I'd rather not even work for a homeowner who even thinks of calling SM or any other company like that. why not just get word of mouth referrals for a good contractor, no matter what the job is. my whole business has been built on word of mouth and i don't do anything to advertise nor do i have to purchase any leads. just isn't worth it imo. only thing i've ever done for advertising is business cards, and company tshirts that get handed out.
i get these emails all the time from some company trying to get me to pay them, just so i can bid on a big job somewehre and maybe not even get the job. no thanks.
I used to feel the same way........As a matter of fact I did it your way from 1986 to 1999. Then I decided I wanted to grow the business (or creat one) What I had before was a job.
The most I could produce was $380K the old way.
In 1999 I took myself out of the field and decided to grow a business. Last year we produced just over $3,100,000. You just are not going to do that with referrals only. Last year 37% of our business came from referrals and past customers..........Thats $1,147,000 in referral business but I want A LOT more so we now budget a full 10% for marketing. This years marketing budget is $450,000 put who cares how much you spend on marketing? The customers pay for it......YOU DON'T. I comend you for not spending anything on marketing and if you want to stay small (and that could be a good thing) a lot less headaches.
Old saying.........Keep doing what you've always done and you'll keep getting what you've always got.
A better way of saying that may be the definition of insanity........Doing the same things but expecting diferent results
