New(ish) here

[SafetyChes]

Hi all,

I've been a member of the UKBF since 2019 but i've not really made any use of them, in 2023 i'm planning on launching my consultancy practice so i'm making an effort to be a bit more active on here to gain as much knowledge as I possibly can.

I'm a Health and Safety Advisor who wants to help small to medium business keep their employees' safe, protect their business and gain third party accreditations. Any advice on how to market myself would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Mark T Jones]

Hi Safety

Welcome back!

With marketing, it nearly always starts with identifying, as closely as possible, who your ideal customer it is, what problem you are solving, and why they would choose you over the competition.

When you start going on that, there will be loads more questions - this forum can be very useful!

 

[SafetyChes]

Thanks Mark,

I want to work with small to medium (mainly small) construction companies.
By working with me:

• they will be fulfilling their legal obligation to have access to competent H&S Advice,
• they will be able to open further opportunities for growth by gaining third party accreditation
• they will be keeping their staff safe, and their business protected.

Why would they choose me? Because I genuinely care about keeping people and businesses safe. They will be getting the service of an inhouse safety professional without the financial cost associated with it - such as pension contribution, NI contribution etc.

Is this the sort of thing you were talking about.

 

[Mark T Jones]

Thanks Mark,

I want to work with small to medium (mainly small) construction companies.
By working with me:

• they will be fulfilling their legal obligation to have access to competent H&S Advice,
• they will be able to open further opportunities for growth by gaining third party accreditation
• they will be keeping their staff safe, and their business protected.

Why would they choose me? Because I genuinely care about keeping people and businesses safe. They will be getting the service of an inhouse safety professional without the financial cost associated with it - such as pension contribution, NI contribution etc.

Is this the sort of thing you were talking about.

With the best will in the world that's more cliched than researched.

No offence meant there; it took me 20 years to work this one out!

Contruction companies - great. Small construction companies - better. Still lots of scope to narrow that down.

Counter-intuitive as it sounds, the smaller your target the easier it is to hit.

Reasons for wanting your services - they probably know the stuff you've said. They want a hard compelling reasons why they will benefit.

Why choose you - I've yet to meet a business owner who didn't claim to 'genuinely care' 'passionate' et. Those are base expectations.

Trust me on this one - the time and thought you put into this (particularly on target market), the greater the payback will be.

 

[SafetyChes]

Thanks again Mark,

I completely understand where you're coming from.

To narrow my target market down further Small construction companies operating as sub-contractors for groundworks packages, in South Wales.

Other than being cheaper than most (if not all) of my competitors i'm going to have to really think about why they would choose me over Joe Bloggs Safety next door....

Thank you for your questions, its got me thinking,

 

[Mark T Jones]

Thanks again Mark,

I completely understand where you're coming from.

To narrow my target market down further Small construction companies operating as sub-contractors for groundworks packages, in South Wales.

Other than being cheaper than most (if not all) of my competitors i'm going to have to really think about why they would choose me over Joe Bloggs Safety next door....

Thank you for your questions, its got me thinking,

The last question becomes far easier when you get the first one.

It may not be a deep, meaningful reason, just (for example) location, or being a Cardiff City fan..

 

[pentel]

There are lots of H&S services out there. The larger ones seem to rely on providing lots of online resources which the business owner then needs to go through and choose the most appropriate to them and on the business owner being proactive in contacting them for advice.

For most small businesses a monthly visit ( 1/2 day or a day) where H&S is reviewed, paperwork (coshh / risk assessments etc) kept up to date and appropriate training either provided or arranged would be the most helpful.

 

[SafetyChes]

There are lots of H&S services out there. The larger ones seem to rely on providing lots of online resources which the business owner then needs to go through and choose the most appropriate to them and on the business owner being proactive in contacting them for advice.

For most small businesses a monthly visit ( 1/2 day or a day) where H&S is reviewed, paperwork (coshh / risk assessments etc) kept up to date and appropriate training either provided or arranged would be the most helpful.

Thanks Pentel,

The latter is my intention. I am qualified to train in various subject, (First Aid etc) but won't be able to offer this until i've made some money as the cost of becoming registered with an awarding body is quite high.

 

[HFE Signs]

Hi all,

I've been a member of the UKBF since 2019 but i've not really made any use of them, in 2023 i'm planning on launching my consultancy practice so i'm making an effort to be a bit more active on here to gain as much knowledge as I possibly can.

I'm a Health and Safety Advisor who wants to help small to medium business keep their employees' safe, protect their business and gain third party accreditations. Any advice on how to market myself would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Hello Ches,

Welcome back to the forum, I'd be delighted to help you with any safety signs, should the need arise

 

[SafetyChes]

Hello Ches,

Welcome back to the forum, I'd be delighted to help you with any safety signs, should the need arise

Thanks, I've just had a gander at your website and i'll keep you in mind should the need arise.

 

[HFE Signs]

Thanks, I've just had a gander at your website and i'll keep you in mind should the need arise.

Thank you, really appreciate this

 

[MBE2017]

Any advice on how to market myself would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Hi,

As for marketing, a simple website, a CRM to track inquiries, clients etc, email and text messaging, along with the good old fashioned phone cold calling. Social media posts, regular, become the H&S saftely guy on instagram, TikTok etc. Forum marketing experts will offer more insightful methods.

Once you contact them, then you need to sell yourself, try to work on a thirty second pitch, practice it over and over again, talk to people, listen.

Five words will help guide you in the right direction, what’s in it for them? I wouldn’t talk about price to begin with, if they do ask, they are interested.

 

[UKSBD]

IF they are anything like the building companies I knew, the only reason they use a service like that, is so they have a piece of paper that says they are compliant.

 

[Gecko001]

When I have sought H&S (construction related) advice it was done by word of mouth. Mainly recommendations from architects, and engineers. I would start with the contacts you already have and that could started the ball rolling.

 

[Uwe (Invoiceberry)]

I had a mate in that industry years ago. As far as I can remember, one of the main reasons why he had a good customer flow was:

1. He had a well-defined ICP – Ideal Customer Persona. It was very niche, but being based in London, he still had plenty of customers to choose from.

2. He simply picked up the phone and did cold calling and cold email outreach to the list of potential customers. It seemed that most of the big guys focused on inbound leads and he just turned it around and came to the customers before they even searched for a solution.

 

[IanSuth]

As you are wales - are you for example able to provide everything in Welsh equally as well as English.

That might be a small USP that helps you get a foot in the door

If not ignore me ?

 

[SafetyChes]

As you are wales - are you for example able to provide everything in Welsh equally as well as English.

That might be a small USP that helps you get a foot in the door

If not ignore me ?

I would love to say yes to this. Although my Welsh is limited to GCSE Grade B which covers going to the shops on the weekend or going swimming on holiday. Haha

 

[SafetyChes]

I had a mate in that industry years ago. As far as I can remember, one of the main reasons why he had a good customer flow was:

1. He had a well-defined ICP – Ideal Customer Persona. It was very niche, but being based in London, he still had plenty of customers to choose from.

2. He simply picked up the phone and did cold calling and cold email outreach to the list of potential customers. It seemed that most of the big guys focused on inbound leads and he just turned it around and came to the customers before they even searched for a solution.

Thanks

Cold calling and cold emailing is probably going to be my best option until i build up a decent client base and get some good word of mouth.

 

[SafetyChes]

Hi,

As for marketing, a simple website, a CRM to track inquiries, clients etc, email and text messaging, along with the good old fashioned phone cold calling. Social media posts, regular, become the H&S saftely guy on instagram, TikTok etc. Forum marketing experts will offer more insightful methods.

Once you contact them, then you need to sell yourself, try to work on a thirty second pitch, practice it over and over again, talk to people, listen.

Five words will help guide you in the right direction, what’s in it for them? I wouldn’t talk about price to begin with, if they do ask, they are interested.

Thank you.

I am trying to work on my "elevator pitch" at the moment actually.

 

[Mark T Jones]

Thanks

Cold calling and cold emailing is probably going to be my best option until i build up a decent client base and get some good word of mouth.

The difference between a cold call / email and a warm one is familiarity and common ground.

The more you focus your target, the easier that becomes.

You could just sing Delilah, that would get most on side!

 

[MBE2017]

You could just sing Delilah, that would get most on side!

It’s not unusual as Tom would say.

 

[SafetyChes]

The difference between a cold call / email and a warm one is familiarity and common ground.

The more you focus your target, the easier that becomes.

You could just sing Delilah, that would get most on side!

I'm trying to increase my visibility online so hopefully that will help with familiarity.

No one wants to hear me singing.

 

[JamaC]

Other than being cheaper than most (if not all) of my competitors i'm going to have to really think about why they would choose me over Joe Bloggs Safety next door....

This is a common approach when people jump into business and not always the best option

You need to do some competitor analysis to find out what everyone else is doing.

Once you know what the competition is doing, you can start to figure out where to position yourself and identify who you are as a busines. Rather than jumping in as the cheapest.

Plus you will find it easier to figure out how to differentiate yourself, as you will see a common pattern amongst your competition.

Do you want to be seen as low cost or a quality service that is worth the price?

Find your price point and stand on it with confidence, don't worry about it being too expensive because there will always be someone charging a lot more.

As long as you can guarantee the results you promise you are worth the price.

 

[SafetyChes]

Thanks JamaC,

I'm going to start looking at other consultants in my area to see what they are charging which I suppose is the easy part. Finding out what kind of service they provide is going to be the difficult bit.

 

[sofiyah]

Hey all, I hope everyone is well
I'm hoping to launch my own skincare business soon and I'm in need of pointers!

I recently discovered Moblox, the CEO is Piers Linney, a former investor on BBC Dragons Den. If you join the community you get access to his £200 business course for FREE! I'm going through the course and honestly, it is fantastic, especially for a newbie like me haha. Helping me to develop my business plan further and add structure etc.

Would highly recommend checking out the Moblox website. They also have lots of helpful content about starting & running your own business. Hope this helps someone!

 

[DoolallyTap]

All the assorted comments and replies just cloud the real issue. There are so many experts and bullies on this site, they all know 'oh, so much more' and offer' if I were you what I would do' advise. Why they are here and not busy running their own businesses is a wonder. And before someone makes a facetious comment, I am 72 and retired so have plenty of time.

The real issue, as always, is how much money do you have and how much of it are you prepared to possibly loose? Have you written a business plan for yourself? have you produced a P/L forecast or CF forecast. Just produce some simple financials and that will tell you if your plan is feasible.

 

[DoolallyTap]

Hey all, I hope everyone is well
I'm hoping to launch my own skincare business soon and I'm in need of pointers!

I recently discovered Moblox, the CEO is Piers Linney, a former investor on BBC Dragons Den. If you join the community you get access to his £200 business course for FREE! I'm going through the course and honestly, it is fantastic, especially for a newbie like me haha. Helping me to develop my business plan further and add structure etc.

Would highly recommend checking out the Moblox website. They also have lots of helpful content about starting & running your own business. Hope this helps someone!

The real issue, as always, is how much money do you have and how much of it are you prepared to possibly loose? Have you written a business plan for yourself? have you produced a P/L forecast or CF forecast. Just produce some simple financials and that will tell you if your plan is feasible.

 

[MBE2017]

There are so many experts and bullies on this site, they all know 'oh, so much more' and offer' if I were you what I would do' advise. Why they are here and not busy running their own businesses is a wonder.

The real issue, as always, is how much money do you have and how much of it are you prepared to possibly loose? Have you written a business plan for yourself? have you produced a P/L forecast or CF forecast. Just produce some simple financials and that will tell you if your plan is feasible.

I’m younger at 60, but have to admit I’m confused. The OP asked for advice, which several posters freely gave.

You then condemned many as so called experts who claim to know so much and that they give the “if I were you” advice. You then did exactly the same.

As for advice, you have a thread asking about selling your micro business, asking for advice, on this public forum. https://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/threads/how-to-sell-my-micro-business.421427/#post-3179794

Whats your point regarding advice. You ask for it, you give it, but you don’t think others should?

 

[DoolallyTap]

It seems to me that many of the responders are just not very pleasant with their answers. They often make inappropriate comments, veer away from the main topic and bog the OP down with arbitrary comments or even go off topic all together.
I did not give 'if I were you advise'. I just pointed out the fundamental first steps anyone should ask themselves before getting involved in any other aspect of starting up.

 

[MBE2017]

It seems to me that many of the responders are just not very pleasant with their answers. They often make inappropriate comments, veer away from the main topic and bog the OP down with arbitrary comments or even go off topic all together.
I did not give 'if I were you advise'. I just pointed out the fundamental first steps anyone should ask themselves before getting involved in any other aspect of starting up.

I think you need to lighten up. You version of advice sits exactly as I see other answers.

As for veering off topic, the OP asked for advice on how best to market himself, not how to conduct fundamental first steps.

Pot, kettle, black.

 

[Fagin2021]

It seems to me that many of the responders are just not very pleasant with their answers. They often make inappropriate comments, veer away from the main topic and bog the OP down with arbitrary comments or even go off topic all together.
I did not give 'if I were you advise'. I just pointed out the fundamental first steps anyone should ask themselves before getting involved in any other aspect of starting up.

And how exactly would you classify your 'advice' to @Paul FilmMaker and I quote...

"Yawn!! it will not happen."

I'm curious to know.

 

[SafetyChes]

Thank you to everyone who commented with tips or advice, I value all feedback no matter if it's positive or negative,