Bringing in more work

[forestboy1978]

Took on an extra guy. Old buddy of mine from a long time. Yeah I know this is risky. But it's working out well. He's good, positive, knows his stuff and anything he doesn't know he intuits it. A tank also which takes more heavy work off my shoulders. 

 

Problem being, we are gunning through work. Peak season at the moment and I'm still not getting enough as it stands. I'm winning about 70% of my quotes also which even factors in the ones I quote higher cos I don't want them or need them so kinda know I'll lose. So realistically about 4 out 5 jobs that I want to do are won. 

 

I'm in the forest way. Not a hugely dense area housing wise. I don't work in town or past it. I don't market there due to adding sometimes 3 hours on to a day. Not to mention quote time and parking a van and trailer at job sites is sometimes impossible. 

 

I'm obviously looking at spending more money on advertising as I wont make it through winter unless I can double my leads. 

 

2 main things I thought are  flyer dropping the areas I want to work at 5000 at a time at an approx cost of £600 each

 

Search engine optimisation. Not sure how beneficial this actually is for a smaller company with regard to ROI. It's also not cheap. 

 

Feedback well appreciated. 

 

Ta

[Steve Bullman]

14 minutes ago, forestboy1978 said:

Took on an extra guy. Old buddy of mine from a long time. Yeah I know this is risky. But it's working out well. He's good, positive, knows his stuff and anything he doesn't know he intuits it. A tank also which takes more heavy work off my shoulders. 

 

Problem being, we are gunning through work. Peak season at the moment and I'm still not getting enough as it stands. I'm winning about 70% of my quotes also which even factors in the ones I quote higher cos I don't want them or need them so kinda know I'll lose. So realistically about 4 out 5 jobs that I want to do are won. 

 

I'm in the forest way. Not a hugely dense area housing wise. I don't work in town or past it. I don't market there due to adding sometimes 3 hours on to a day. Not to mention quote time and parking a van and trailer at job sites is sometimes impossible. 

 

I'm obviously looking at spending more money on advertising as I wont make it through winter unless I can double my leads. 

 

2 main things I thought are  flyer dropping the areas I want to work at 5000 at a time at an approx cost of £600 each

 

Search engine optimisation. Not sure how beneficial this actually is for a smaller company with regard to ROI. It's also not cheap. 

  

Feedback well appreciated. 

 

Ta

Depends who you go to! Theres plenty of companies out there charging a small fortune and doing more harm than good.

 

Feel free to ping me a message if you want to chat SEO

[forestboy1978]

Well I have a mate who I trust who also did my website working out what he'll charge me and what service he'll actually offer on the SEO side so it might not be too expensive. Whether he knows exactly what he's doing though is another matter....

 

However, he did an excellent job on my website IMO and small adjustments are very affordable. 

 

I did get quoted £300 +vat per month from another company but my new guy did SEO for his old business and he talked me out of it. Said it was way too much. 

 

This new guy is not the guy doing the SEO btw. I was tempted but figured probably best to keep labour force separate to admin due to political bullshit and me getting too pissed off from multiple angles haha

[Steve Bullman]

3 minutes ago, forestboy1978 said:

Well I have a mate who I trust who also did my website working out what he'll charge me and what service he'll actually offer on the SEO side so it might not be too expensive. Whether he knows exactly what he's doing though is another matter....

 

However, he did an excellent job on my website IMO and small adjustments are very affordable. 

 

I did get quoted £300 +vat per month from another company but my new guy did SEO for his old business and he talked me out of it. Said it was way too much. 

 

This new guy is not the guy doing the SEO btw. I was tempted but figured probably best to keep labour force separate to admin due to political bullshit and me getting too pissed off from multiple angles haha

£300 isn't too much if they are doing £300 worth of work. I know people who pay a lot more than that.

[Khriss]

Not doing too bad there fella, some guys struggling around London town n provinces here, so keep on with it . K

[Khriss]

70 % of yr bid work , that's pretty good. Glendales n Grist Bartley would be jealous. Thou ain't climbing fr you just yet as my knees bothering me k

 

 

( cant get down wine cellar -bastard ! )

[forestboy1978]

2 minutes ago, Khriss said:

Not doing too bad there fella, some guys struggling around London town n provinces here, so keep on with it . K

No I guess not. I'm about a month in advance ATM. But really to have any chance of getting through winter I need to be 2 or 3 months in advance by late summer autumn time. 

 

Really don't want to be having a conversation with my mate about how I can't give him work for 3 months over winter and Xmas for example. 

 

How beneficial is passive organic finds on google? I can be found in my local area but not my town. This didn't really bother me cos I don't want to work in town but obv a lot of people in suburbs do a search for say, Fencing, in the town, not the immediate locality. 

[forestboy1978]

2 minutes ago, Khriss said:

70 % of yr bid work , that's pretty good. Glendales n Grist Bartley would be jealous. Thou ain't climbing fr you just yet as my knees bothering me k

 

 

( cant get down wine cellar -bastard ! )

I'd love you to come an climb for me Khriss. I'd pay you a fortune just so I could learn. Alas, 90% of my work is fencing. You'd hate it.

[Steve Bullman]

9 minutes ago, forestboy1978 said:

No I guess not. I'm about a month in advance ATM. But really to have any chance of getting through winter I need to be 2 or 3 months in advance by late summer autumn time. 

 

Really don't want to be having a conversation with my mate about how I can't give him work for 3 months over winter and Xmas for example. 

 

How beneficial is passive organic finds on google? I can be found in my local area but not my town. This didn't really bother me cos I don't want to work in town but obv a lot of people in suburbs do a search for say, Fencing, in the town, not the immediate locality. 

Depends how often the area is searched, but generally i'd always push for the least likely web searches. You are going to be able to rank for them far easier than if you are ranking for something for general, such as 'tree surgeon' for example.

[Matthew Storrs]

5 minutes ago, forestboy1978 said:

I'd love you to come an climb for me Khriss. I'd pay you a fortune just so I could learn. Alas, 90% of my work is fencing. You'd hate it.

Cheapest forms of advertising are sometime best- I don’t advertise much but when I did I used local parish rags, cheap and generally gives a  trustworthy/local approach if advertising in church/parish. Obvious stuff like vehicle signwritting- one off payment and people actually see you in the job- especially good if you do a lot of work in the public eye. Sandwich boards outside jobs? Did leaflet drops in the very early days- did it myself when I was quiet- not a huge response TBH.