Not getting any business?
The only two options for my business in big advertising was the yellow pages, and a website. I have the website up, have search engine marketing (where my business shows up high on the list), and am in the yellow pages. The book was being delivered before Thanksgiving, through January. It may seem as though i’m being impatient, however it’s difficult to be patient when you aren’t getting any calls. I reside in Orlando, Florida, and i’m not sure if this is an off season or what because of the holidays. Any advice on what I should do?
I forgot to add that it is a tile and grout restoration business.
www.groutandshout.com
5 Responses
kemperk
15 May 2010
andew.pollard
15 May 2010
Usually business happens from word of mouth. In most cases just going out for lunch and speaking with owners of food business is a wonderful to earn peoples respect, and then earn there business. Offer to do free work for people for whom have a large contact base, such as high end real estate agents and brokers. They have a ton of pull and will recommend you if your work is up to snuff.
I hope this helps
Regards
Andrew
Martinmm
15 May 2010
flyers have been a good base ad… for many.
Jennifer F
15 May 2010
Ah, Unfortunately having a website is not like the movie "Field of Dreams" …. just because we build it does not mean ‘people will come". I learned that lesson about 4-5 years ago.
Luckily when I had my computer service and repair company in Merritt Island, Fl…. (15 years in business before closing it down and leaving the state) the internet was in extreme infancy or else I would have been out there building a site too.
Whoever here said referral business was the way to go is right. Referrals will get your further down the road to success than anything you can do on line… so PLEASE do not waste any more money on your web presence right now.
Having been where you are, starting a new business, this is what I think I would do.
I presume work is not forth coming yet so you have time during the day to meet people.
Join your local Chamber of Commerce and start networking. When I first started my home based business and the phone wasn’t ringing off the wall like I thought it would, I went to every ribbon cutting, open house, luncheon, social event the chamber offered.
Not only did I hand out my business cards, but I took time to actually get to know what others did, showed interest in them and got involved with a few committees. I had that choice or sit at home waiting for people to find me….
It takes time to develop relationships with people to the point they know, like and trust you enough to use you and recommend you to others. But by genuinely getting involved for the good of the community, not just myself, has worked out very well. Is my phone ringing off the wall now? No, but I am not in that type business.
People you want to target and get to know better are probably ones in real estate, construction, etc… but don’t exclude the others either.
And maybe the Chamber is not the only answer, there are other organizations out there that might be of interest… this is only an idea to get you started thinking.
If I had done this when I had my computer business, I think I might have starved less starting out. I did join the Chamber, but for some reason I thought that would send people flocking to my door. It didn’t.
Handing out fliers for what you do is going to be a waste of time in most cases because again, people don’t recommend services or people they don’t know.
If you don’t have business cards yet, vistaprint has them 250 free, you just pay shipping. Be sure to put your web address and email on there of course…
I had another idea, but now it escapes me, and this is long enough… so good luck and if the other idea comes back I will add to my response.
~best of luck
~jennifer
Helping others create additional income from home through education of the system and how it works.
Oh, one other thing …. knowing a bit about your area from having lived there many years, you are dealing with a lot of retirees, probably many who do not think to use the internet to search out companies…
Sharing Mind
15 May 2010
I have checked your site and if i’m not mistaken it is a 5 months old. I don’t think it gets any traffic at the moment for any good keyword phrase such as grout or grout cleaner. You can check below what is the estimate of daily search for that keyword phrase. a pretty good numbers.
Your biz is still easy to get rank high on the search engine because the top rank website is still low in page rank and not much content. so if you do it right you can get high traffic. But most traffic maybe is not from orlando. so a good website should provide information on their biz along with giving services. therefore people would learn something about grout or anything related at your sites. if they are not from orlando they could possibly interested with others ads that is on your site which is related to grout. and that usually how you make money with a website.
Anyway you need to do it properly. how to satisfy your site visitor, how to convert them into customers and the most important things how to get them come from the search engine. and remember make use of your expertise the right way and you will be rewarded. first put your expertise on your website not asking them to call you and then you let them know what you know or can do. people on the Net are looking for information first and when they satisfied with the information only then they will call for your services. So what i can help you is giving you below resources. hope that helps a bit.
http://www.clickaudit.com/goto/?89035 (30 min videos)
http://www.clickaudit.com/goto/?89349 (Collection of FREE ebooks)
home repair work is suffering nationwide.
consider buying junk houses and fixing them up.
and add more skills; more house
repair skills.