Self Employed Bricklayer - how to get work

saving123

thanks for the advice

ladela

My hubby is a plumber and we did a simple site with doyourownsite.com - it works out just under £6 a month (its VERY easy to do). Then I bombarded all of the free listing sites - one tip is google other tradesmen in your area and see who they've listed with.

Also you could register with google adwords so if someone typed in 'bricklayer + (the area you live)' your hubbys name and site would come up. Use keywords which links to your hubbys trade and the areas hes willing to work. List with every site you can and it pushes your name to the top.

If I type in Middlesbrough Plumbers into google my hubbys name comes second on googles business listings. We get quite a lot of work through the net - infact we don't pay for any other form of advertising anymore. We found the local paper to be expensive and a waste of time. Same with leaflets, we delivered over 500 and got one response!

Sounds silly but just chatting to other blokes in your local can come up trumps - my hubby got one of he biggest contracts that way, they always know somebody who knows somebody who need a bit of work doing lol.

Anyway good luck, hope it works out for you both

ladela

Forgot to say, you can also list on gumtree which is free!

skipsmum

oldtoolie wrote: »

When you have a job, put a sign up with your details and leave it up for a week afterwards if your client allows. Leaflet the homes near the job. The leaflet should say that you are working in the area, so they can see your work and talk to a satisfied customer. The leaflet should show include your name, home address and landline telephone number as well as mobile.

Do some voluntary jobs and get some local publicity for it. For example, the headline in a local newspaper or parish bulletin might read, "Local builder volunteers to fix the steps for local elderly people or the local church or scout hut." You could charge for materials but do the labour for free.

.

Absolutely agree, DH does this. He also replaced all the guttering at the scouts HQ one weekend and got loads of work from this.

Landprofits

Here's another Idea - keep an eye on the local planning registers, which you can usually do online.

When somebody applies for or is granted planning to do whatever work - contact them - I think I would recommend via letter, but make sure you make a good professional job of the letter.

shelovestobuystuff

Its much easier to get constant or at least more regular work if you are part of a squad of brick layers,i.e 2 brickies and your own boy(labourer).So maybe advertise or ask around for other out of work brickies to make up a team and then go out individually and do some leg work.Go around building sites and ask if theres any work for a squad.
My OH is in charge of sites and they are actually short of reliable squads in Glasgow.The british guys all seem to think because theres a recession and downturn in housing market theres no point in looking for work so the only guys they even get approaching them on site and asking for work are the Polish guys.
So getting together a squad plus leg work are what I would suggest.
Another point is not to give up on a particular site if you are told theres no work available,do go back and ask again.My OH once had a guy turn up on site first thing every morning for a fortnight(he did the rounds of all the city centre sites on foot every day) and ask,one morning they had just let a squad go as they were unrelaible so this guy and his 2 mates got a start and because they are good workers and reliable they are still there.

pitkin2020

leaflets are good but time consuming its no good just leafleting an area once as leaflets only work when the reader is actually looking for a service, they dont tend to be kept for those "just in case" moments. Ideally you should be leafleting the same areas every 3 months and you should only expect 1-3 jobs per 100 leaflets delivered

ukbill69

Right, best way is a small advert in local paper, dont expect calls right away, as people like to see you in there for a few weeks. Maybe get a free listing with yell.com and get a website designed with your rates on, areas covered and things you have done and can do. Then your company will be on the road.

shelovestobuystuff

More avenues for finding work may be vivastreet and gumtree,look up your own local ones online.My local gumtree had 18 pages of new job vacancy ads for the construction industry.

ukbill69

pitkin2020 wrote: »

leaflets are good but time consuming its no good just leafleting an area once as leaflets only work when the reader is actually looking for a service, they dont tend to be kept for those "just in case" moments. Ideally you should be leafleting the same areas every 3 months and you should only expect 1-3 jobs per 100 leaflets delivered

I dont agree with this, your success is only as good as your price and if the customer wants the service. Ive sent out 10,000 leaflets and only got 2 responses and nothing I was doing wrong, they just didn't want my service.