Promoting new Bus\Coach hire service

beetlebailey

Hi All,

I`m currently setting up bus\coach hire service.I have two 18 seater buses on order for arrival in June.My website is under-construction and the colour scheme of the buses will be fairly eye-catching.

My problem is that I saw a gap in the market for a particular service and contacted a number of businesses.They all thought it was a great idea but were unwilling to pay for it.Instead they suggested that their customers pay directly themselves.They telling me that there will be plenty of work but will not garantee volumes.Sorry if i`m being vague but as you can imagine i don`t want to go into the details of this service.

As i`m only a start up i cannot rely on their promises alone, i do think the business is there and will grow in time but still need to look for other work.financially i don`t think i could suffer loses for more than 5\6 months.I`ve been a van driver for the past 10yrs so the coach hire business is all new to me.

Basically my question is whats the best way to go about promoting\advertising my business\service???

Any advice would be a great help.
Thanks.

ImDave

It is very hard to offer advice on how to go about promoting your venture without knowing what industry your target market is, although I realise you don't want to give to much info away. You would approach the advertising of a service targeted towards executive travel differently to a service catering for school groups etc.

You seem to know who your customers are, so that is the first step. You could start by doing a leaflet drop, or (again, depending on the industry) design a proposal and send in a high impact package to your target customers, and follow up with a phone call for example.

beetlebailey

Thanks for the help EI-DAV,

Its in the tourism sector,doing runs from A to B.I`ve had a couple of meetings with about a dozen companies, 6\7 have said they were interested but would not subsidise or sign up to any contract. However they said that they would recommend the service to customers.They also felt that there would be a strong demand for the service.

It sounds promising enough but I`ve been let down badly before by companies promising work that never materialised so I can`t afford to have all my eggs in the one.So thats why i`m looking at ways to promote the business and gain additional work.

Jessica84

We have the similare problem, both being a start up, both need some new method to pomote our product (just our products are different).

Hope we can get through this.:)

Cianos

One thing is for certain is that you can't rely on people who say they will definitely do something, until they actually do it.

If you are desperate to get these businesses on your side you might have to give them a few free or discounted trials. If they see it working for their business and you run a tight service, they are a lot more likely to hire you regularly.

Again it's hard to give advice when I don't know the specifics.

Maybe these businesses could include you on their website, or their newsletter and so on. If they think their customers would benefit from it, try reach a mutual ground where the service you are offering works for everyone, even if you've to lose a bit of the initial profits.

tomED

You seem to believe in the idea and so do the companies that you have spoken to. So I'm unsure as to why you need assurances or people to sign contracts before the "product" is ready to go.

I know I certainly wouldnt sign my company up for anything until I knew what I was getting actually already existed!

Are you relying on these businesses to make money? Is it something that can't survive without companies being interested? If not, why can't it be?

If I've learned anything from my time in business, it's don't rely on anyone but yourself. If you are happy that you can deliver by yourself, you are ahead already.

And... if the service is as good as you make it out to be, surely by having all these companies recommending it to people you will generate enough business!

in sanity

Drop me a pm we can exchange numbers and I'm sure I can give you some help.


Best of luck