Hi guys, I'm Colin from Scotland. Currently living in Poland working as an English teacher would you believe (I'm a time-served, experienced plasterer haha)
Reason for post and signing up in general is I've decided to come back to the UK next year to try and start up on my own. I wonder if you guys know of any areas in the UK somehow short of plasterers and maybe offer advice on how easy it is to start up on your own? I know how to get my name out there - I'm a good plasterer for a start and I'm great with social media as a ways and emans of advertising. I'd obviously make my own cards etc, pu ads in the papers and directories too.
Any advice you can offer would be great.! Nice to meet you all!
Hi Colin, good luck with your new endeavour. Breaking into a market in this trade has so many variables to consider makes it tricky to formulate an effective business plan. A couple of points to consider;
1: What kind of work do you want to do? If site work then it what capacity , Subby or contractor. The former will require more hands on networking the latter you can go on tender invitation lists or directly contact larger firms offering to quote for work. An easy route into this is contact LABC or local council and look at planning application submissions ( this is a valuable marketing tool for any aspect of the trade. You can get a list of all planning applications made big or small, approved or pending. All you need to do then is approach potential client directly and doctor your approach accordingly.
2: Website.
@Danny builds websites and does a good job too. A website is like a business card. You have too hand it out for it to work. Get a website and spend a few hours copy and pasting it as a link onto every relevant site you can find. A relevant site is anything in the area you want to work and I mean ANYTHING. For example, if you move to Random town..Google RandomTown- adding the hyphen will bring up every site in that area. Click click copy and paste. Another easy route to natural lead growth etc is to follow local prominent sites under your web address eg
www.randomtownplastering.co.uk
Then follow/like /tweet the local football team/newspaper/bowling club etc
Quick and direct : treat sourcing work with the same mentality as work itself. If your not booked in on Monday then spend 8 hours marketing , it pays huge dividends.
New to an area, Google contact details for every Q.S , Surveyor, architect , planning officer, window fitter, landscape Gardner etc don't forget plasterers. Got loads more nuggets , just like nuggets; some are s**t , some are gold. Best of luck to you bud. Best tip I can give; stay involved with the forum . I've had some great jobs off here.