sole tradesman....where to advertise?

Savvy_Sue

warwicktiger wrote: »

Best £/£ are local parish magazines.

fishybusiness wrote: »

Parish magazines work well for local business people.

as a 'consumer', I'd agree with these two. Especially if you put in repeat ads, people will start to remember you: I've often gone looking for an ad I know I've seen before.

Also we're coming up to the time when schools will be doing their summer fairs, they may accept ads, and it should be very inexpensive. You might also want to offer a raffle prize, to get your name out there.

shmeeko69

scousedave wrote: »

Hello.
I am starting up.by myself as a sole trader as a kitchen, bathroom fitter and was wondering if anyone has any tips of where to advertise.
The local, free papers is an obvious place to advertise but can anyone pls recommend other places to get noticed.
Thank you.

A great free way for exposure is a Google +1 account. All you need is a free Gmail account and then you can start filling in the information about yourself and business. Start liking other people who might be relevant to what you're involved with and update your page on a regular basis with fresh information.

The indexed information is always ranked well with Google, as it's one of their own. The key is in selecting the right people to have in your circle and to update your content in order to show that, it's an active platform.

nickj_2

get out there in your community , if you have kids then get involved with the school pta , or if you live in the village etc clubs etc , i did this a few years ago , i was doing work 90% of the time for one major company and just filled in slack time with private work , when the major contract finished i was in the fortunate position that my kids were just starting school , so i got involved with the pta , run the youth club etc ,i made sure people knew who i was an if they asked i told them what i did . now i'm in the position that i'm more or less booked up for this year , i've just booked someone in for next year and can turn down jobs that are too much hassle or too far away , 90% of my work now , is less than 5 minutes from my house , the guy who mot's my van casn't work out how i only clock up 3ks worth of miles per year

babiebeany

Here's a few ideas:

Each time you do a quote, post flyers in nearby doors

When you do work, set up an A board next to your van offering free estimates/advice with business cards for interested people to take and also leaflet houses in the local area

Select an area and a time slot and then post leaftlets offering free no obligation estimates on a particular day/time period

Join one of those websites where people can use your service and then give feedback, this encourages people to trust you