Advice desperately sought on where to advertise?

Lizbetty

My husband has been in business as a Fork Lift Truck Instructor since 1 May this year. He's had some work from visiting industrial estates and ringing round for appointments, etc, but a phone call from the Yellow Pages has us wondering whether we should go for a decent ad in there, too.

I understand that ad costs are tax deductable, our problem though is that we don't have much cash at present. It's a bit catch 22 - we need cash to get an ad put in, til we get an ad in we don't know how much response we will get, and we'll only get more cash by advertising more, etc, etc.

We have had a quote for a decent sized ad in the 3 directories covering all of our region at £580 plus VAT :eek: . It would be £230 plus VAT for the usual name, address and phone number in all 3 directories. But, as we are 'SF Training', we'll be near the bottom of the listings and I'm worried it'd be money wasted if we didn't get a decent ad in...

We're just a bit scared to invest the £580+vat in case there's not much of a response! Does anyone have any advice on this...is the Yellow Pages a good bet, are there better places? Has anyone found they've had much more business and if so, did you go for a huge ad or not?

It's a big dent in our baked bean money and with 2 kids we're tending to be cautious at the mo...! All advice would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Lucy

mikewebs

Hi there

Just a thought, couldn't he contact local employment agencies - some also offer training courses for potential agency workers and your hubby could get some work training these guys. Also why not contact your local job centres, maybe they could use his services for back to work clients.

Both these options would bring money in without any outlay and it could snowball into something big - you never know. Also why not maildrop to firms in your area?

Hope you get a solution

Lizbetty

Hi, thanks for your reply.

He has an ex colleague who has taken the same route in a different district who has had some success with agencies from his area. The ones where we are don't seem to be very on the ball and the responses were pretty poor (most of the agencies here seem to be manned by 18year olds in Burtons best pin stripes with no enthusiasm...). It is something that he should investigate though, you're right - probably Leeds agencies would be a bit more knowledgeable and switched on to the idea.

He had mentioned the job centre, but it's not something he's looked into as yet. I'll have to have a chat with him tonight and I'm sure he'll figure the best way to approach them. Again, the job centre staff here don't seem as proactive as some other areas probably are (I used to have to work alongside them, and it was quite soul destroying the lack of interest some of them displayed!) but it is something that could be a good earner if he speaks to the right people, so thanks for the reminder about it!

Luce

barrymung

The general concensus in the Carpet Cleaning world is that an ad in YP doesn't bring in much business.

However, different industries are likely to be different!

How about phoning a Fork lift driver in a different part of the country, via YP, and ask him how his ad is doing? once you explain that you aren't going to be a competitor I'm sure they'll be happy to help.

You can generally view ALL YP directories at your local library.

Lazy_Runner

Or you can view all entries on the web at http://www.yell.com

I have no experience in this, but on the small business banking discussion, there was some mention of having an account like 'AI' trading as XYZ company.
If you wanted to, could you do the same in your yellow pages ad?

barrymung

I'm not entirely sure whether an ad on yell.com and yellow pages are exactly the same thing?

I have a free listing on yell.com and ended up with a free listing in YP by default.

However, yell.com keep phoning me asking if I want to upgrade my listing on yell.com. YP phone me seperately asking if I want a display ad in YP! Neither seem to offer an upgrade on t'other.

To find out if it's worth taking a display ad in YP you really need to phone someone who already has a display ad in YP, IYSWIM?

oldtoolie

Some good tips above. Yellow Pages makes you think that you can sit back and wait for the calls to come in. But these days, people are as likely to Google "forklift training [their town]". So in your shoes, I would make sure I had a simple brochure website with your name, contact details, photos of you and you training people, your qualifications and testimonial statements of satisfied customers. List all the towns and areas you work in so it will show up on websearches. Get an easy to remember webaddress, like www.forklifttraining.co.uk

Lizbetty

Thanks, I've spoken to dh about it this morning and he's going to try ringing someone out of area from Yell.com to see if they've found it worthwhile. It's a lot of money if we get little response.

We had two calls from just being on Yell.com for free in the first week (nothing since mind!), and I thought it meant that it was a guaranteed earner.

In retrospect, as Si's main target would be warehouses, it might not be so hot - he had a call via Yell from an agency and one from a Govt funded training broker (Train to Gain) and although he got a couple of days work from the agency, he heard nothing else from Train to Gain.

At a guess, warehouses might be more likely to go by word of mouth or the leaflet in the drawer, or by remembering someone who called round and offered their services than trying to find where the office staff hid the Yellow Pages or trying to find a computer to get logged onto Yell.com..lol!

I think the job centre thing is a real winner if he can speak to the right people/person. The problem is that all training would be on site as we don't have a training centre, and so it would mean someone (the job centre?)finding an unemployed person a suitable placement where an employer would be keen to have someone on trial and undergo the FLT test during the trial period, with the job centre paying for the training, seeing as Si would need to use their warehouse/forklift to get them trained up. We do have LOADS of FLT vacancies in this region through the job centre, so it would be a winner I'm sure. Si's not too hopeful about it and he'd be the one going in, so I'm trying to help him find the right way to get in and convince them. If anyone has any suggestions on that, they would be gratefully received!

Luckily, he used to be a Learn Direct tutor and NVQ assessor, and he's really patient with people who need a bit of extra support to get them through the test, similarly he's good with people who speak English as a second language, and we have a lot of foreign workers where we are. I think the job centre would have a real catch taking him on, but then again I am biased, lol!

Any more comments or suggestions would be very well received. We're both like farts in a trance at the mo as NEITHER of our kids are sleeping (one 5 months and one 2 years), which is not good when you're trying to think about important things like how to earn some money. Or about anything, for that matter...!

Thanks again everyone though for your help

Lucy

Lizbetty

oldtoolie wrote: »

Some good tips above. Yellow Pages makes you think that you can sit back and wait for the calls to come in. But these days, people are as likely to Google "forklift training [their town]". So in your shoes, I would make sure I had a simple brochure website with your name, contact details, photos of you and you training people, your qualifications and testimonial statements of satisfied customers. List all the towns and areas you work in so it will show up on websearches. Get an easy to remember webaddress, like www.forklifttraining.co.uk

I was wondering about a website, but neither of us are experienced in that type of thing. I'm quite computer literate though (not with programming, etc, but can find my way round it ok..), I've just never tried building a website. I'd love to do it but don't know where to start.

Does anyone have any suggestions how to do it as simply as possible, as you mentioned, with brochure type format? It's a fab idea!

Lucy

oldtoolie

Sorry, I hit the submit button before I was finished

The website should cost less than £250 from a local web designer. Make sure the web address is owned by you and not the web designer. Look for free on-line business directories you can list your details and a weblink.

Then continue your existing marketing campaign and expand it. If you aren't working you should be marketing yourself. After a while, as the customers build up and work-of-mouth takes off, you will do less marketing and more working. Be sure to call back to old customers every year to find out their current needs and ask them if they know anyone else you should call.

You could use your website as a brochure. Cold call prospective customers, if they say they are interested, post the brochure and a note right away. Follow up with a call a week later.

You aren't in the Southampton area are you? We need forklift training occasionally at my charity's warehouse.

Larry at Tools for Self Reliance
www.tfsr.org

Thanks to MSE for making TFSR one of your charities of the year.

Lifeisbutadream

We have spent a fortune on advertising and is is mostly a waste of money.

We are in BT phone book business pages rather that Yellow pages (apart from a free line), which we get a bit of work from (although not enough yet to justify the £590 fee!)

We have made huge mistakes (like advertising at York City FC lounge for £400 for the year - not even ONE call! - Yell.com prominant - only calls we got were from people looking for apprentices! - and going in 'local pages mag' in a directory with a different telephone code - not even one call again - but we had signed up for 6 months)

I would not recommend spending a lot on advertising if you can help it. Setting up a website is cheap and easy - you can do it yourself at somewhere like www.fasthosts.co.uk - it is really simple and will cost you nowhere near £250. You can change it when you like as well.

Good luck.