Do business cards work?

[johnthesparky]

I have never really got on with advertising, I seem to just rely on word of mouth (I know that only works if you already have a customer base) but I always found the jobs from advertising expected you to be a rogue trader and rip them off..... I got in with a couple of other trades (kitchen fitter, bathroom fitter, builder) and made sure I was flexible for them, if they are good you will tend to get a referral from the customer, and they will tell there friends etc... I have business cards, but tend to just give them out when asked at end of jobs,

I tried yellow pages 5 or 6 years back and live on the edge of 4 books, advertised in 2 and got probably 2 jobs from them

when things slowed down couple of years back, I got the van signwritten and that seemed to bring a bit of work in, I would work at a house, the neighbour wanted work done and would ask the customer if they were happy, and then call me..... van blew up and got replaced and I haven't bothered getting the new one signed up though yet. A few mates rely on van signwriting as their source of advertising too, I think it works best with a tidy van and a good design, people aren't drawn in by those generic white magnetics with just a name and number on.

I would say though that if you do get cards, fliers or signwriting... I'd spend another few quid and get some bright colours and a classy design, as that would project a better image of your business (but that's easy to say as my mate is a graphic artist/airbrush artist)


but then I'm a spark, not an advertising executive...... as you were :tounge_smile:

 

[Paul.M]

Thanks for that John, its good to know what works and what doesn't. Another thing I will do is have a flier made up saying "ive just done some work on your neighbours house at number ....... " and post through ten houses either side. For the cost of 1000 fliers and ten mins posting them I think is worth the effort.

 

[i=p/u]

i think another good work puller is if you are in a club, football /rugby/cricket/church group etc, go bk to your youth days and run like a hammers around the town, but not smashing windows..exploiting what you do.....