This blog is for contractors who are starting out on the long hard road to Establishment. Its My Business not how too or Your Business because any advice is just a guide , I do not know if your prepared to put in the grind in and go through whatever gets in your way to achieve your goals and then again you may be a very determined individual who is prepared to work a lot harder than me.
I get approached for advice mainly from guys in the USA and that is ironic because it's the deck builders in the USA that inspired me and still do. The most common words i hear is My competition is this company or I have a lot of competition and do not get me wrong I am very very competitive but I know that the only competition I have is myself. All I have to do is my best , You have not got a hope in hell against someone who will literally move
Mountains to make it and you are half hearted.
In other words focus on yourself and not other people. I learned to build my own web pages and educated myself on how
to use the internet . I just never liked the conversations with companies who offered
this service you spend between 5 and 10k to have a decent campaign then there is the maintenance ext and when your in business anyone having any control that is what you call leverage
if you are prepared to sit down and learn how to use social media and the internet its
Probably the most important part of your business your marketing skills . I did not realise how clued up I was until I started working with marketing Companies when I would be making videos and running campaigns. Business coaches , I was talking to a contractor and he mentioned his coach I asked what he meant and he told me he has a business coach basically a person who has made it and just wants to devote his or her time to helping others achieve their dreams , I said for free ? I think you know how the conversation went why would a person who has made millions want to squander time the most valuable thing in the world rather than spend it with family or friends or just enjoy life. Your business coach is experience . There is no work life balance you start out and work long hours 7 days a week to be able to get yourself to a position where you can enjoy life. I take a week off after every project and I only work February to October so about 5 months a year is spent in work and I love my work but I also don't want life to pass me by. So its Life not balance and you need to be doing something you enjoy or its a sentence not a life.
Grow the Brand
A name for your company with key words is fine but a logo creates a brand and its giving you company a personality to what is associated to that brand I worked hard to achieve that and my logo is in some of my clients decks by request like a signature , I can't think of any better testament to my brand. That was the main reason to finishing sponsored work I didn't see how I could grow myself while I am growing other companies brand everyone thinks sponsorship is great but it takes a lot of time to make a short video and get it to the right places. I still write articles mainly for my web page but its something I enjoy.
Google and Social Media controlling the beast
I took a step back from social media this year it was taking up too much of my time I closed Instagram and Twitter the only platforms I use now are Facebook , Pinterest and the most valuable platform of all YouTube Why not Google ? It's the same platform and my Google profile comes in 2nd after YouTube. Let me tell you why. If you can stand in front of a camera and tell people why you are building something and what your plans are for that project then that creates a lot of credibility giving a good description on the internet is essential Google likes information for human beings to read. I build a lot of big decks and around 80% of that work has gone through YouTube it may not have started there but people can see projects through every stage and there are a lot of decks I have over a hundred videos on that platform. I know exactly where my work comes from and what those people searched for through Analytics so I change Hashtags from time to time or even remove them when I want to slow inquiries down. I hope this gives you some insight into what's involved and there is still the small matter of building designing decks that are going to build your portfolio . Good luck and Grind to Live do not Live to Grind.
Simon Thomas
Simon Thomas Deck & Design