Advertising bad practise

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luke105 said:
I'm 26...I look my age but am a very confident person. As long as I can do 3 jobs a month during these next few months then I will survive.

Just a really off topic question but I have a job starting Monday and one of the walls has 2 doors in it. They are very close to each other and the space between the 2 frames is about 2 inch. Any suggestions what tool I can use to skim between? Anything other than the Toe or heel of my trowel?
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I have been using those car filler plastic things :-) Cut them down to fit and its pucker :-)
 
luke105 said:
I'm 26...I look my age but am a very confident person. As long as I can do 3 jobs a month during these next few months then I will survive.

Just a really off topic question but I have a job starting Monday and one of the walls has 2 doors in it. They are very close to each other and the space between the 2 frames is about 2 inch. Any suggestions what tool I can use to skim between? Anything other than the Toe or heel of my trowel?
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Sorry mate, I'm never one to criticise but if you don't know how to do the job you shouldn't have took it on. Pretty basic stuff.
 
Yeh I thought the car filler was best. I have one.

stuart....it's not like I don't know, I just wanted other opinions.
Where should I advertise then as I'm a new kid on the block? Please help me oh god like ruler xx
 
and try to get in with a couple of local builders they are a pain in the arse but if you get on with them it will help alot. trying to find 300 days worth of private work a year isnt easy.
 
luke105 said:
Where should I advertise then as I'm a new kid on the block?
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Most my work is from a few builders, kitchen & bathroom fitters & other spreads when they are busy or need a hand, plus my own customers that I've built up over the years, plus plumbers, gas fitters, sparkys, chippies who pass my number on etc, but we all have quiet spells no matter how good you are or how long you've been in the game.
It takes a while to get your name about & build up contacts & customers but you will get there if you stick at it.

I also get a fair amount of work from advertising too (mainly online), although I didn't think I would it was more of an online portfolio, so was surprised how many jobs I got from it, @Danny did me a website in 2010 & had a few enquires at first but the first customer I got from it well in the last 3 years I've done £9000 of work for him at his house & also £3000 of work for his mother inlaw, he is moving house next year too so £££'s :RpS_wink: so one email led to £12,000 of work which all helps keep you busy with your other work etc.
Freeindex is a site I advertise on too recommended to me by @irish_spread I've had loads of work off that too & it's free :RpS_biggrin:


Just take pictures of all your work before & after photos etc, get them on a website, Freeindex, Facebook page, google places, youtube wherever you can really not saying it'll work straight away or even get you loads of work but even if you get one job you don't know where it will lead.

Good luck :RpS_thumbup:
 
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Thanks @Nisus :-)

Lots of ways to market yourself online and offline :-) But nothing is better advertising than being clean, ontime and quality workmanship no matter what the job is priced at :D

Danny
 
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my old dad use to always say to us' what goes around comes around, he called it gods boomerang. A builder I worked for told this old girl who was a neigbour of his that i was a bit handy , doing odds and sods, this is about 3 years ago , didnt have any work on and was skint, living with my two youngest boys on my todd, so any money was welcome. So I go to this old girl and she wants a old wooden shed patch up , bit of felt on the roof, door hanging off etc a bit of fence patch up , shite little things , between dropping kids off to school and picking them up again , I say i was at her place about 12 hours in total , tells me to call in friday for money and how much do I want, well Im thinking old women etc its only a few bits and peices so I say wot ever you can luv see yer friday , she gives me an old fashion wage packet and says thank you and all that . I get down the road to open up the packet and theres 480 yo yosin it, well I tell you lads I was well chuffed, that would help pay a few bills etc . then the ould fellows came back to me and my old mum whose also in 80s , so I go back to the old girl and tell its too much etcetc , she tells me to keep itand she get me next time.
Two days later I get a phone call from her daughter in Dublin , IM thinking here we go , she thinks I rip off the old girl and that,She then asks me can I go up to her house in Dublin wants 2 bedrooms reboarded and skimmed. I did that for her , retiled her bathroom and kitchen layed flooring in bedrooms and hallway and living room , after I finish that I ended up going to the Brothers house gutted his kitchen extension , put a marine ply roof on it , touched felt it , redone the interior and put a all new kitchen in it for him . Plus I have to go back now and then to the old girls to do a bit of painting,So for not ripping her off I say I got about 4 months of work out of it , plus I still get a few bits of work from her friends,
SORRY AGAIN LADS I DONT DO SMALL POSTING S HAHA:rolleyes)
 
luke105 said:
Yeh I thought the car filler was best. I have one.

stuart....it's not like I don't know, I just wanted other opinions.
Where should I advertise then as I'm a new kid on the block? Please help me oh god like ruler xx
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I can't compete with plasterers on gumtree up my way, rates are shocking and so is standard of work. Get a website done, send letters out to builders, search online there's loads of free advertising. Rated people, networking, get friends/family who work in large offices/factories to stick your card up on notice boards. It's going to be a long hard slog and I don't envy you one bit, if I had the chance to do something else I'd take it gladly.
 
Forgot to say, to be honest I don't think anyone should advertise as a plasterer until they've done at least 5-6years work. :RpS_thumbup:
 
Look mate what your talking about is nothing new we had the same problems 25 yrs ago, gangs coming on sites under cutting each other.

Nothing going to take away the feelings you have about other spreads been cheap only you can.
Focus on what you can do to reach your goals
 
Someone's after s forum mug me thinks IMO.
;-)

I'm using The Plasterers Forum Mobile App
 
An advert was placed in our local paper stating "Any room plastered, Any Size; £250!" Labour only. A very odd pricing structure , and misleading I thought.
 
I recently had the pleasure of going to a house who used a bloke out of that tree 50 squid a day I kid you not he had over skimmed all the bedroom ceilings to represent the alps and I must admit it would have looked great if you threw talc all over them all xmassy like but customer was not happy so I re- skimmed all the ceilings he had done then got kitchen d+d and skim livingroom and hallstairs and bathroom plus three window walls upstairs off them and the bloke said I wish we had used you from the start it was only on the off chance he picked a card up of mine out of my little lads nursery and rang me up because he wasn't happy with the other blokes work ,needless to say couldn't get him back to sort it either
 
Really speaking though, the type of 'customer' who goes for this isn't the type of customer you wanna be wasting time on anyhow. Let the idiots all play together :RpS_thumbup:
 
best way to advertise is to make some plastering videos and stick them on youtube:RpS_thumbup: you will be stacked out in no time just ask @MANHILLSIDE
 
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one of the best jobs I got was from a load of leaflts I got printed , but the printer had made a lot of mistakes in the wording,so he gave me my money back and trash them. they ended up being used at a play school for the kids topaint on , one of the teachers took my number off them and I got to tack and skim a self build house, best money I never spent :-)
 
I got myself a nice margin trowel so that's all sorted.

I understand it's not going to be great at first but things will get better and better I hope with the more people I do jobs for. I have a 100 percent hit rate at the moment with jobs but I did do a quote today to patch up after a rewire...not heard anything back yet but fingers crossed!

nice to see people reminiscing about when they were in my shoes all those years ago!
 
luke105 said:
I got myself a nice margin trowel so that's all sorted.

I understand it's not going to be great at first but things will get better and better I hope with the more people I do jobs for. I have a 100 percent hit rate at the moment with jobs but I did do a quote today to patch up after a rewire...not heard anything back yet but fingers crossed!

nice to see people reminiscing about when they were in my shoes all those years ago!
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The sparky has probably hit them with a few extras on his bill?? They may want to get new year out of the way etc, just sit tight pal and always stick to your guns on your quote. Best of luck pal :RpS_thumbup:
 
If you've got a 100% hit rate you must be too cheap. Stick your prices up until you get say 70% and keep it at that.
 
I am doing jobs a bit cheaper than most but I'm still living at home and don't have a mrs or kids so I can afford to. I'm more interested in getting experience and collecting some photos and references. I'm definitely not crippling myself.

I think that's really good advice what you said about 70% I will always remember that.
 
Sounds like you got things sorted Luke good luck.

I'll be moving in the new year and am planning to hit the domestic market in my new area big style.

Getting right ****** off with large site works. To many dicks telling me how to do my job when they know nowt. Nothings ready and then they change the lighting conditions after we have finished and we get snagging that was impossible to see at the time.


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Curry said:
Sounds like you got things sorted Luke good luck.

I'll be moving in the new year and am planning to hit the domestic market in my new area big style.

Getting right ****** off with large site works. To many dicks telling me how to do my job when they know nowt. Nothings ready and then they change the lighting conditions after we have finished and we get snagging that was impossible to see at the time.


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Best of luck with that Steve , more money less grief imo :RpS_thumbup:
 
Where do you live Keith I might be in your backyard

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