Thanks for the reply and the kind words. I also enjoy your post , its nice to see some integrators helping and most of all sharing . We are all in different states but the same industry so its always great to learn from each others mistakes and successes.

No problem and you’re welcome.

Feel free to send me a private e-mail through this site if you ever want to speak privately. Believe it or not, even though most of my posts are not sugar coated, I still have to maintain some sort of decorum for this site which makes it difficult to get really down & dirty.

As Gordon Gecko said, “The most important commodity I know of is information.”

Losboskie

Here’s another one since you are doing commercial.

Offer to do a free technology asessment and system health check.  Call and ask if they have any important meetings coming up that they want to assure they are ready for.

You will find all the fun stuff we see in commercial.  Cables on the floor, flatpanels with less inputs than sources and cables with tape on them, telling people which wires to switch, Residential receivers used to power boardroom speakers and then another pair of speakers on “zone 2” for the mic input, etc.

These are common place right now with resi guys entering commercial space who don’t even know what a mic input is, or gain over feedback, etc.

I run into them all the time and can get some work in this space (under 5k) but more importantly make allies for when budgets come back and its remodel time.

There is nothing wrong with opening new markets, but unfortunately many unlike yourself, Dave, Morgan, Isaac etc have done enough research or acquired the education to know where the differences are and how they should be addressed.

Gotta hand it to you again Mark… I completely forgot about this strategy!

When I first opened my doors, I remember purchasing a business mailing list, then went to the post office for a, “Bulk Rate,” postal permit, and then to the printer to make postcards that offered a $.99 cent complete equipment review.  (I didn’t go the, “Free,” route because I thought the minute I ever saw a, “free,” offer on a post card, I tossed it out.) Between the mailing list, postal permit, and printing charges, I think it cost me $250.00 for about 800 cards. Keep in mind, this was 1989.

The funny thing is, not only did we get a ton of business back then, the bank manager made fun of me for depositing dozens of checks for 99 cents.

Thanks for reminding me and the rest of us of a classic technique!

Dave

I read somewhere on the board, can’t remember where. Someone mentioned doing an assesment on wiring and systems in place for realtors. I live in Marathon FL, and am thinking about offering this service. What do you think would be a fair price for a service like this. I know I should offer it at a reasonable price because it will probably generate residual business. Thank you all for all the great information you offer here. I have owned a business in a different industry, and I can say that it was not as welcoming and helpful as the people here in the CE world. The attitude displayed in this forum is what keeps an industry and it’s business owners thriving. Kudos to you all.

This recent article touches on the idea:
http://www.cepro.com/article/ce_marketing_forget_builders_focus_on_movers/K5

As for rates, that’s something you’ll have to iron out.  Some would suggest you offer a free assesment in order to land the bigger job.  Others argue that you should get paid for your expertise and therefor have a standard rate like $150 which you could then say will apply to the work you get as a result.  Perhaps some combination - where you offer a free assesment, but in the process collect enough data to put together some valuable documentation you could then sell them.  Perhaps a set of plans showing all their wiring could be sold to them for $500… $1k.  Again, this will be something you’ll have to test the market on.