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Hows Business?

6K views 33 replies 21 participants last post by  RobertCDF 
#1 ·
Just wondering. My fence sales crashed through the floor over the last 2 months. Ive had 2 week stretches not even bidding. I just bid over 1000 ft the last week and looks like i struck out. Some of it i bid to get still wasnt good enough. My callbacks are exposing tire kickers.

How you guys doing?
 
#2 ·
Alot of us are in the same boat. Be patient. Im relying on former customers for business and have been since last october. I had the local newspaper call me a month ago trying to get me to run my ad again(I pulled it 8 months ago),but I did it for a month to see if the fish were biting and they werent. I just started another bath(total gut and re-arrange) for a customer Ive done two other baths for. Im still hoping something else comes through soon. Got a few other tile jobs in the making for another former customer, its a wait and see period for me.
Good luck,
 
#3 ·
Hang in there.
If the economy gets any worse,maybe there will be a big crime spree,and people will all start fencing in their yards.
Might want to check into installing some built in Gun-Turrets to set you apart from the crowd.

Fencing is just one of the things that is done when HO's have extra money.
More for cosmetics and privacy.
People aren't spending like they were.
 
#6 ·
I truly believe you have to change the way you have done business for years. Advertising, yellow pages, flyers, home shows etc is what they call outbound marketing strategies and they are not as effective anymore as they used to be. A good website (blogs, videos, keywords etc) with a high ranking in the main search engines will generated most of the business nowadays.
Clemens
 
#8 ·
Been busy for most of the year. I do not stay booked a month or more in advance like a couple of years ago but I seem to always have one or two jobs at a time. Finishing up two jobs tomorrow,I collected a deposit yesterday for one job and I got the go ahead for 240' of vinyl today.:thumbsup:

The fence business is still o.k. here, it's the decks that are slow to none.
 
#10 ·
i dont do fences but i have usually had 8-12 nice decks every summer for the past 8 yrs,mostly composite!

this yr i did 0 decks, not even a repair to a deck!:eek: i had about 15 estimates and was out bid for each one! there is a guy buy me doing azek decks for $27 a sq ft! with that kinda compitition i rather do other things and make more money doing Less Work!

so my point is diversify yourself and it could be buisness as usual, cut all the news paper ads and get on the net (people rarely buy newspapers to read at work, their all on the internet) weed out the tire kickers but offer free estimates just screen them so you dont waste your time and gas!

GOOD LUCK:thumbsup:
 
#15 ·
This summer to begin with was slow but nothing compared to last year. Come late August the patio covers,pagolas, perglas what ever really came alive, the decks under them were not bad but those covers made me some good money.

The best one was a 10' x 16' redwood 6x6 thing we did in 4 1/2 days. Shop cut and prefinished with 1/2'' steel brackets bolted to the slab. No Lexann on that one. The JonMon walked away with $12,800. Going to the bank I kept looking over my shoulder thinking someone was going to walk up and say " You dont really think your going to get away with this do you??"

I have to thank Mac for the sundance supply contact :thumbsup: The three we put the lexann pannels on were some $ makers as well. Mabey it was the really hot weather we had or mabey I was the only one in town puting that stuff on but I owe the Big Mac some beer and bison barbq.

Far as advertising goes I keep the att yellerpage at $480 a mo around 45% of my jobs come from that along with their web page. Also I have been geting on the diy sites for over 10 years every now and then I get a consulant job but every time those Folks click on my site I get moved up in the ranks so now I get like 13000 hits a month I got several from China if you can belive it. Anyway I have landed maney jobs just because the Wallet saw me on some site.

You have to be cerfull how you post on those things but done right it can work for you, and of course its with the given you know what the hell your talking about. It works both ways I have saved diy a lot of money/time/ and head ake ers over the years. JonMon
 
#16 ·
This summer to begin with was slow but nothing compared to last year. Come late August the patio covers,pagolas, perglas what ever really came alive, the decks under them were not bad but those covers made me some good money.

The best one was a 10' x 16' redwood 6x6 thing we did in 4 1/2 days. Shop cut and prefinished with 1/2'' steel brackets bolted to the slab. No Lexann on that one. The JonMon walked away with $12,800. Going to the bank I kept looking over my shoulder thinking someone was going to walk up and say " You dont really think your going to get away with this do you??"

I have to thank Mac for the sundance supply contact :thumbsup: The three we put the lexann pannels on were some $ makers as well. Mabey it was the really hot weather we had or mabey I was the only one in town puting that stuff on but I owe the Big Mac some beer and bison barbq.

Far as advertising goes I keep the att yellerpage at $480 a mo around 45% of my jobs come from that along with their web page. Also I have been geting on the diy sites for over 10 years every now and then I get a consulant job but every time those Folks click on my site I get moved up in the ranks so now I get like 13000 hits a month I got several from China if you can belive it. Anyway I have landed maney jobs just because the Wallet saw me on some site.

You have to be cerfull how you post on those things but done right it can work for you, and of course its with the given you know what the hell your talking about. It works both ways I have saved diy a lot of money/time/ and head ake ers over the years. JonMon
You have to be careful how you post here too, many HO's browsing. Some of that info may be too much.

Curt
 
#17 ·
Its hard to find a good strategy that works all the time. Last year I payed 800 for a year in the phonebookand did about 90k off of it. This year I put about 1200(I realize our phonebooks cheap) into it with a little bid larger add, I have only done two roofs off of it for about 15k total in sales. Problem is I kind of expected a similar return and have been slow because of it. So you never know, I just tried a bunch of different methods together and have kept busy month to month which is better than nothing.

Maybe you could draw back your ads in some of the publications and then put that money elsewhere. Print posters and put them in lumberyards with color photos or other good places. Just a thought. Doorhangers would be good for fences as well. Can you accept credit cards?
 
#18 ·
I am no expert but I would say that you have to stay small and change things up a little. I will work for free rather than stay at home for a day, I did some habitat for humanity stuff last week. Not sure if anything will come of it but hey better than doing nothing.
 
#19 · (Edited)
I'm the opposite, Al don't like working for free.

Kudo's on the habitat for humanity work tho.

Oh yeah back on topic, how's business? For me it's been kinda like Stone, good or even great one month to sucking wind the next.

I think folks still want things done, they're just not sure if they should spend the $. One day the talking heads are saying we're pulling out of the recession, the next they say we have 10% unemployment. It plays on the public's mind.
 
#21 ·
Nawwww,,Curt I figure its all out of the bag now anyway. All the hos get free advice that saves them money/time,I get exposure for all the time I spend over there, Its win win.

Me,Clemens, and a bunch of the Boys had big time Grins over on the old site that got shut down by the spam bandits. I even came up with several renditions of the Ipe Blues, great little tune just never made the charts.:laughing: JonMon
 
#22 ·
Good stuff there guys. Thanks for taking the time to post.

I think i will start putting my money in some other form of advertising because I aint getting squat really.

I think I really need to get a website. Do you guys really get alot of work from them? I've just never needed it in the past. Usually word of mouth and a few cheap classifieds keep me really busy. Not so much this year!:furious:
 
#23 ·
You do need a website nowadays. It will take some time to get a good rating by the searchengines. Hook up with manufacturers to get a link and make sure you are in their contractor search. Get the right key words, photos, blog and/or video clips (I'm still working on it)
Name your website that is in relation with your line of work and short.
If you want to make your own site and don't want to mess with all the html language than www.homestead.com is a good start.
If you have photoshop you can use a plug in called "sitegrinder" to create web pages.
Go to google analytics to search for the right keywords in your field.
Also go to www.hubspot.com for tons of information and videos about website
I got 85% of my work trough the web and I'm full till the end of the year.
Clemens
 
#24 ·
Clemens is right, now a days you really need a website cause everyone with money is connected & like to search on the inet instead of yellow pages,ect.

I started mine in 1999, I have not used any other form of advertising since. I spend 390 bucks on the first site & kept in for 10 years just re-doing it this year. $39 a year on advertising is not bad. I couldn't imagine not having one.
 
#27 ·
I have been swamped the last to monthes but everyone want it done yesterday though, i have work booked to sept but i work alone no comp im to poor to pay out but i also have had to turn down 4 exterior paint job becouse they all wanted it done buy mid july and im only one man:blink:
 
#28 ·
The yellow pages to me is not a very good investment. Too much competition and overcrowding. I am looking into different ways of advertising that give the most bang for the buck. Even if you already have your number on your truck, i think this is a great idea to stand outif you are driving around town. Check this out businessknowhow.com/marketing/mobile_sign.htm
 
#30 ·
N. Pattie,,,

Sorry to hear that,,,,, there coming out of the wood work (no pun intended) . So you only do "decks" ??????

I think that if you are "generalized" in just one area of the business,,,,it becomes more difficault to get jobs. I was talking with a freind of mine who ownes a R&S company,,his business has dropped considerably since 2008. My thought was he was limiting himself to just R$S and that maybe he should consider expanding his compnay into other areas ,,to deversify and now he is doing better since 2008,,, not great,, but better. I know you can's do it all,,, but adding on additional types of work can help,,, if you can do it. I hope things improve for all of us:thumbsup:

Brian
 
#31 ·
Yellow Pages Dying A Slow Death

I just left my fence distributor who reduced his yellow page advertising to 1 book (there are 5 in metro detroit market). They billed him a "final bill" whic he he paid and then a "revised final bill." He got his lawyer involved, i guess this is pretty common with the yellow pages right now. They are losing a lot of business and have to come up with clever billing tactics to make up for the money they are losing from fleeing advertisings.

With the yellow pages not being effective, what are some of the more creative ways you guys are drumming up business?
 
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