finding jobs

[Mac McLennan]

If you use flyers that are eyecatching and look professional saying your quals and that your insured and you are willing to give customer references if you have them,wouldnt that be better than sitting at home hoping for the phone to ring?

 

 

Absolutely.......I use flyers.

 

They are however very good quality card as they are easier to put through letterboxes.

 

I have had phone calls months later than delivered, and I think that is down to the quality of the flyer.......ie people keep them.

[Mac McLennan]

Welcome! I'd like to help you but unfortunately, other than advertising in the usual places(yellow pages, Thomas local, internet) there's not a lot you can do. I think the best advertisement you can get is word of mouth, do a great job and they'll tell a friend or two but do a bad job and they'll tell everyone they know! Good luck anyway, if it helps i think it going quiet all over at min.

 

I would disagree......get off your 4r5e and get a letter out with your card :

 

Housing Associations, Estate Agents, Schools, Parish Councils, Building companies, Landscapers, and anyone else you think could use your services. Do a search on yell.com for the addresses. Do your own postcode first and advertise yourself as Their local tree surgeon when you've covered everyone in your area....start expanding your search.

 

You can also get permission to hand out flyers at large garden centres.

[18 stoner]

I would disagree......get off your 4r5e and get a letter out with your card :

 

Housing Associations, Estate Agents, Schools, Parish Councils, Building companies, Landscapers, and anyone else you think could use your services. Do a search on yell.com for the addresses. Do your own postcode first and advertise yourself as Their local tree surgeon when you've covered everyone in your area....start expanding your search.

 

You can also get permission to hand out flyers at large garden centres.

 

Spot on:icon14:

 

If you dont have the work on, but you have the ambition, then you must have time to push your business!

 

There are lots of cheap ways to advertise locally as mentioned, and yes, i started by posting flyers locally, and still have many of those original customers as regulars.

[masterofdisaster]

The only people who dont use leaflets are snobs who think there better than that igotta few ideas who lol.

 

You will also see people dont wanna give good advice as they all think they will loose work or dont like other people getting work.

 

Keep banging your company name out there do excellent work and in maybe 2-3 years you should be established.

 

It aint easy but keep pushing through and that will put you ahead of the lazy companies that rely on yell etc.

 

Personally i think a good leaflet delivered by the tree surgeon him/her self shows dedication and thoroughness.

[Dean Lofthouse]

If there is one thing I cannot stand, it's cold callers.

 

They are a pest and IMO.

 

If, and lets say for arguments sake, a double glazing firm, comes and knocks on my door or flyposts. That sets alarm bells ringing for me straight away.

 

If you have to flypost to obtain business, then that means you do crap work and don't get recommended. I avoid at all costs.

 

NOW, if someone flyposted my house, lets say a Tree Surgeon and that flypost said that it was a new business and was trying to obtain a customer base, then I would be interested. That then shows initaitive.

 

An established business, flyposting = alarm bells

 

A newly established = enthusiasm

 

Be very careful how it is worded.

[TheTreeWiseMen]

I find I get quite alot of work with my 'door hangers'. Must be a Brit/Yank thing...

[Anna]

Well i think some off you have got a good point but in the areas we work in the upper class people wouldn't even look twice at i piece of paper put through the door. And i know i chuck all our"junk mail!" in the bin without even looking at it. Yes approaching to schools, Parish councils etc is a great idea i don't know why i didn't think of that. Me and Matt did all that when we first changed the company name but leaflets are a waste of time in my opinion. For one we wouldn't have the time we work on tools all day, quote of evening and when we get back do the paper work but i suppose if we were ever in the situation where we didn't have ANY work then yes we'd do everything possible. Guess we're just lucky never been that quiet.

[Mac McLennan]

I find the thing about flyers is this.

 

Someone may have had no intension of maintaining their (or their neighbours) trees until the seed is sown.

 

ie. the flyer hits the door mat.

[tree monkey]

Its ok saying dont use flyers,but if you are setting up on your own back and you havnt got any backup,flyers would be an option to me.

I started with nothing and built up my buisness from working hard and asking advice from fellow tree guys,ive subbied to gain experiance and im getting there.Thanks to you guys on here that have helped me.

My advice if you need to do flyers why not if they are binned by the householder and you only get a few its more than nowt and your on your way.

Good look mate dont talk about it do it.

[igottacabstar]

Yeah, I suppose if you've got absolutely no work then anything is worth a go. But imo flyers should always be a last resort, and always secondary to conventional advertising. If you've got decent advertisments in the local press or yellow pages I can't see how you'd have the time to go out posting flyers; like anna said, when you're not out working there's all the maintenance, paper work and quoting to do.