Looks like another one bites the dust

[Uglyduckling]

Hi.
I have been trading for 4 years now and my business has been dwindling away over the years.
ok alittle history. I'm part p registered with Elecsa and have been now for 4 years.
I decided to set up on my own when being made redundant from a big electrical firm.
When I started 4 years ago I brought a little Fiesta Van had it sign written and off I went.
Back then I joined Rated People which really got things moving. I found news paper advertising useless to name but a few.
The first 2 years were great. I was working 5 to 6 days a week. Most of the work was smaller stuff up to consumer unit changes etc.
last year. 2013. Things started to change. I left Rated People as there was to many numptys chasing after my estimates who had no qualifications, no governing body etc. and rated people changed they way they worked. Back then you could get credits if unable to quote. Now they just keep your cash.
So I decided to try Check A Trade.
Now I was never as busy as when I started out but the work kept coming in.
My van got broken into outside a customers house and the buggers nicked everything I had in the back. Fortunately I only carry the tools I require for that day.
I decided to get rid of the van and work from my estate car instead. My estate car is a old Volvo.
Ok I don't know if this was the start of it. Turning up to customers houses in a car and not a nice sign written van.
This year has been the worst ever.
Im not getting half the phone calls as I used to even tho I'm in the top 5 on check a trade in my area.
Im really struggling now and as a example I did one small job last week. This week I only have one booked so far.
Why have I written this post?
What I would like to ask. Is it me or has the private part p electrical sector gone dead?
the only things I've changed is check a trade and my van to a car.
the quality of my work is still the same as it has ever been. Judging from my feed back.
What have I done wrong?
Things are now so bad I am getting close to throwing in the towel and go back to a job I used to do years ago just to get a steady wage.
I will stay nameless but I work in the south. Oxfordshire southwards.
Many thanks.

 

[telectrix]

can't blame the volvo, or yourself. trade is up and down. nowadays ppl don't want to spend, but the economy is on the up, and if you can survive till february, you should see an upturn in work.

 

[Welchyboy1]

Sound like your a little too reliant on these silly sites, maybe people have started wising up to the fact
That the tradesmen they supply are not trusted or rated after all(im not aiming that at you in anyway)

turning up in an estate is not gonna help your image much tbh

you need to work on getting referral and recommendations, build relationships with local contractors and other trades, this brings in a regular stream of work without the overheads of advertising(its always good to have a little bit of advertising, but not to rely upon it)

sadly its not instant and takes years to build up, i would of though by 4 years you should have built up a bit of a network


the area around me become saturated with new start ups four or five years ago, nearly all of them have disappeared now, probably gone back to the big sites up town

 

[HandySparks]

Sorry to hear your tale of woe.

Where are you based? (Town)

I have more work than I can handle at present. The previous really good year for me was in 2009. 2011 was dire. Turnover is really unpredictable from month to month and year to year.

Do you have your own website? If you have a properly targeted site, I recon you can do as well as these paid-for online sites. I'm finding that I'm getting more and more business from customers doing a Google search.

 

[Octopus]

I would say that reliance on Check-a-Trade has been your down fall.

Seen a couple of mates who do bathrooms suffer the same.

I think Check-a-trade "attracts" the wrong sort of customers - the ones you don't really want!

Do you have a website?
Have you invested in decent "logoed" clothing?
decent cards?
Do you contact details include your address, landline and mobile numbers?

I get about 75% of my business through word of mouth and repeat business and FYI I spend about £720 per year on marketing.

As for the vehicle - there are a few "bashed" estates going around here, but they seem to be doing OK

 

[Geordie Spark]

Sound like your a little too reliant on these silly sites, maybe people have started wising up to the fact
That the tradesmen they supply are not trusted or rated after all(im not aiming that at you in anyway)

turning up in an estate is not gonna help your image much tbh

you need to work on getting referral and recommendations, build relationships with local contractors and other trades, this brings in a regular stream of work without the overheads of advertising(its always good to have a little bit of advertising, but not to rely upon it)

sadly its not instant and takes years to build up, i would of though by 4 years you should have built up a bit of a network


the area around me become saturated with new start ups four or five years ago, nearly all of them have disappeared now, probably gone back to the big sites up town

Bowlox!!!

Over 20 years I used Mazda 626 hatchbacks and had no trouble getting work at all.

The bonuses were I only had one vehicle to tax, insure & maintain and that vehicle served a dual role of works van and family car to perfection, but the real biggie was it was NEVER broken into and I NEVER lost any tools or equipment out of it!

Maybe not as "professional" looking as a properly sign-written van, but a bloody sight more practical and secure for me!!

 

[Harni]

We use cars at work partly for insurance purposes. Vans are substantially more expensive to insure for trades use as you can pretty much guarantee there will be tools in there.

 

[JD6400]

To the OP
Sorry to hear this too , but I think things are on the up in general !? So it may be worth keeping going that bit longer .
As for these sites , I think you can not have better work than word of mouth .
I know you have been getting good reports , but how many personal referrals do you have come in . I would use this as yard stick to customer satisfaction and start looking for the reason why , if it is anything but good .
We were duped into using Yellow pages once about 10 years ago , and wish I had just burnt the money instead !
All it did was put us on the map for never ending marketing calls and several customers that were just chancers .
As a upshot we seem to be on google as a free listing , and get maybe three or four calls a year because of it , and almost always they will be a liability to work for .
Not sure if that will be any help to you , but that is what I have found

 

[Welchyboy1]

Bowlox!!!

Over 20 years I used Mazda 626 hatchbacks and had no trouble getting work at all.

The bonuses were I only had one vehicle to tax, insure & maintain and that vehicle served a dual role of works van and family car to perfection, but the real biggie was it was NEVER broken into and I NEVER lost any tools or equipment out of it!

Maybe not as "professional" looking as a properly sign-written van, but a bloody sight more practical and secure for me!!

Theres work and theres work

I dont get how an estate car is more practical than a van

Sorry but you project an image of your business when you turn up on a job, especially from new clients when responding to an advert enquiry

if i wanted a to hire a professional tradesmen, and some chancer turned up in a rusty old estate........lol!

but then if it works for you, crack on!

 

[Rockingit]

Feel for you matey. I founded my firm 6 yrs ago and its been an uphill battle through the recession, up one month down the next. And many firms have a honeymoon period - you're now at the sleeping on the couch stage!! Keep at it, darkest hour before dawn and all that stuff.

 

[Geordie Spark]

To the OP
Sorry to hear this too , but I think things are on the up in general !? So it may be worth keeping going that bit longer .
As for these sites , I think you can not have better work than word of mouth .
I know you have been getting good reports , but how many personal referrals do you have come in . I would use this as yard stick to customer satisfaction and start looking for the reason why , if it is anything but good .
We were duped into using Yellow pages once about 10 years ago , and wish I had just burnt the money instead !
All it did was put us on the map for never ending marketing calls and several customers that were just chancers .
As a upshot we seem to be on google as a free listing , and get maybe three or four calls a year because of it , and almost always they will be a liability to work for .
Not sure if that will be any help to you , but that is what I have found

I agree - they're a complete waste of time and money.

What I found that worked was a simple one-line ad in the local paper, small ads in local shops and flyers dropped through the letterboxes of the street I happened to be working in at the time.

AND never underestimate word of mouth which is THE BEST advert there is!!

 

[telectrix]

I agree - they're a complete waste of time and money.

What I found that worked was a simple one-line ad in the local paper, small ads in local shops and flyers dropped through the letterboxes of the street I happened to be working in at the time.

AND never underestimate word of mouth which is THE BEST advert there is!!

MOUTH being the operative word with a geordie.

 

[Geordie Spark]

MOUTH being the operative word with a geordie.

Oh here he is ..... the mouth of the Mersey - bang on cue.

 

[trev]

I've had a fairly long fallow period, I was relying on work coming in from a couple of builders I know. As their work dried up during the recession so did mine. As a result I was treading water for a couple of years.
I decided on one more roll of the dice and built a website (which is nowhere near the finished article yet but it's there and people have found me through it) I spent a few quid on properly branded workwear (customers now expect you to be dressed in a certain way, it's what they're used to now) and bought a few thousand flyers (doesn't work for everyone but it's working for me just now so it has to be worth £60 for 5k flyers)
Then it comes to the networking, you have to work at it. Start giving your contacts a call just to shoot the breeze at first but turn the conversation round to work and how much they have. Tell them you're a bit slack (don't tell them you're on the bones of your arse whatever you do)
Stand outside your local shed of a Saturday handing your flyers out, there's always some muppet who will buy a light fitting and cock up the connection of it. If he has your details you'll be the one he calls
If you have any fairly recent commercial customers, offer to give them a free hour of assessing their energy useage to identify any possible savings (if you have nothing to do it's worth a punt) if you identify any them shout about their options and give them a payback timetable (accountants will love it)
I'm in no way an expert on this stuff mate but give stuff like this a go. Shy bairns get nee sweeties.

 

[Geordie Spark]

I've had a fairly long fallow period, I was relying on work coming in from a couple of builders I know. As their work dried up during the recession so did mine. As a result I was treading qwater for a couple of years.
I decided on one more roll of the dice and built a website (which is nowhere near the finished article yet but it's there and people have found me through it) I spent a few quid on properly branded workwear (customers now expect you to be dressed in a certain way, it's what they're used to now) and bought a few thousand flyers (doesn't work for everyone but it's working for me just now so it has to be worth £60 for 5k flyers)
Then it comes to the networking, you have to work at it. Start giving your contacts a call just to shoot the breeze at first but turn the conversation round to work and how much they have. Tell them you're a bit slack (don't tell them you're on the bones of your arse whatever you do)
Stand outside your local shed of a Saturday handing your flyers out, there's always some muppet who will buy a light fitting and cock up the connection of it. If he has your details you'll be the one he calls
If you have any fairly recent commercial customers, offer to give them a free hour of assessing their energy useage to identify any possible savings (if you have nothing to do it's worth a punt) if you identify any them shout about their options and give them a payback timetable (accountants will love it)
I'm in no way an expert on this stuff mate but give stuff like this a go. Shy bairns get nee sweeties.

Aye .. that's varry canny Son, but up at this end of the river we have ..... water.

 

[trev]

Aye .. that's varry canny Son, but up at this end of the river we have ..... water.

Aye ye posh auld get since ye moved in wi wor Ma in Horsley Hill
Tha still eatin tha bairns on Quarry Lane ye knaa so ya not that civill.....ceviley.....sivileyesed.....bolox Aal stop wi posh.

 

[Silly Sausage]

Oh here he is ..... the mouth of the Mersey - bang on cue.

Just be grateful you're over 150 miles away, the gobby buggers are almost on my doorstep.

 

[Marvo]

I've had a fairly long fallow period, I was relying on work coming in from a couple of builders I know. As their work dried up during the recession so did mine. As a result I was treading water for a couple of years.
I decided on one more roll of the dice and built a website (which is nowhere near the finished article yet but it's there and people have found me through it) I spent a few quid on properly branded workwear (customers now expect you to be dressed in a certain way, it's what they're used to now) and bought a few thousand flyers (doesn't work for everyone but it's working for me just now so it has to be worth £60 for 5k flyers)
Then it comes to the networking, you have to work at it. Start giving your contacts a call just to shoot the breeze at first but turn the conversation round to work and how much they have. Tell them you're a bit slack (don't tell them you're on the bones of your arse whatever you do)
Stand outside your local shed of a Saturday handing your flyers out, there's always some muppet who will buy a light fitting and cock up the connection of it. If he has your details you'll be the one he calls
If you have any fairly recent commercial customers, offer to give them a free hour of assessing their energy useage to identify any possible savings (if you have nothing to do it's worth a punt) if you identify any them shout about their options and give them a payback timetable (accountants will love it)
I'm in no way an expert on this stuff mate but give stuff like this a go. Shy bairns get nee sweeties.

If I did that kind of work this is pretty much how I'd go about it. Website is a must nowadays as is some branded shirts and a logo or two on your vehicle. I think flyers are good if you keep them very targeted. Every job you do take the time to knock on a few doors either direction and give them a flyer, you're hit rate will be much higher if they know you've worked for a neighbour and they were happy with you.

Also keep a database of your customers and give them a follow-up call every few months....but not too often and if they sound unhappy offer not to call them again. It's also worth giving you domestic customers a business card or two and enquire if they might have a call for an electrician at their place of business.

I would suggest instead of getting thousands of flyers rather get a hundred or two and spend the rest on some branded items that would make the customer want to keep them. For example some branded fusewire holders and if they've got an old type CU you leave one tucked in the front of it. Maybe a small keyring type LED branded flashlight that you could secure to the CU with a clip so if there's power failure it's there for emergencies. If I went with flyers I'd keep them small and focussed and put some info on there that might make them want to keep them such as phone numbers for electric billing enquiries, council or DNO fault report numbers or anything else you can think of.

 

[trev]

I would suggest instead of getting thousands of flyers rather get a hundred or two and spend the rest on some branded items that would make the customer want to keep them.

The thing is, a couple of hundred is going to cost not much less than a few thousand so it's worth spending the extra few quid and getting a boatload of them. You don't have to shove them all into houses and businesses straight away. Other giveaways are going to cost more money, as things grow for me I'm going to get keyrings done, I can get them for £1.50 a pop for 300, I'm also looking at mugs (no one ever has enough) give them to commercial customers.
There's loads of marketing stuff you can do that won't cost you massive amounts of cash mate, get your thinking head on, it will pay off. Like you, a few months back I was ready to throw in the towel, this month I'm looking at a turnover of 3.5k
I'm not prepared to put my profit on open forum but trust me, it's worth getting out of bed for

 

[tidyboiler]

Aye ye posh auld get since ye moved in wi wor Ma in Horsley Hill
Tha still eatin tha bairns on Quarry Lane ye knaa so ya not that civill.....ceviley.....sivileyesed.....bolox Aal stop wi posh.

Horsley Hill???? Horsley Bloody Hill? You'll be accusing us of wearing UGH boots next!!!!!