How did you do it?

[deserter]

In the next 18 months I want to become self employed as a cabinet maker, I know about the costs of insurance, units and the like. But what I am unsure about is the best way to market myself to get work, so what I'm asking is for all you whom already took the leap, how did you go about getting your first paying jobs? And more importantly keeping a steady flow of work after that?

Any advice would be great fully received.


~Nil carborundum illegitemi~

 

[Hudson Carpentry]

Gumtree, friends recommending me, leaflet drops and local papers. When I started I was doing jobs cheap. Once you have a few photo's worth showing get a website set up with decent SEO and I find now that with word of month I don't really need any more advertising. Although I am in the BT book and Yell.com but most will be anyway even if its the free add's

 

[mtr1]

I think a website is important, I get 90% of my work from mine. Make sure it has a contact page, I get a couple of enquires a day from mine, some from people just wanting a door hung, but mostly furniture. Parish church circulars are the only form of paper advertising I will pay for now.

 

[JonnyD]

The most important thing I feel is the ability to produce quality work. Once you can do the quality the next thing is to be able to do it quickly enough to make a profit. If you can do both and get some good word of mouth going you should be ok. I do very little marketing as work generally comes my way from word of mouth and previous clients. I would concentrate on web site as mark says and getting a portfolio together.


CheersD

Jon

 

[doctor Bob]

After 9 years of business I still worry about getting work in. There are 5 of us now with a couple of self employed fitters and we need a lot of work to keep busy.
Try and get work from private customers and also some trade work, the trade work is poorer paying but it is usually repeat business.
To make a living, you need to be able to work fast, accurately and keep the quality. I think most hobbiests would be amazed how quickly things have to be made in a commercial environment

 

[deserter]

I work commercially at moment in a large firm, so I'm used to juggling accuracy and speed to achieve deadlines. I have started to work on a portfolio but as I work full time I find it hard finding time to make things at home, so the portfolio is slow progress still with my planned 18 months I should be able to make a good start on it.

I thought word of mouth might be the best advertising it's just getting the words into the mouths to start with.


~Nil carborundum illegitemi~