In late January, my wife and I decided to go ahead and start our own business.
By the end of March, we had our business/dba, licenses, logos, business cards, flyers, uniforms, a website and a few providers (all we need), in other words, we were ready to start marketing the products & services we offer.
To date, we have had a few jobs and have given a bunch of estimates (hoping they decide to move forward with the projects in the near future).
So far, our marketing efforts have been through word of mouth/networking (telling everyone we know about the business), fb, nextdoor, and by mailing/distributing about 2000 flyers in some neighborhoods.
We have received calls from:
- A BUNCH of companies offering to put us on the first page of Google.
- Yelp
- The local newspaper's advertising department
- BBB
- Local chamber of commerce & similar groups
- Valpak
- Outdoor advertisers, and many, many more, I just lost track
As far as I can tell, all of them have pros and cons, and as I usually tell them, we would LOVE to put our name out there on every single marketing option there is. Unfortunately, though, it all costs money, money we have not made yet. A dilemma obviously, because we don't want to go crazy spending money, but we also need the customers.
So the question I would like to ask other service business owners (plumbers, electricians, painters, HVAC, Carpet cleaning, etc) is:
Based on your experience, of all the options I've mentioned, which one would you recommend as the most effective way to promote our business?
Would you recommend any other ways to get our name out there?
PS: We understand word of mouth is one of the best, if not the best way to get customers, however, we need to find some more clients so they can refer us to others.
Thanks!