Before we go any further, let me say this: congratulations on starting your business! You obviously worked very hard to get to this point and it is important that we take a moment to acknowledge that. Take pride in passing your tests and getting your license! Believe it or not, this is the first step in actually getting people to hire you. After all, if you’re not proud of yourself and the work that you’ve done already, why should anybody else, right?
First Steps
Before you start offering construction and excavation services, you need to do some ground work. For example, in many states simply passing your licensing exams does not automatically make you a licensed contractor. You have to pass them to obtain a license, yes, but getting your license involves applying for it in your state. You might also have to apply in your city or county. Check with your local laws about what you need to do to legally be able to take on contracting jobs. If you live close to a state line, don’t forget to get licensed in your neighboring state as well! Licenses are not federally granted. You don’t want to have to turn down work less than a mile away, do you?
Along with getting your license, you will also need to get bonded and insured before you can spend even thirty seconds working as a professional contractor. In addition to general liability, you will also need concrete accessories and construction equipment, make sure your employees are set up for worker’s comp and even cover your pollution liability. You may also consider working with a company that provides Xactimate estimates to help you provide price estimates on your projects.
Bonds are also important. According to EcontractorInsurance, a contractor insurance and bonding company, bonds “are designed to guarantee contractor integrity, quality performance, and financial responsibility. Bonds also ensure compliance with a contract and especially laws formatted by the state in which operation is undergone in.”
You’ll need to have your license, bonding and insurance information set up before you start taking on clients. In fact, you’re required to disclose the information on all of your official documents and contracts so you’ll need to to have it set up to take on clients in the first place! Once you’ve gotten it squared away, you can promote your company.
Here’s how you do that online.
Get a Website
A lot of new contractors try to cut cost corners here. They think that they can simply set up a Facebook page and Google Business Listing and call it good. But, as Darren Slaughter points out in this video, doing that puts your business at the mercy of someone else’s profit margins. While it’s great to have a social media presence (we’ll talk about this in a minute), you need a place on the internet that is your very own. You will want to have a fully fleshed out website. This doesn’t necessarily mean a massive and complicated site, just something that tells people who you are, what you do and how they can contact you.
At a bare minimum, your site should include a home page and pages for:
- “About Us”
- Hours of Operation/How to Contact Us
- Rates
- Client testimonials/reviews
- Simple blog (where you can post before/after photos of projects, talk about any community outreach you might do, etc)
Get An Online Life
Social media, as we already mentioned, is incredibly important. You need to have an active social media presence. At the very least, you’ll want your business to have its own Facebook page, Google+ page, Twitter account and Pinterest account. And you will want to post to each of these places at least three times a day: two regular/personable updates and one promotional.
There are a lot of great resources out there that will teach you how to build a solid social media presence for your company. While you’re learning, though, always remember the 80/20 rule whenever you’re on social media: never let blatant promotions take up more than 20% of your communications. Otherwise, why would anybody follow you for more than a few minutes at a time?
Make sure, while you are building your social media presence, that you setup your Google Local page in your Google+ account. Google Local is important for any business, but it especially important for contractors and local service providers. Having a good Google Local page setup will increase your chances of being found through Google searches in your area–even when the searcher doesn’t specifically type in your town or city as a qualifier.
Get Offline
What, what? Yes! Get off of the computer and go out into your community! Help sponsor local events–particularly those where contracting help might be needed. Help facilitate community clean up projects and community service days. Donate supplies when you can. Run classes and workshops for local kids (you can partner with your local library to help ensure that you actually have kids to teach). Buy booth space at local business and arts fairs.
All of these things build community goodwill toward you and your business. Parents will remember that you taught their kids how to build birdhouses and think of you when they need a home repair done. Your event co-sponsors will remember you when their own clients need a contractor. Word of mouth is a powerful tool, even online. People will talk about you on Yelp and in their own social media pages and accounts.
Plus, if you take lots of photos you can create blog posts about these events and things that you do and publish those posts on your website. This gives your site a regular influx of new content which makes the Google SEO spiders happy and will raise your rankings.
Beyond this, you can buy ads on other local sites. You can invest in PPC. You can run Facebook ads and spend money promoting your page in their system so that people will actually see it. There are lots of things you can do. Start with the hints we’ve listed here. You’ll be surprised at how many other ideas you get from doing them!
