What To Expect ( Timing )

HomeMedia Pros

Starting out as a small electrical and electronics installation company, with background in Home Theaters and Home Automation and now with few electricians on staff;

Doing online only marketing: Service Magic, CraigsList, and direct mail to new home owners.

QUESTION: what should we expect in terms of phone ringing and leads / volume. In 4 weeks we did about 6K gross. But that doesn’t pay the bills yet. What to expect in terms of time to ramp up.

QESTION: for Houston, TX what is typical electrical contractor residential gross sales.


Now before flame throwing starts, I did high end home theaters, and my friend was working as full time master electrician (licensed). But we are both new to the retail / marketing part of it.

RidgeWalker

Online lead serivice companies can only provide leads when some one reaches thier site and request's to be contacted by a contractor. So no gaurantees there.

If you do high end home thearter work, I'd suggest you network with professional interior design firms, my mother was one for many many years and she had a pool of contractors that did everything from lay flooring to install lighting. They were her goto guys and when they got the call it, they already had the job becuase it was her choice, not the home owners.

It might take some time but the absolutly best way to get into this portion of the market is to offer special deliveries for designers, if you have a van u can use. Designers always need help with that one special item they ordered for a client, but's it's to large to fit in thier car! I did this for some time and before I knew it designers were calling me and asking me if I could or would do other things. It's a way to make an enroad into what you actually have expertise in, which is home audio systems.

Seeing you must obviously have a vehicle to transport relatively delicate items. You might do well with offering to deliver that special sofa chair or painting that designer ordered for thier client.

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Pearce Services

Nice website.

I noticed that you mentioned a discount on homeowner Insurance with a security camera system. Why not offer to write a free column for your local newspaper, and show how this is a way to save money, protect your family, and add value to your house, you may get some nice free advertising.

Fredwebster

Most A/V companies do not have the electrical skills or talent on board, so you are ahead of the game.

Interior designers are key since they know nothing about the theater electronics and sound engineering, but most people who can afford a designer will normally have a theater. The cost of a theater system will run 25 to 50K and an interior designer would expect 5 to 10% for the referral.

The second is to find a "street of dreams" and attempt to team up with the builder to have them put your stuff in. Be aware that they will ask for everything at cost and your labor will be free. You then have a hook to them as a builder and if your do good work, you will get a referral from them as well as people who pick up your brochure. A SOD home will have 7,500 to 10,000 people walk through before they shut it down. If you are willing to do 1 job at cost, it is worth it.

Good luck

JWDesignCenter

Home shows, realtors, interior designers, architects.... these should all become your new best friends. Also don't forget to market yourself to general contractors. But remember you're not trying to replace anyone, you're adding to the services they currently offer. When marketing to a home owner, don't forget to market to the women in the house just as much as you market to the men.

We would sit at trade shows and watch the men's eyes light up at all the new fun gadgets and the women would roll their eyes and keep walking... no sale. But as soon as we geared our materials to appeal to the women.... BINGO! We had lift off.

We went from making 500K a year to 750K a year in only 6 months. Not bad

-Jen

MattCoops

trade shows are costly and don't always yield results
and people are scattered abroad that attend, so if you get leads, good luck in gas expenditures

tis better to have a target market rather than be all over the place

realtors are worst to work for, it's a waste of time and business cards

architects pick gcs to get job done, not contractors who specialize

interior designers are ok, but if you can't work by THEIR schedule, they'll call one of the other hundreds of contractors

most general contractors have people that work for them, so good luck "getting your foot in the door", and they take a cut, so your not getting paid your full price

find your target market
take time to develop a plan of attack
Ensure your marketing plan has a realistic budget
Determine how to get in your homeowners face and present a positive image. Research "corporate branding", and how to dominate your target market.
Pay attention to your past customers. Send them thank yous, follow ups, coupons for more work, incentives for giving you referrals.

What sort of mail goes to these homeowners. Does it end up in trash?
Find other creative ways to get your business known to public.

You do home theatre systems, like audio/visual stuff?
Get on some tv commercial spots. They're not as expensive as you think.

Are there any big business that may have a need for your services within there presentation rooms? Maybe their outdated or some handy upgradeable solutions may appeal to their big wigs.

do some thinking and planning before signing checks and throwing money around
you'll have a lot less overhead, and won't have to experiment as much

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Teetorbilt

I also do home theaters and there is much that you need to get under control. I call them I,II and III's. Or, how much money are you willing to spend?

I recently had a class IV. A totally dedicated home movie theatre. One door, no windows and about the size of a 3 car garage. The guy was extremely particular and I turned it over to the Bose boys.

A man has to know his limitations. (Clint Eastwood).

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