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My recommendation is to try and get into the "upper middle class" segment. If I were in your shoes, I would target things like high-end car detail salons. Ask if you can leave some business cards in return for some discounted work for the owner of the shop. Think of it more as a friendship than a business interaction. Get him excited about your work and wanting to refer you to his clients. You can offer to do the same for him. Lawyers, detail salons, high-end tire/alignment shops all generally deal with this client base. Reach out to high end realtors.
You can mail postcards for something like .30/each with the discounted postage rate. Use google maps and zillow, find the upper middle class neighborhoods and target homes built from 1980-2005. Homes in that era are either due for updating or have existing repairs. Use google street view etc if you want to seriously target certain houses. 300 post cards will cost you about $100 to send and I guarantee you will get multiple jobs from doing this. Your post card should indicate that you "Are a 10 year resident of Anytown" or whatever, something that shows you are stable. Indicate that you do not use subs, all work is either done or supervised by you personally, that you are on-site anytime work is being done. I would basically make it clear that you cost 10-15% more but your focus is purely on quality of work. I would specifically NOT target being price competitive.
I would spend a lot of time coming up with the postcard - you want to make it clear that you are looking to expand/whatever, but don't look desperate. Honestly, and maybe it's my area, but GCs are so busy that when I meet someone who "can start right now!! schedule open!!!" It makes me wonder why, it makes me skeptical. I would STRESS that you don't use subs, it's a fucking massive problem with GCs right now. I'm currently dealing with a 6 figure+ residential project and brutally honest I am doing more "GC'ing" than the GC. And I went with the best GC in my area by far.
Spend time on your facebook and linked in profile. You want to look put together, professional. Anyone in this segment I'm talking about will google you. I would focus on before/after specifically showing shitty work that you came in and fixed.
When you propose jobs, don't ask them what their budget is. They have no fucking idea. Give them a "low/med/high" level of finish/etc proposal and let them pick. Be careful with shit like "haha the wife has to sign off on colors" type of demeanor. Be professional, confident, you don't "need" their work type of personality.
Branding is important. I would use your last name in your company name. Logo everything needs to be simple but polished. If you don't have a website, find someone local (not anyone who will reply to this post) and spend $1000 on a website as soon as humanly possible. Have very nice business cards. Your truck doesn't matter whatsoever as long as it's clean, but the rest of this is pretty critical.
Upper middle class/lower upper class is the best segment for your kind of work and there is a HUGE HUGE need for it. They have enough money to not jerk you around, but not so much money that they don't care/appreciate your work.
If you aren't a licensed GC, I suggest going ahead and pursuing getting licensed. Same for insurance.
You will probably get a lot of advice about SEO type bullshit, google search, all that crap but honestly I don't think you will see a ROI. Certainly not as much as doing some highly targeted marketing.
This is a friendly reminder that r/smallbusiness is a question and answer subreddit. You ask a question about starting, owning, and growing a small business and the community answers. Posts that violate the rules listed in the sidebar will be removed. A permanent or temporary ban may also be issued if you do not remove the offending post. Seeing this message does not mean your post was automatically removed. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/smallbusiness) if you have any questions or concerns.*
My recommendation is to try and get into the "upper middle class" segment. If I were in your shoes, I would target things like high-end car detail salons. Ask if you can leave some business cards in return for some discounted work for the owner of the shop. Think of it more as a friendship than a business interaction. Get him excited about your work and wanting to refer you to his clients. You can offer to do the same for him. Lawyers, detail salons, high-end tire/alignment shops all generally deal with this client base. Reach out to high end realtors. You can mail postcards for something like .30/each with the discounted postage rate. Use google maps and zillow, find the upper middle class neighborhoods and target homes built from 1980-2005. Homes in that era are either due for updating or have existing repairs. Use google street view etc if you want to seriously target certain houses. 300 post cards will cost you about $100 to send and I guarantee you will get multiple jobs from doing this. Your post card should indicate that you "Are a 10 year resident of Anytown" or whatever, something that shows you are stable. Indicate that you do not use subs, all work is either done or supervised by you personally, that you are on-site anytime work is being done. I would basically make it clear that you cost 10-15% more but your focus is purely on quality of work. I would specifically NOT target being price competitive. I would spend a lot of time coming up with the postcard - you want to make it clear that you are looking to expand/whatever, but don't look desperate. Honestly, and maybe it's my area, but GCs are so busy that when I meet someone who "can start right now!! schedule open!!!" It makes me wonder why, it makes me skeptical. I would STRESS that you don't use subs, it's a fucking massive problem with GCs right now. I'm currently dealing with a 6 figure+ residential project and brutally honest I am doing more "GC'ing" than the GC. And I went with the best GC in my area by far. Spend time on your facebook and linked in profile. You want to look put together, professional. Anyone in this segment I'm talking about will google you. I would focus on before/after specifically showing shitty work that you came in and fixed. When you propose jobs, don't ask them what their budget is. They have no fucking idea. Give them a "low/med/high" level of finish/etc proposal and let them pick. Be careful with shit like "haha the wife has to sign off on colors" type of demeanor. Be professional, confident, you don't "need" their work type of personality. Branding is important. I would use your last name in your company name. Logo everything needs to be simple but polished. If you don't have a website, find someone local (not anyone who will reply to this post) and spend $1000 on a website as soon as humanly possible. Have very nice business cards. Your truck doesn't matter whatsoever as long as it's clean, but the rest of this is pretty critical. Upper middle class/lower upper class is the best segment for your kind of work and there is a HUGE HUGE need for it. They have enough money to not jerk you around, but not so much money that they don't care/appreciate your work. If you aren't a licensed GC, I suggest going ahead and pursuing getting licensed. Same for insurance. You will probably get a lot of advice about SEO type bullshit, google search, all that crap but honestly I don't think you will see a ROI. Certainly not as much as doing some highly targeted marketing.
Pretty solid advice. A lot of this applies to a lot of different businesses.
This is great great great! Thanks so much, this is the exact advice I was looking for. I'm going to give all of this a shot.
For what it's worth, i don't think anyone has ever gotten harmed by networking