Twenty Low-Cost Ways To Market your Company

1. Print business cards - Use the reverse side for your Mission Statement.
   Create a logo for you company.  Start making your company a brand name.

2. Make job signs - Just two or three signs make you look like you are all over town.

3. Make door hangars - This is a cheap way to get more business in the neighborhood you are already working in. Making 8 1/2” x 11” flyers for this works fine too.

4. Display signs on your vehicles – Your trucks and cars are cheap moving billboards.  For some reason, everyone reads signs.  So take advantage.  Make you information concise and legible from a distance.

5. Email or write your customer list – Stay in touch with your customers.  I’m always amazed how quickly people forget about my company or forget what services we offer.  Communication will make you the contractor of choice.

6. Write a regular newsletter – This is wonderful way to stay in front of your clients, leads and suppliers.  Do this quarterly or monthly, but do it consistently.

7. Poll your existing customers so that you can improve your services – Send a survey out after each job and find out what your clients really think.  Put some thought into the questions you ask them.

8. Join the NAHB, your local Homebuilders Association, the National Kitchen and Bath Association or NARI – Belonging to these associations is invaluable.  For now, take my word for it.  I’ll tell you more about my 25 year relationship with these entities later.  Join!

9. Join your local Remodeler’s Council or NARI- Don’t just join.  It won’t help.  You must attend.  Network with the members.  You won’t find a better source for help when you need it.

10. Go to meetings – If you belong to the Chamber or BBB or HBA, be sure to attend the meetings.  It takes time, but soon you will know a lot of people, and they will know you.  Will they think of you when they need to refer a remodeler?

11. Network at all your meetings – You have business cards.  Be generous with them.  Tell people what you do.  And tell them in a short concise manner.  I call this your elevator speech.  You have a very short time to tell them what you do.  Practice your speech.

12. Become the chairperson or a member of a committee at your trade association – Being part of one or two committees will get you recognized.  Invest your time here.  In return, you’ll be in the loop and know what’s going on.  And the whole membership will know you because of this.

13. Get on the ladder at your HBA or NARI chapter – Everyone needs a leader. Make it a point to get on the ladder of your association and work up to the President position.  This will help you in so many ways.

14. Let the newspaper and television stations know that you are a ready source for an article or news spot – It takes a little courage to do this.  Each time you’ll get better and better at this.  We all fail sometimes.  What’s important when you fail, is to fall forward, never backwards.

15. Visit your suppliers – When you have some extra time, drop in on your lumber yards and showrooms that you use.  By doing this, they’ll know you are still around, and when it comes time to refer someone…

16. Visit with your trades – I consider this very important.  Your tradespeople make your business work.  Get to know them.  Take them to lunch.  Get to know their families.  The payback is huge.

17. Attend trade shows like the International Builders’ Show and the Remodeling Show – Don’t think of these shows as an expense.  They pay you back many times over. I’ve been to hundreds and I’m always ahead.  Be the smartest remodeler in town.

18. Set up a booth at your local Home Show – In my experience there is not much competition here.  So for a few hundred dollars and a weekend, you have the potential to make thousands of dollars in profit.  At the very least, attend the show and talk to as many vendors and trades as possible.

19. Get on one or more boards outside of your field – We all attend meetings where we are “preaching to the choir”.  You need to get on some boards that aren’t related to your business.  Join the Chamber of Commerce or some other board where you can network with more potential clients (PC’s).

20. Read trade journals and magazine articles about your trade – Contractors of choice know a lot about their industry.  Subscribe to a few magazines and read them.  Many are free and most are delivered electronically now.  The Journal of Light Construction is one of the best hands-on magazines on the market.

If you want business in today’s marketplace, these tips will definitely work for you.  They work in any economy.  Carry out all 20 of these ideas and you will be the contractor of choice in you community.
I’m sure you have some ideas and tips of your own.  Please share them with all of us by leaving a comment or two on RemodelerBiz.com.  Thanks and good luck.

You may copy this article into your newsletter, blog or website, as long as you don’t make any changes to the article and you include the following bio:

www.RemodelerBiz.com is published by Randall S Soules, a 37 year construction veteran. The intent of this web site is to help builders, remodelers and those in the trades, create a rewarding career and lifestyle.  At Remodeler Biz you’ll find helpful articles on niches, marketing, graphic standards and the design-then-build field.