uk and .com domains and Ltd Co. for, so you have UK IP protection on the three important measures. Also set up accounts on the main social media platforms to protect your identity. Unless you have a foot in the door, before you approach companies cold, invest in a website that doesn't look home made and include a few case studies of what you do. Your case study pages essentially provide free advertising, when you write them, use words and phrases that are specific to your work, then when people search for these terms, you will hopefully appear in organic (unpaid) results on the first page of Google. There's a few ideas for starters...

 

[Wirralspark]

thank you for the advise. I don’t want to burn bridges with companies before I have even started . Hence the post. Just really not sure about the best way to go about it. I suppose i need to gain exposure and wait for companies to approach me. Problem is I am not patient. I want to be pro active

 

[Octopus]

Best you peruse the Business Section on the Forum ..............

AND more to the point, being self employed means you HAVE to spend money on advertising ............ whether it be adverts, websites, business cards or logo'ed clothes

Get your wallet out!

 

[Wirralspark]

Thanks for the advise . Like I said I am after advise . Was trying to get off the ground as cheap as possible. I realise I might have to spend on advertising. But if there was a way that I could do it for free, I thought here was a good way to find it. I appreciate the advise

 

[Octopus]

Thanks for the advise . Like I said I am after advise . Was trying to get off the ground as cheap as possible. I realise I might have to spend on advertising. But if there was a way that I could do it for free, I thought here was a good way to find it. I appreciate the advise

Not being nasty but when writing adverts, make sure you spell check and proof read

Starting with "advice"

 

[Wirralspark]

Haha thanks . Tired after a long day.

 

[Octopus]

When you go SE, you need to do a business budget and you should allow up to £100 per month for advertising.........

Doing nothing isn't an option

Relying on free advertising could leave you penniless.

 

[Nobbin]

Having owned a few businesses I can definitely agree on the advertising front. Do not expect free advertising to keep your business afloat, rather look at it as a bonus.
As one of my main businesses was printing here's a pause for thought...
5000 A5 double sided flyers cost less than £50. My local postie delivers up to 1000 doors a day (in 4 hours). So, if we just halve that and say that you alone (to save cash) deliver 500 a day over a couple of weeks of Monday to Friday, that's 5000 potential customers reached in two weeks for £50 and a bit of leg work.
I know yours is a niche market and leaflet drop is probably not a viable option, but the point I'm making with regard to paid advertising is coming up and applies to Internet marketing as well.
It's an accepted standard that less than 2% of leaflet drops lead to an enquiry, but, 2% of 5000 is 100 new enquiries. You would need to be pretty bad at customer relations not to turn at least one of those into a sale and get your £50 back and then some.
So, you need to get in with the big boys but there's no direct route. Why not then target their customers? Who are the big boys customers? What can you offer that the big boys aren't or can't?
It's all in the research. Research your target customers, your target suppliers, your competition and research your support services. There are lots of links between them and you'll likely uncover some common bonds between several of them. It's here that you'll most likely find small successes that lead to larger introductions and recommendations.
But your own confession of impatience may end up being your downfall.
Don't try to push a boulder all the way home, chip away at it and bring it back piece by piece.
Best of luck to you fella.

 

[Wirralspark]

Thank you so much for the reply . Really do appreciate all the help I have been given so far. This is a great site. I will take on board all of the great ADVICE you have given !! Some really good points there. I want to start this company as I have worked for some companies that really don’t produce good products. I can see a big opportunity for myself if I can deliver a really good quality service for a reasonable price. I will research every point you have put forward to me.

 

[Bobster]

Unless you have all the knowledge necessary to build and CE mark the panels yourself, most probably easier and less hassle going to a panel builder.

Personally I'd let them do the dogsbody work whilst you're doing the important stuff. Get yourself off the ground first.

 

[Wirralspark]

Hi
I might be really mistaken (research is being done now) CE mark will not be needed as I would be building panels to customers specifications. If I were to build a panel with a sole purpose and sell to public/companies, then I would need a CE mark? That’s my understanding as companies I have worked for have never put CE stamps on anything . As long as I supply all the documentation for the components used and a set of drawings and manual. I am under the understanding that that is ok? But it’s another avenue to research. Thanks for the advice

 

[Bobster]

Hi
I might be really mistaken (research is being done now) CE mark will not be needed as I would be building panels to customers specifications. If I were to build a panel with a sole purpose and sell to public/companies, then I would need a CE mark? That’s my understanding as companies I have worked for have never put CE stamps on anything . As long as I supply all the documentation for the components used and a set of drawings and manual. I am under the understanding that that is ok? But it’s another avenue to research. Thanks for the advice

A lot of companies fall foul of it. An they are breaking the law. The amount that are caught however used to be next to non. They are starting to clamp down on it.

You will still need to make sure it is CE marked under the low voltage directive as a minimum. If the panels you were selling were to be installed as part of a machine, you would still need to CE mark your panel, then the machine builder would CE mark the panel and machine under one certificate.

 

[stevethesparks]

With any free advertising, expect a lot of time wasting phone calls from people/companies promising to increase your sales, also watch out for the scams that want you to advertise in their magazine.

 

[Gavin John Hyde]

My free advertising is copying a friend who is also a spark, I slide my business card inside the lights on the shelves at my local big diy chain, Out of around 100 cards inserted, I have had 14 calls to fit light fittings, So it has worked out very well, that's several hundred quids worth of work for very little outlay. One woman said she rang me purely as she thought it was very enterprising!
I have also inserted cards, flyers etc in books in the library, I started by checking for the top 100 books in the library and when in there waiting for my niece to finish her book club on a Saturday, I went around and put them in the said top books.. a large number of baking books coincidentally! and have had 6 customers from this method.
My other little method that did cost me a tenner is I am on good terms with a former homeless ex squaddie who I have mutual friends with, who once sold the big issue. he works in the big issue office sorting out piles for other homeless people to flog and does admin such as pitch permits etc.. well for a tenner he will insert a copy of my flyer in all the big issues for that week in the big issue office that he can get hold off. so for a tenner plus leaflets I get it out to several hundred people. I do this once a month. I have had several calls for work from this method. Its all about being imaginative and enterprising, I got these ideas from a book on guerrilla advertising