"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message
. uk...
Hi All

I'm now at the stage where I need to start heavily advertising my new
handyman business.

So far it's been mainly pay out; vehicle, vehicle insurance & tax,
corporate clothing, business cards. PL Insurance etc. On a positive note
I've also earned a few quid, so not too bad.

The choices I see so far are;

Thompson & Yellow Pages - want loads of dosh & you always appear alongside
your competitors. ...

Many people also start at the beginning and stop at the first local supplier
they find, so having a name beginning with one of the early letters of the
alphabet is an advantage. I usually go the other popular route; choose from
the display adverts, looking for someone whose advert specifically lists the
service I am looking for.

Leaflet drops. Expensive to arrange for individual leaflets.

However, it is probably the most effective way. If you do a bit of
preliminary work, analysing the demographics of your existing and potential
customers, you can be quite precise in your targetting, which considerably
improves the cost effectiveness of the method.

Much cheaper as an insert with the local free paper, but less effective.

Local paper advertising. Not yet finalised the costs.

With both those, you would need to be fairly sure that the paper reaches the
people you want to sell your services to. I don't accept free papers and I
don't get a local paper.

Leaflets under windscreen wipers in shed carparks.

They are incredibly annoying and anyone putting one on my car is guaranteed
that I will never use them. I have usually loaded stuff through the rear
door, walked to driver's door, got in *then* seen the notice, so I have to
get out again, go around to the passenger side (the wiper parks to that
side, so that is usually where they are put), remove the leaflet, then get
back into the car, as often as not when it is raining.

Foamboard posters on traffic light posts.

Flyposting is a breach of the Town and Country Planning Acts or the Highways
Act, depending where the posters are put up. You could be fined up to £1,000
per offence and / or be the subject of an ASBO as a result of flyposting.

Parish magazines.

Usually cheap, so probably cost effective even with a low rate of return.
Supermarket notice boards and newsagents' windows fall into the same
category.

So, where would you look for a handyman if you needed one?

Whenever I want something I haven't bought before, I always start with a web
search. You need a web site and the site needs to be clear and informative.
The DTI Business Link pages have a lot of useful information on how to
design a web site - follow the IT & e-commerce link he

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg...esslink.gov.uk

The whole site is probably worth a trawl through for information. It is
designed to help small businesses.

Colin Bignell