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Hello jerryf1956, did you happen to read the various posts on this thread? I believe Denny outlined a number of great suggestions for getting the word out on the services your husband has to offer. If I remember correctly there were also others who had suggestions. I'll just throw in a few more, feed stores sometimes have bulletin boards that you can post notices on, cafes and restaurants also will have boards a lot of the time and are favorite haunts of many farmers and ranchers. Sometimes, depending on the particular tractor or farm equipment dealership and whether they offer welding services themselves you may be able to post up some advertisements with them. If your husband builds any trailers or other sorts of goods you might see about putting them out in strategic locations with identifying signs or billboards letting people know who built them and where they can get a hold of you if they have an interest in these products or services. Truck stops are another possible form of contact for finding folks who need welding done, however a word of caution in this arena, money upfront is probably a good way to approach work in this area as the customers from this sector may be hard to track down to collect from at times.
The best way to get a start is to simply do his first job and do it well, as promised, and at a reasonable and fair cost. Word of mouth will generally take care of the rest. Good luck and best regards, aevald
What is his forte? Pipe,structural, fabrication, etc. What processes? GTAW, SMAW, FCAW, GMAW.
Get professional business cards; not the thin ones like a newspaper. Find every construction job in your range. Find the general contractor. They may need a welder or the masons, metal studs, especially the iron workers and mechanical contractors. Plumbers need gas pipe welded if over 2" dia. If nothing on that job ask if they have other jobs and visit them. Always try to talk to the superintendant or foreman. Be prepared to give a hourly rate or firm price if they insist. Leave cards with the superintendant. If the project manager is on site try him or her. They usually have a few jobs going on besides the one you are visiting.
On these jobs you will need insurance. General liability and workers comp. The WC will be a dummy policy when starting out with one man. It doesn't pay you if injured at work only gives the company you are contracting with a certificate so you can't sue them. Yea it stinks and is a racket(don't want to get started on insurance companies) Maybe different in other states.
Some work will not require the insurance but you will open many more opportunities if you have it.
Don't get discouraged it may take a little while, it often takes being in the right place at the right time.
You may walk into a great opportunity early in your search.
When starting out you MUST go to the work to find it, it will not come to you. Be confident and professional when dealing with the prospects. Too timid and they won't use you. You can get more work by being the lowest rate but you will probably regret it later. If you are good then charge what others charge in that area. I'd rather work 10hrs @50/hr than 20hrs @25/hr.
More info might help others reply with other tips.
Being a perfectionist is not always necessary in all situations. Learn quick when to be and when not to be one.
Good luck to you.
Hello Tim, some very good points, especially the last one. Regards, Allan
Thanks Allan. Another couple of tips are to speak to the rental companies. United Rental, Sunbelt, Hertz etc. They know where the jobs are. Or they might need welding/repairs to there equipment. Suppliers also know where the construction projects are. Fastenal, Ensco, etc. are local to this area. Miscellaneous fabricators (stairs, rail etc) usually fabricate the product and sub out the erection. If interested in that you can search them on the net then call, visit if within range(sometimes they are in another state and need misc. steel contractors in your area) or send letter w/cards to inquire about work.
Basicly my husband does repair work. Broken excavators "on the site" or broken backhoes. Basicly almost anything metal that needs repair. He uses, smaw, gmaw, oxy fuel welding and brazing. He also does fabrication. The reason he went into this origionally, we had a backhoe for doing work on our property. It was an older model, but worked great. We were in the middle of digging a site on the land for a basement, when the yoke on the boom broke. He had limited time to get the hole dug. As the cold was coming on fast. And he wouldnt have been able to get the cement guys out after a specific period of time. So he was stuck getting a welder. The local ones were all booked solid. So he had to get a guy over an hour away at over 100 an hour. The guy did the job. And saved the day. But at a cost of close to 300 bucks for a short job. Of course for travel time etc... Which is understandable. Not long after that, the same thing happened to his friend who had damage to his kabota tractor. And neither of them at the time, had their own welder. They both ended up getting a small welder after that. Just to save. As they were both welding at work anyway. Were we are, there are a "lot" of rich "gentlemen" farmers. Who think nothing of paying big for really silly things. More money than brains types. And dont have the time to learn to weld much more go to merriam and graves to buy one. I thank you for your suggestions. We will try to implement it. It is still early in the game. So I know it is too soon to get nervous. Thanks again.
My husband is not much of a "people" person. Should I go out and act as a salesman for him? Do you think that the companies would be open to that.I am very people oriented, and have worked in in customer service for years. So I know how to deal with people in business. I have made out large, proffessional looking business cards. On good, thick, laminated paper. With the logo, etc... And have no fears on handing them to companies etc... Do you think this might help? Kathy
jerryf1956 I run a business in a different field for a short time but I can tell you word of mouth is the best advertising you can get to work a local area. If your husband has a light day or an empty day....invest some gasoline into the business and go visit prospective customers in person....a lot of times a smile and a handshake, associating a face with a pleasant personality is all it takes to get someone to make that call. Farm types try to do a lot of their own repair work and often end up dragging some implement to a professional eventually...for a lot of rework/repair. Anyone can send a biz card in the mail....placing a face with that biz card will often make the difference. Visit any factories or industrial type places in the area as well ...all have needs for welding at one time or another. Its just a suggestion but pounding the pavement brought business to me and people talked....then it just started coming on its own by the grace of God.
Best Regards
Tommy
Does anyone have any idea why I can't view ANY of the pictures on the previous page? I would really like to see the set-ups, as i have been considering doing the same thing for a few years now. Thanks.
My guess it is because this is an old thread, and they have been removed, or the service that stored them is no longer in busness. Just a guess however.
Thank you for your help. I will step out in the field and start passing out cards. And selling the business. We have advertised, and as I said sent out flyers. But you are right. They probably would rather see a face.I have even thought of running a charity event to get people to see the name. I did send in a press release on his business. And they are going to do a write up in the paper about him. So hopefully that might get the word out too. Thank you again.
Kathy
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