Marketing Advice For Heating Engineer

[markD1968]

I was wondering if any of you could give me a bit of advice on marketing my new business. I am a heating engineer who will shortly be going it alone (my old firm has been sold and the new owner is cutting back on staff) and becoming self employed. I specialize in the servicing and repair of domestic heating systems. Doing the work is easy but finding the work is another matter so any advice would be most welcome. Thank you very much.

 

[socialmarketingmama]

Mark, start with registering your business name, even sole owners need to present themselves as a business. Have business cards created, have apparel with your logo on it. Then market yourself through local advertising/word-of-mouth through friends and family. Get the word out! Create a salesletter (search on google to learn how to write one) and contact local businesses that would want to use your services, ask if they will meet with you. Be prepared in advance and have everything in a folder such as what your services entail/covers, rates,etc.

Networking online is great, but also look into local events you can attend where you can speak on your business/give your business cards away to those you meet.


All the best,

Nic

 

[CKG]

When I first went it alone as a heating engineer it was the hard work of freinds and family reccommending me that got things up and running in the early stages. People were really keen to help me out.

There was a little clan of us that went self employed straight from college after we did our appreticeships and we passed work around between us and joined forces on big jobs.

That was a good thing as it can get a bit crappy working alone when your used to having oppos around all day to banter with.

Lay some good solid foundations based on word of mouth and refferals and you can't go too far wrong.

Keep your eyes open for people that can give you regular work. The obvious people are other tradesmen but businesses like hotels and pubs are cracking earners for maintenance call outs once your in with them. Plus the owners of these types of businesses usually know loads of people and will pass your name around if your good to 'em.

Just make sure you always answer the phone, retern calls and show up on time and generally do a little more than you have to - it counts for alot with people.

It will snowball quickly I guarantee.

 

[Calibre Designs]

Speak to Leon www.lps-plumbing.co.uk or Keith www.taylormade-herts.co.uk - both received very good marketing advice and have benefitted greatly from it.

These guys will always stop to help.

Thanks

 

[lockie]

Get a website too, you will be surprised how many people look for tradesman via the web.
Where abouts are you located, you may even get leads from here if you let people know where youre from.

 

[Yourlocaltrades]

Website
Logo'd Clothing
Tagged up Vehicle
Top notch brochures, to post to any estate agents/landlords/b&b's/hotels etc, NOT door to door to joe public, this seems to be a cowboy favorite!. The reason i have mentioned them above is because you can not only leave it with someone but also get your foot in the door with a personal introduction too, just ask if the manager is in, if not chat up whoever is infront of you-first impressions count, instead of a "bloke dropped this off" moment, you could get a "bloke dropped this off from Xcompany, he mentioned he does 24 hr service as it has proved to be vital for hotels/whatever like ours, he is on the books for 6 others too" (you know what i am getting at!) If you are not on anyones books, just think of a number!
Local press may help, but this isn't always that cheap but can lead to work, some papers offer great discount, i was paying £30 per month to be in all 6 papers a week, just three lines in there, but got work in now and again, ideal for beginnings, as it is public awareness.
Yellow Pages an option, but discussions here previously may put you off, some of the sections are saturated and can be a waste of money, our one has something like 500 plumbers (for example), thats a 1 in 500 chance, if your not aaaaaaaa1 or something, you got no chance really!!

Look online for free directories,
Freeindex
BTTradespace
my site is free!
Streetslocal
Look for a free local online directory to you too, our portsmouthdirectory thing is a bit pants, but if it offers a link to your site and a profile option, why not??

Local tradespeople, keep business cards/brochures on you att all times, give them out to tradespeople, they may know soeoe, but people do go on holiday!

What about building sites? meet the gaffer? not sure if you want that sort of work, i hated the 6AM starts!!

Hope it helps.
Good luck with your new venture.
Steve

 

[Rienne]

Alongside the other good marketing suggestions here, I would suggest joining BNI. People tend to love it or hate it, but our local one and others I have visited, work well for trades. http://www.bni-europe.com/uk/

 

[CKG]

And don't skimp on your prices either.

Don't fall into the 'I'm new and have low overheads so can charge less' trap.

For your prices think of a figure that your comfortable charging people for call outs and then double it.

And also try and have a clear vision from the start of what you want your firm to become.

If you want to be a general jobbing gas fitter crack on, start making to moves, and do it.

On the flip side if you spend a few years as a general jobbing gas fitter for joe p and then decide you want to take on more formal bigger jobs and contracts it can be almost like having to start up from scratch again as your previous good name could almost count for nothing.

 

[markD1968]

I would just like to thank you all for your ideas. I will have to get cracking and get the ball rolling.

 

[BoilerBoy]

Where are you based Mark? I get enquiries for boiler services/installs every day - if you're in one of the busier areas my site covers we could send you a handful of leads a day.

Other than that good advice above I think, espcially *get a website* - let's you compete with the big boys to a certain extent.

 

[JackMaurer]

Employ a good agent to handle your marketing portfolio for you. This gives you more time to focus on your work and less time to stress about where you next job is coming from..try maurer-marketing.co.uk

 

[markD1968]

Hi Boiler Boy
I am based in west sussex, near worthing. A good website is going to be one of the first things on my shoping list.

 

[maxine]

List yourself with some of the trade directories to get some leads coming in, also free yell listing and get onto google maps.

Collect customer satisfaction surveys from the start so you can use as testimonials on your website when that is up and running.

Drop business cards or phone estate agents, letting agents, insurance brokers, facilities managers etc

Hope that helps and good luck

 

[Mark_Williams]

Hi there, a good sauce of work is through estate agents also a good catchy leaflet door to door , this is something you can do yourself whilst your quiet and you can choose your area.

A good sign written van helps .

leave your cards with merchants.

good luck

Mark

 

[Ian Feingold]

Have you considered some cost-effective freebies with your name and contact details on them? Pens, fridge magnets are good value for money and rarely thrown away...

 

[KeithP]

I know this is an old thread but for other Boiler Engineers searching for similar advice, this might be useful.

 

[Thermodynamic Man]

Get in whilst you can...gas being phased out

 

[Tom Smart]

Get your website ranking on Google. It shouldn't take that much work to get it ranking in certain geographical areas.

 

[Paul2012]

Also it might not seem like much, but get a proper branded email address. Especially if goes to be on all your letter heads or van livery etc, it just makes your business look more professional.