wanttogofaster
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I introduced myself a while ago, back then, I had not read TMF . However, what I expressed in that first post, or at least what inspired it, are basically the reasons the book gives to go on your own.
After years of thinking of starting my own business, in 2017 we left our jobs at a Fortune 500 company and decided to launch a service business.
Our main focus is home organization, as in Storage Cabinets, Shelving, Custom Closets, and such. We felt, and to a certain extend, still feel that it is a good niche.
Anyway, four years into it, it definitely hasn't been what we expected.
When we first started, we tried different marketing options.
Google Adwords, Facebook, Craigslist, Nextdoor.com, Direct Mail, Google Search/Maps, and somehow even got an article at a local newspaper.
The results were/are:
Google Adwords: Lots of clicks, zero calls, as far as I can tell.
Facebook: Lots of clicks, a handful of calls, and jobs.
Craigslist: Absolutely Nothing.
Nextdoor.com: Some calls, and jobs, even now.
Direct Mail: Some calls, jobs, even now, years after the first mailings went out.
Google Search & Maps: Have provided the highest amount of leads/jobs so far.
Newspaper Article: Lots of clicks and a couple of jobs.
When we go out to people's homes, they all love what they see on our website and are excited about us helping them out. The excitement apparently ends when they see our estimates.
I haven't really come up with any statistics, but it is obvious to me that we only get a fraction of the jobs we bid out.
This may sound like an easy fix, drop prices a bit, and soon enough we'll be booked for the next few months, right? Not really! We feel our prices are totally reasonable based on the materials and amount of work most projects involve. On some of them, we would not be making that much, to begin with. So lowering our rates is definitely not an option.
We're not even advertising at this point, the few calls/jobs we get, are mostly through Google search as I mentioned before. It doesn't cost us anything to have the business, so I've told my wife that I'm just going to let it die. Then we get another call lol, and most often than not, another disappointment after we send out the estimate.
Fortunately, we have other income streams, so we kind of can wait it out while I either come up with other business ideas or somehow get this one to take off.
Anyway, the reason for my post is to get some encouragement to either shut it down for good or get ideas to somehow get more leads/jobs and finally get it off the ground.
Thanks a lot!
After years of thinking of starting my own business, in 2017 we left our jobs at a Fortune 500 company and decided to launch a service business.
Our main focus is home organization, as in Storage Cabinets, Shelving, Custom Closets, and such. We felt, and to a certain extend, still feel that it is a good niche.
Anyway, four years into it, it definitely hasn't been what we expected.
When we first started, we tried different marketing options.
Google Adwords, Facebook, Craigslist, Nextdoor.com, Direct Mail, Google Search/Maps, and somehow even got an article at a local newspaper.
The results were/are:
Google Adwords: Lots of clicks, zero calls, as far as I can tell.
Facebook: Lots of clicks, a handful of calls, and jobs.
Craigslist: Absolutely Nothing.
Nextdoor.com: Some calls, and jobs, even now.
Direct Mail: Some calls, jobs, even now, years after the first mailings went out.
Google Search & Maps: Have provided the highest amount of leads/jobs so far.
Newspaper Article: Lots of clicks and a couple of jobs.
When we go out to people's homes, they all love what they see on our website and are excited about us helping them out. The excitement apparently ends when they see our estimates.
I haven't really come up with any statistics, but it is obvious to me that we only get a fraction of the jobs we bid out.
This may sound like an easy fix, drop prices a bit, and soon enough we'll be booked for the next few months, right? Not really! We feel our prices are totally reasonable based on the materials and amount of work most projects involve. On some of them, we would not be making that much, to begin with. So lowering our rates is definitely not an option.
We're not even advertising at this point, the few calls/jobs we get, are mostly through Google search as I mentioned before. It doesn't cost us anything to have the business, so I've told my wife that I'm just going to let it die. Then we get another call lol, and most often than not, another disappointment after we send out the estimate.
Fortunately, we have other income streams, so we kind of can wait it out while I either come up with other business ideas or somehow get this one to take off.
Anyway, the reason for my post is to get some encouragement to either shut it down for good or get ideas to somehow get more leads/jobs and finally get it off the ground.
Thanks a lot!
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