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July 20, 2020 at 7:57 pm #1223663Up::0
Theres a reality here, but most won’t agree with what I’m saying. Some businesses out there can’t leverage well from digital marketing. I.e. Blocked drained plumber local area, people will search for, but most will not search for a builder online without getting a referral from someone due to the size and personal nature of the investment. That’s reality. Yes some can utilise and leverage technology but again, once you search up a builder online 90% they’ll come in for a chat and then start asking around about your quality of work which refers back to…. Word of mouth again.
Go out and network, network and network, from my understanding depending on size of company most builders require at least 2-3 jobs per week because once you do a Reno or build a home, that’s it.. Years will pass before you’ll ever see that customer again.
The question you have to ask yourself, where do people immediately go when they need a builder for work? I know google, but usually a friend, the architect, real estate agent, neighbour. Direct and referable contacts besides google.
July 16, 2020 at 7:20 am #1223438Up::0I’ve mentioned this in previous posts, but how do you speak to friends or when you meet friends of friends? Ask the hard questions too to find out what, how, why customers choose you.
I’ve always had a belief that if it’s my own product, I don’t have competition and if you believe that deeply it will come out when dealing with customers/clients.
I could give a laundry list on rebuttals and closing but anyone can give you a recipe but it might not taste the same as Jamie Olivers, so take pieces of what you need and use intuitiveness to be better on how you would do it. There’s no secret sauce to business, its pretty basic actually, its fear that holds people back for whatever reason. Think about next time when playing cards for money and you want to leave early, all of a sudden your always winning? Cause the fear is gone, even though the calculated risk is that you won’t throw the cards in to not lose friends as well.
The only piece of advice I tell most starting, always set the frame with customers from the beginning, if you suspect they want it cheap, bring out all the negatives at the start of the conversation so they have no ammunition at the end to use against you. By doing this it puts them in a frame of mind that your time is not meant to be wasted, but with cotton gloves.
Walk and talk like you have a million clients and millions coming through but in turn be humble and never be arrogant, though there is a time and place for it, you do have the right to be rude to a customer if they are being rude to you.
July 8, 2020 at 2:24 pm #1222990Up::0This is has been a very interesting read and insights into how most are operating. But one thing I’ve never done in business is NEVER compromise, actually that’s probably with anything too.
All businesses are generally simplistic, we just want to make it as complex as possible to trick ourselves into thinking we are smart. I sometimes meet people that try to understand my business, and if you come off as robotic (which at least 60% are because they’re attempting to be professional), piece of advice. If your not being yourself as you would with close friends then why attempt the relationship with clients?
It’s all the same right. I used to tell my sales team in my last business, I had 30 or so reps, I always said, if you can get your customer/client/account to invite you to their home in two weeks your doing very well. Everyone is selling basically the same product with a shiny mag wheel attached, everyone knows what goes in the sauce.
That’s how I managed to get straight out of school reps to the level of 15 years plus experience and it’s not even experience I look for. Last time someone boasted about X amount of years experience, I said that’s great to have that confidence… But are you competent enough to keep up with the pace? Yeah well different answer there.
March 27, 2020 at 7:00 am #1222866Up::0Theres two ways you can essentially look at it I think personally. Massive opportunity or exceptional failure. Just depends which side of the coin you looking at.
But from experience, people in business who were you friends are most likely aren’t anymore. From what I remember everyone to slowly feel for each other, and slowly the cannibalising starts against one another.
Look at it one of the best learning curves to date because this won’t happen all the time, recessions come and dips and gains come and go but true mettle will be tested this time round.
The most realistic factor of all this is cashed by buyers looking to by businesses on the cheap and you don’t really have to be that cashed up either, I mean I’m staring at some old competitors that are running the gauntlet but bones won’t be left behind this time, the entire carcass will be there for the taking.
I’d allocate as much capital as possible to acquire dead competitors out and keep moving forward and business plans would essentially have to change dramatically.
There is so much opportunity but people are looking hard enough really think outside of the square.
A friend of mine has a huge restaurant, died, literally rang me crying. I said it’s fine divide up the space to create a hub for people with online businesses and charge $50 a week per person. Managed to bring in around 25-30 people renting out space because it was cheaper then what they were getting at larger incubators and closer to home for them.
Another turned his business into a grocery store, filling his own fridges with pre made meals for local community.
Offer what’s in demand now to survive it regardless of the ego.
March 1, 2020 at 1:21 am #1180045Up::0I’ve mentioned this in other posts about supplying Coles, Woolworths and CostCo, let me tell you it’s not worth it. Yeah you get to boast about being on the shelves but I would never do it again unless they were knocking on your door. The ground is littered with hopefuls with big dreams with bankruptcy debts.
But go for gold if you think your product has fat enough margins because they will determine it for you.
I still have, know and frequently go for lunch with buyers of all three entities. No I will not release their contacts.
January 6, 2020 at 7:31 am #1221986Up::0bb1, post: 268223, member: 53375 wrote:Yes and the problem with referring someone who obviously knows very little about this stuff to a site like that, is that they don’t know whats good or bad, and assume well that was ok why not try the other.Next minute they stuff up all ranking for their site.
[USER=57952]@Christina2590[/USER] please ignore any advise given on the forum and seek professional help.
It’s actually described on the site I think I haven’t been on in a while, but there is also Warrior Forums which at present is the largest for online marketing space but with any forums comes others that sway in the dark arts of SEO.
Best bet as ‘bb1’ mentioned is to always seek professional help or at least self-educate.
December 30, 2019 at 3:23 am #1222010Up::0Are you located within Sydney? Aluminium extrusions, as in door frames, PVC piping? Heavy regulation on piping especially when dealt with civil works.
The only issue if it is aluminium and steel door frames within Sydney you’ll be up against a monopoly called Vince & Buda, they probably supply every building supply yard including all of Bunnings nationally (from memory), and they acquire raw aluminium (and material) and have a foundry onsite to create it.
Sydney has probably 7 what I’d call senior building wholesalers, coming from my in laws experience in the field that had one of the largest building supply business close to Bunnings was from the early 80’s till 01. This is framed on buying power. Bunnings market is the DIY’ers and cheap tools.
Find them local Thrifty chains and see if they will take it up. Only issue is customer satisfaction on their end, because if for some reason it doesn’t pass code they’ll drop the product and ask to kindly pick it up.
It’s an old industry, ring them up, tell them what you have and just put it on them that you’re going to come around with some product. Why that works, because I essentially did cold calling for a quarry selling Cowra white pebbles rough, and I used just to show up with a bucket, they’d rub it a few times and decide where to put it.
Get an over sized map online, google every wholesaler and draw them on the map and knock them all off one by one.
December 30, 2019 at 3:13 am #1221984Up::0bb1, post: 268190, member: 53375 wrote:This makes interesting reading https://www.wordstream.com/black-hat-seoWhen I see words banned and unethical I get nervous,
Nah, there’s both within that site, black hat is always a no go but heading towards what you can leverage always works too.
December 27, 2019 at 7:23 am #1221980Up::0Can always create a Inspo page that is seperate from your business and build following and then funnel the traffic through it. A lot of people have done this and some formulas over at blackhatworld.com.
Think affiliated marketing but your essentially doing all and more of the work but for a much better result because you control it.
December 23, 2019 at 6:21 pm #1221944Up::0When I started everyone told me the same, “too many big players, don’t bother”. Still did it anyway cause I had a belief I was better then the sleeping giants out there. Put it this way, Coca Cola Australia is everywhere in stores, lots of marketing but only control 2% of the market, more then 80,000 individual vendors (from single van operations) control the market evenly. That’s a lot of players to take down so essentially entering in food service will make him 80,001 disheartening I know but if it’s passion, move forward with it.
The only thing I know about spices that did make a difference from market data we collected, surprisingly was freshness. The larger companies could never provide a fresh made product, usually FPA have a lot of their stock in bulker bags sitting around for months at a time.
Also, the actual product – for example oregano you buy from stores is usually mixed with other herbs (more of a Mixed Italian Herb) because pure oregano is actually very dear to buy and the smell of it is quite strong.
There are avenues just need to approach them individually when it comes to this.
December 23, 2019 at 6:15 pm #1221837Up::0Absolutely, it’s more of a yardstick approach. Sometimes new business owners may even price themselves out of the market after costs and evaluate their plan.
December 22, 2019 at 8:37 pm #1221135December 22, 2019 at 8:35 pm #1221843Up::0Call up Visy Logistics and ask their broker, they’ll tell you straight away on what you need and departments.
If you can’t find a supplier within Australia unfortunately you haven’t put in enough effort, time and research for your business. Keep planning and put in the work.
If it was easy to ask the questions for everything and have it handed to you, everyone would be in business.
Regards and Good Luck.
December 22, 2019 at 8:25 pm #1220955Up::0As James mentioned it is difficult, the controlling shareholders look like they’re trying to “administer” the business out of probably supplier debts in order to Phoenix the company and continue again with keeping good relationships with suppliers. The issue here is from my own experience is that you can probably only phoenix 2 or 3 times before creditors catch on, it’s very common with very large companies as they tend to seperate into different entities with different parts of the business i.e. C One for buying, C Two for Debts and Main C for paid assets.
Most large businesses do this to limit risk to operate again, it all depends on how you look at it to how illegal it is, doesn’t sound right I know.
They’re also trying to keep you away from the books because they don’t trust you on keeping you involved in the plan, if you come off as someone that’s by the book, you should expect this.
Hope all it all turns out well.
December 22, 2019 at 8:13 pm #1218234Up::0The current time for freight is actually a gold mine for business owners, this may be difficult but try and find the owner drivers directly (Sub-contractor drivers) and ask them directly, they will always say yes so they can make more money by cutting the main contractor out. The savings can be anywhere between 25 to 40% depending on the driver, best way to do this if you don’t have your own warehouse is, setup with a third party logistic centre to handle it and then contact owner driver direct to pick up product. That’s removing the reps pay, company pay and it’s profit margins. You’ll only pay for handling and storage plus driver, removing the other two.
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