Advertising my Electrical business

robinod180

Hi, I set up my own electrical business at the beginning of the year. I know things are quiet at the moment but I have had very little work since before the summer coming in. I set up a website, a Facebook page, twitter page, Google+ page and got business cards made. Am I doing something wrong? ? Anyone have any ideas, information or secrets to bringing in more work? ? I never expected it to be easy but I didn't think it would be this quiet either.

pedronomix

So now you have the tools to start selling, you have to now get out and use them to promote your services. They will never come to you no matter how good your cards/website etc is!! There are no secrets, just off your ass and grind, do the hard work sticking flyers in letterboxes, notices in shop windows, talking to the staff in your local electrical shop staff, small builders, people in the pub, church, GAA/golf/soccer club. You are now self-employed, you are now always always selling or always promoting your business. Every job you do ask the client to recommend you to the family and friends. get a sandwich board and stick it up outside every job as you are doing it, " Another Quality Electrical Job in Progress by Joe Smoe SuperSparks Ltd. Ask me for a quote!! or similar.

delahuntv

I do know one electrician (he has several guys working for him) who offered a fixed price of €39 for call out and first hour of work & €20 for each hour after to households and it kept him busy in the bad recession years. He advertised it in the local papers.
He no longer offers that price, but it paid the bills at the time.

A lot of householders can be fearful of high charges especially when you see "rip off" programmes such as watchdog showing scams. So knowing there's a fixed fee is a huge benefit.

Another area is to do contract work for small builders in your area.

Like any business it will take time to grow.

M.T.D

by electrical business do you mean self employed electrician a repair shop or something else.

assuming you are a self employed electrician and presuming I am allowed to ask.
In another business I get requests for wiring work pm me your details

Kendlebell

If I understand correctly you are an registered electrician. My recommendation be that you jin a BNI Chapter . Do your research on the best chapter to join , visit them and assess them. in my experience tradespeople , who offer great service and are dependable do well in BNI but you got to give in order to get. go to the BNI Ireland website to see chapters that exist and set up to visit.

BTW I have no vested interest in BNI , however I am a past member of a chapter .

dbran

Hi

As mentioned by previous posters, you need to get yourself out there and get known. This may mean going door to door, offering deals of face book etc. What contacts do you have and how can you make use of them. What would be your ideal customer and where do you need to go to get put in touch with them.

But I would think joining the BNI would be the last thing you would want to do. It is very expensive first of all and you will be expected to bring in referrals on a weekly basis. As a start up that is struggling to get in the work in first place this is going to be impossible. In any case, it may take a while before other members trust you enough to refer work to you and clearly you need the work now.

Regards


dbran

robinod180

Thanks for all your replies and information. Yes I registered as an electrical contractor. I always had work coming in before but I made it legit this year. I get bits and pieces from word of mouth but not a lot. The diary has a lot of empty pages! ! I even joined the National Guild Of Master Craftsmen in march after they told me that I would get a lot of insurance work through them. €300 and 5months later and I still haven't had 1call!! I appreciate all the advice and I suppose I need to put it out there more.