Five Easy Steps To Jump Start Your Deck (Or Other) Business

Do the following five steps, and you will get as much busines as you want:

STEP 1. Using your computer (or even a typewriter, if they still exist), make up a flyer on plain white 20# bond paper, *three* flyers per sheet, with this exact wording:
------------------------------------------------------
Hello,

My name is (your name) . I beautify and restore wood decks. If you have a deck that needs some work, please give me a call. I'll be happy to drop by and give you a free estimate.

Thanks,

Your Name
555)555-5555
-------------------------------------------------------

Before you have the flyers printed, sign your FIRST NAME only above your name and phone number.

STEP 2. Have the flyers printed and cut (remember, there are 3 flyers per sheet --- each flyer is only 1/3 of a page).

STEP 3. Using a flyer delivery service (or do it yourself or hire someone to do it), have the flyers delivered door-to-door in the neighborhoods you would like to work (presumably, in neighborhoods where people have decks!) Put out as many as you can afford, but 1,000 would be the absolute minimum. Ten thousand would be better.

STEP 4. Take take the calls, do the estimates, do the work and get paid.

STEP 5. Put out more flyers, and keep doing so until you have as much business as you want.

Why this works: Your flyer will be viewed as a personal note, not advertising. It WILL get read, when other flyers get tossed. (Some people who call will even say "I just got your note, and...") Also, many homeowners who have decks will save your flyer and call you at a later date. Believe it or not, I've had people call me as long as 7 YEARS after I put out this kind of flyer for a business I started in 1990!

This flyer works for any kind of service business. Try it. If people want what you have to offer, you'll get instant results!

--- Hugh

Dear Hugh,
That's a great idea! I actually post flyers like this on people's mailbox posts and I never thought about using a letter format like that. Thanks for the great tip! Just out of curiousity, what kind of percentages does that pull for you?
Joe

> Do the following five steps, and you will
> get as much busines as you want:

> STEP 1. Using your computer (or even a
> typewriter, if they still exist), make up a
> flyer on plain white 20# bond paper, *three*
> flyers per sheet, with this exact wording:
>
> ------------------------------------------------------
> Hello,

> My name is (your name) . I beautify and
> restore wood decks. If you have a deck that
> needs some work, please give me a call. I'll
> be happy to drop by and give you a free
> estimate.

> Thanks,

> Your Name
> 555)555-5555
>
> -------------------------------------------------------

> Before you have the flyers printed, sign
> your FIRST NAME only above your name and
> phone number.

> STEP 2. Have the flyers printed and cut
> (remember, there are 3 flyers per sheet ---
> each flyer is only 1/3 of a page).

> STEP 3. Using a flyer delivery service (or
> do it yourself or hire someone to do it),
> have the flyers delivered door-to-door in
> the neighborhoods you would like to work
> (presumably, in neighborhoods where people
> have decks!) Put out as many as you can
> afford, but 1,000 would be the absolute
> minimum. Ten thousand would be better.

> STEP 4. Take take the calls, do the
> estimates, do the work and get paid.

> STEP 5. Put out more flyers, and keep doing
> so until you have as much business as you
> want.

> Why this works: Your flyer will be viewed as
> a personal note, not advertising. It WILL
> get read, when other flyers get tossed.
> (Some people who call will even say "I
> just got your note, and...") Also, many
> homeowners who have decks will save your
> flyer and call you at a later date. Believe
> it or not, I've had people call me as long
> as 7 YEARS after I put out this kind of
> flyer for a business I started in 1990!

> This flyer works for any kind of service
> business. Try it. If people want what you
> have to offer, you'll get instant results!

> --- Hugh

you'll get "some" response from "dummies" but more than likely you'll get a call telling you that IF you put anymore "crap" on their property they'll call the police and file a "Littering" charge!

Don Alm

> Do the following five steps, and you will
> get as much busines as you want:

> STEP 1. Using your computer (or even a
> typewriter, if they still exist), make up a
> flyer on plain white 20# bond paper, *three*
> flyers per sheet, with this exact wording:
>
> ------------------------------------------------------
> Hello,

> My name is (your name) . I beautify and
> restore wood decks. If you have a deck that
> needs some work, please give me a call. I'll
> be happy to drop by and give you a free
> estimate.

> Thanks,

> Your Name
> 555)555-5555
>
> -------------------------------------------------------

> Before you have the flyers printed, sign
> your FIRST NAME only above your name and
> phone number.

> STEP 2. Have the flyers printed and cut
> (remember, there are 3 flyers per sheet ---
> each flyer is only 1/3 of a page).

> STEP 3. Using a flyer delivery service (or
> do it yourself or hire someone to do it),
> have the flyers delivered door-to-door in
> the neighborhoods you would like to work
> (presumably, in neighborhoods where people
> have decks!) Put out as many as you can
> afford, but 1,000 would be the absolute
> minimum. Ten thousand would be better.

> STEP 4. Take take the calls, do the
> estimates, do the work and get paid.

> STEP 5. Put out more flyers, and keep doing
> so until you have as much business as you
> want.

> Why this works: Your flyer will be viewed as
> a personal note, not advertising. It WILL
> get read, when other flyers get tossed.
> (Some people who call will even say "I
> just got your note, and...") Also, many
> homeowners who have decks will save your
> flyer and call you at a later date. Believe
> it or not, I've had people call me as long
> as 7 YEARS after I put out this kind of
> flyer for a business I started in 1990!

> This flyer works for any kind of service
> business. Try it. If people want what you
> have to offer, you'll get instant results!

> --- Hugh




$1200 A Day Renewing Decks!

> you'll get "some" response from
> "dummies" but more than likely
> you'll get a call telling you that IF you
> put anymore "crap" on their
> property they'll call the police and file a
> "Littering" charge!

Don,

Maybe you didn't read Hugh's post correctly. I think what you're saying is unlikely to happen....

At least around here, we get advertising material in the mailbox all the time, it's a part of life. Those who REALLY don't want it, put "No Junk Mail" signs on their mailboxes and don't get any....

I know. For a while as a teenager, I used to deliver advertising material like this on weekends!

I think Hugh's idea is a great one! And I agree - people will probably be more likely to respond to advertising if it looks like a personal note....

- Dien Rice

What I said holds for Australian regulations.... Looks like regulations vary from region to region in the USA.

I just read Lawrence's post and Joseph Cooper's post too, they clarified a lot!

http://www.sowpub.com/cgi-bin/forum/webbbs_config.pl?read=8241

http://www.sowpub.com/cgi-bin/forum/webbbs_config.pl?read=8245

Thanks for these clarifications and ideas... Great stuff! :)

- Dien

Joe,

The game is to get out high numbers of flyers and not worry too much about percentage of response. You've got to get the numbers out there (and in the right neighborhoods) to see if there's a market for your service. If there is, you WILL get business.

When I used this flyer to start my business, I hired a flyer delivery service and had them put out 10,000 flyers in an fairly affluent area of the San Fernando Valley (Los Angeles). The service cost me $450.00 plus the cost of printing the flyers. (Way, way cheaper than mailing letters or post cards.) My "note" was delivered directly to the homeowner's door step, along with 3 or 4 other flyers (which were all typical "advertisement-type" flyers --- guess which one stood out of the crowd!)

Before a week was out, I had 90 some calls and I stopped counting. That was only about .9%, but I was totally overwhelmed with business. My occupation line on the flyers was "I clean, repair and install rain gutters and downspouts."

I actually knew very little about the rain gutter business at the time, but I was in dire need of getting an income quick! The entire extent of my experience was spending two weeks hanging around with my brother-in-law, who was in the business.

This is going to sound amazing, but it's true: I put out these flyers just twice, 10,000 each time, spaced about 4 months apart. That was 12 years ago, and I never had to spend one more cent on advertising, and I've been busy ever since! (All of my business since then has been referrals and repeat customers.)

In other words, this little flyer totally jumped started my business!

Over the years, I've shared this "jump start" flyer technique with many others. All I can say is this: If you have something to offer that homeowners want, "It works".

By the way, I had to borrow the money to get started. Glad I did!

--- Hugh

Most of the people who responded to my flyer were pretty smart.

However, I did get one or two "dummies", just like you thought. But they were happy to pay for the work too, just like the smart ones.

And I guess I was lucky. Not one single person tried to get me on a littering charge!

---- Hugh

P.S. If you have a technique for getting ONLY smart people to respond, I sure would like to know what it is!

I've checked into this flyer distribution thing and one is fully within their rights to put flyers on people's mailbox posts. If this were not allowed, the only way to distribute materials would be through the Post Office, and this would constitute an illegal monopoly/ anti-competitive situation.
There's no such thing as a "Littering charge". This is a made up term used as a scare tactic to make people think they have to buy Don's $1500 product in order to start a deck business without getting in trouble. This is a complete falsehood. If there were such thing as a "littering charge", the post office would be paying this charge every day for delivering junk mail. Nice try Don but I think everyone's a little smarter than you may think.

> you'll get "some" response from
> "dummies" but more than likely
> you'll get a call telling you that IF you
> put anymore "crap" on their
> property they'll call the police and file a
> "Littering" charge!

> Don Alm

I really think Don was taking issue with the content of the flyer and not the placing of ads on mailbox posts in his post because in his original information e-mail that he sent out on deck renewal, he described how he placed his own ads on mailbox posts.

For some reason Don thinks that any other marketing letter other than his own won't work.

Kyle

> I've checked into this flyer distribution
> thing and one is fully within their rights
> to put flyers on people's mailbox posts. If
> this were not allowed, the only way to
> distribute materials would be through the
> Post Office, and this would constitute an
> illegal monopoly/ anti-competitive
> situation.
> There's no such thing as a "Littering
> charge". This is a made up term used as
> a scare tactic to make people think they
> have to buy Don's $1500 product in order to
> start a deck business without getting in
> trouble. This is a complete falsehood. If
> there were such thing as a "littering
> charge", the post office would be
> paying this charge every day for delivering
> junk mail. Nice try Don but I think
> everyone's a little smarter than you may
> think.