[Jason Hedges]

In my limited time in this industry my most cost effective form of advertising has been the local parish magazine. I read about it on another post here a while ago and heve been highly impressed.

It cost £25 for the year and I've already had £400 worth of work from it in 6 months. Not only that but they have all been older customers who live in nicer properties with better quality furnishings which have all been a piece of cake to clean!

They've all been really friendly people as well and the cup of tea and bourbon biscuit have'nt gone a miss either  .

Just remember not to blaspheme 

Take care all,
Jason.

[Don Atkinson]

i found at start up level door knocking produced an UNBELEIVABLE response for your outlay. overcome your shyness get out there. newspaper adverts and leaflets could not come close to the levels you can expect with a pleasant chat and a business card. choose your area not to upmarket but definitely aspirational. choose your time -sat, sun and b holidays are best. 500 cards- £30 30-40 houses an hour. every 30-40 cards should produce £30-100 business. bang for your buck? also keep it local at this level put your home address on your cards talk about local things GIVE PEOPLE CONFIDENCE. most people should have several hundred/thousand houses nearby. ps i avoid near neighbours. as your business expands you must unfortuneatly rely on other methods more and more.

Finally we have someone who talks a lot of sense, well done.
The only thing I could add to what this guy has posted is never think about what you are doing when you approach a customers door or reception, if you park up outside a hotel and start thinking about what you are going to say your mind will start to fill with negative thoughts, and nerves will get the better of you. Hand brake on, out the car and straight into reception without even thinking about what you are doing. Just Do It!!
If you not spontaneous and need rehearsal, everything you say in this life will come out sounding crap, that's guaranteed.

Sit back and think of this. You have only one chance in this life to make something of yourself, theirs no turning back time to try again, theirs no logical proof that their is life after death, but even if there is life after death the chances of you coming back in the same form or in the same environment are very slim, when you gone your gone and no matter how much of a prat you made in this life no one will ever know you in 100 years time and that is a fact.

Everything in life that's worth having requires you to remove yourself from the comfort zone. After all how much do you think the man who sat in front of the telly every day achieved in his life time?
That girl you fancied at school never did ask you out, she's now married with kids and that chap never did call you back about that that big contract did he.
The fact is too many people miss golden opportunities through out life, and sadly them opportunities become rare as you become older.



don
  

[Ian Gourlay]

Mark

Has challenged Sherlocks one percent return.

He says price keenly and you can achieve that.

The question is how keenly

I think the door knock is good, if you can get a Female team all the better.


Then we could all have Mercs in the driveway

[Don Atkinson]

Your dead right Ian 

don

[eco freindly. peoples champion ron .sherlock]

sherlock agrees door knocking is without doubt the best and cheapest way, however it does take a lot of bottle, rejections are high. keep at it regardless and without doubt you will get work.it is only a numbers game percentage without outlay is tops

[DanielWelford]

another pearler shirley89...........sorry i am dyslexic too

Dan

[Adrian Makel]

1000 FLYERS SHOULD BRING IN AROUND 10 JOBS.however some on here seem to think i am exagerating.

[jcbdfa]

if your feeling shy and need a break from knocking post 10 without BUT when you put it through, flap the letterbox noisily as they tend to come to the door to see whats come through. this is where solus deliveries work. if its a bundle of cheap flyers they go straight in the bin, but do not expect anything like the response from knocking/chatting. i also feel a business card is more attractive, more to the point and has a more quality feel. go smaller but better quality. my feel is that cheap flyers attract price concious customers.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Go inbetween and do a card/leaflet in an editorial style.

Shaun

[Adrian Makel]

sounds like good advice to me

[John Kelly]

Having flirted with the idea of buying a franchise. It is interesting that their literature stated that you need to spend 10% of your turnover on marketing just to stand still. You need to spend 25% to grow the business.