As a business owner, you’d be surprised how much the things people say and the way they feel don’t match up. If you’ve ever had to pretend to be happy in the middle of a frustrating situation, you get the idea. But if you can’t read your clients to get a sense of how they are interpreting your interactions, you’re more likely to get on their bad side. Here are five body language cues that help you determine what they really think.

Direction of the Hands
The way the people use their hands can give you some practical insight into their moods, especially as they relate to the discussion. For example, someone who is using big open gestures may be more interested in what you have to say. Someone who keeps their hands at their sides or pointed down might not be as convinced as you think. In some cases, mimicking these gestures can help you relate to the client. Then, as you explain your points, you can turn your hands upward and see if they do too.

Arm Position
As with your hands, the position of the arms tells you how your client is feeling at the moment. Someone who consistently keeps their arms folded or locked tightly to their sides may be nervous. It’s possible that they either do not trust what you are saying, or do not trust the environment that they are in. This type of position indicates that somebody is feeling awkward or out of place. You may be able to set them at ease by offering them a choice of chairs, or the opportunity to meet in a different room.

Position While Sitting or Standing
Even though the arms can tell you a lot about what a person is thinking, you’ve got to take the rest of their body language into consideration as well. There are times when you will have a conversation with a client and you really need their entire focus. You’ll know that you have it if their upper body is turned toward you. By comparison, if it’s turned away from you, your client may be distracted or uninterested in the conversation. You can usually avoid this type of problem by seeing clients in places away from busy activities and loud noises. That way, they are less likely to keep turning around.

Eye Contact
Many types of body language are forms of communication in and of themselves, and eye contact is a good example. Experts have mixed views about the meaning of looking in particular directions before answering a question. Contrary to popular belief, you can’t necessarily tell if someone is lying simply by the way they look around the room. However, people do pick up social cues from the presence or lack of eye contact. If you never make eye contact with someone, they may wonder how committed you are to working with them. If you make prolonged, constant eye contact, they may feel intimidated.

Facial Expressions
Perhaps the most obvious of body language types is the facial expression. Of course, your facial expression can be a way of expressing a variety of feelings, only some of which may relate to the discussion. If friends or family members often tell you that you seem intimidating or angry, it’s worth paying attention to your facial expressions. Look in the mirror and allow yourself to speak naturally and see what happens. Since facial expressions are difficult to read, be wary of drawing too many conclusions from them based on the way your clients look. If they seem confused or frustrated, it’s fine to offer clarification. Otherwise, they might not have a high degree of control over their expressions generally.

Body language is an important part of interpersonal communication and one you’ll need to understand when you’re working with clients. Knowing how to interpret these cues can help you put customers at ease and make more sales. To learn more about becoming a licensed contractor, contact CSLS today!

Building a solid contracting business takes the right kind of attitude. If you’re generally upbeat, you may find it easier to solve problems and avoid stress. If you’re struggling to find reasons to look up, you might create more issues. And your attitude can also spread to the people around you. Here are a few ways that you can keep a positive attitude for yourself and everyone around you.

Start Work on a High Note
When you were a kid, your parents may have made references to waking up on the wrong side of the bed. This idiom describes what happens when you start the day in a negative way. There are lots of reasons that you might wake up in a bad mood, from a difficult night’s sleep to unfortunate news. On these occasions, it’s important to give yourself the time and the freedom to turn your mood around. Find a pleasant distraction or give yourself a small reward as a way to boost your outlook. That way, you’ll start the day happier and less likely to make mistakes.

Emphasize Qualities During Feedback
Throughout the day, you may have lots of opportunities to give feedback on the state of a particular situation. If you’re coping with a problem that isn’t easily solved, it’s tempting to get stuck in a negative thought pattern. Sometimes, all you can find is problems. But when you’re dealing with people, it’s important to find qualities as well. If you have to give negative feedback or criticism, take the time to come up with one or two genuine compliments that you can give as well. When you’re struggling to find something good to say, see if you can wait to give the feedback until later. People are more receptive to criticism if they feel like you’re not just unloading on them.

Learn Something New
If you watch a small child playing with other children, you’ll often see conflict that ends quickly. Children get frustrated at very small things, and then they completely lose interest once they are distracted by something else. This is a trick that you can use to fool yourself out of a bad mood as well. If you find that you’re getting stuck thinking about all the things that are going wrong, shift gears into a completely new way of thinking. One way that you can do this without compromising productivity is to learn something new. Read an article about a subject that interests you in your field. Test out a new piece of equipment, if you have the opportunity. You may discover a renewed sense of curiosity.

Focus on Solutions, Not Problems
Everyone is going to have to deal with problems on occasion. As a business owner, you may have issues that come up on a daily basis. It’s easy to lose sight of your path when you feel like the road is full of obstacles. Instead, set your sights on what you need to do to get to the other side. If the problem seems too big to solve, ask for help or break it up into smaller pieces. Focus on what you need to do to solve the problem in the most efficient and effective way possible. For chronic problems, write down changes that you can make to your processes to ensure that they are less likely to happen in the future.

Avoid Toxic Positivity
There’s a big difference between maintaining positivity for your business and promoting a culture of toxic positivity. Like a pervasive cloud of negativity, toxic positivity can be really damaging to you and your employees. Toxic positivity describes an environment in which people are discouraged from voicing concerns. You’ll know that a business culture leans in this direction if you hear people saying things like, “Just be positive!” or “Look on the bright side!” Having a positive attitude doesn’t mean that you sweep problems under the rug. Instead, it allows you to address issues as they come up, without letting them sink your day.

Creating a positive workplace is an important part of running a successful business. To find out how you can be your own boss as a licensed contractor, visit CSLS today!

If you’ve been wondering whether or not you’re ready for a construction career, there are several ways you can tell. But making a career decision often feels like something you have to hide until you are already most of the way there. Sometimes, if you’re struggling to get to the next step, you just have to find a way to say it out loud. Here are a few tips.

“I Need to Try Something Different.”
In the 20th century, a lot of people expected to work in the same field for the vast majority of their adult lives. These days, hardly anyone expects to stay in the same industry, much less the same kind of job. Plenty of people still do that in construction, but the career plan in many other industries has changed a lot. If you’ve been working in a field that you realize no longer suits you, or if you’re tired of moving from one dead-end job to another, making a change could be an excellent idea. Sometimes, the ability to say that you’re not happy where you are and that you need to try something different is the most important first step.

“I Want More Career Mobility Than I Have Now.”
Our culture still sets the expectation that people should know what they want to do for a living before they get out of middle school, much less college. The problem is that people often enter a career path in their 20s, only to realize that they will peak by the time they’re 25 or 30. After that, they have to fight younger workers for the same jobs they were trying to get 10 years before. If you are in a field that peaks early like this, it’s perfectly sensible to say that you’d rather find a career that allows you to keep moving upward.

“I’ve Spent a Lot of Time Considering My Options.”
Whenever you’re about to make a big change in your life, it’s tempting to spend much more time than you need evaluating your options. It’s even harder if you’re the kind of person who stands at the fork, worried about the road not taken. And of course, you may have friends and family members who encourage you to keep thinking about it, rather than act. But once you’ve looked at your career trajectory at present, and compared it to the jobs that you could have if you go into construction, the only thing left to do is make a decision. In some cases, saying out loud that you’ve put in the work is enough to silence the naysayers, including the one inside your own head.

“I’m Ready to Run My Own Business.”
Many people go into construction because they want to run their own businesses. It’s not that construction is an industry with lower costs for businesses, or some other similarly enticing prospect. Mostly, there are lots of careers in construction that don’t require you to work with a larger company. That makes it easier for people to consider running their own businesses. And if that’s always been a dream of yours, saying it may be a way of kicking those ambitions in gear. And if you’re not quite ready, this statement could be the incentive you need to get there.

“In Five Years, I’ll Be Glad I Made This Decision.”
Many expert advisers tell people not to plan their careers out by the year. Instead, they often say that you should look at where you want to be in the next five years. There’s a couple of reasons for this. First, most people can reasonably expect to work for 40 or 50 years. Planning it out in single-year increments might be overwhelming. Second, you’ll see more progress in a five-year period. If you can imagine the benefits of starting your construction career now, a five-year plan might show you achieving the goals of becoming a licensed contractor or starting your own contracting business.

If you’re ready to go into construction, there are a lot of ways to say it. For assistance in learning what you’ll need to pass the contractor licensing exam, contact CSLS today!

When you work for yourself, you become a big part of your own personal brand. If you want to put yourself and your business in the best possible light, you may need good photography. Research shows that consumers and potential clients expect images to look excellent, and your competition probably already knows this. Here are a few reasons to consider hiring a photographer for your contracting business.

Brand Your Business
When you first start a contracting business, you might be running it all by yourself for a while. For many contractors, faces and names are a big part of their branding. Take a look in the mirror and ask yourself what about you makes clients want to hire you to work on their projects. If you use your own image on your website, you want to present yourself in a way that conveys commitment, professionalism, and other important qualities. A professional photographer can take pictures of you in various poses that you can use on your logo or other aspects of your brand.

Take Your Online Presence to a Higher Level
No one enjoys browsing a website with choppy design and terrible images. Similarly, if you plan to market by social media, you’ll need to add a high-quality image to catch the eye and persuade people to click. As a business owner, your online presence tells people stories about the way your business works. Marketing experts say that images are one of the best ways to convey a feeling to potential customers. If the image is too dark or obviously taken hastily on your phone, they may conclude that you are too quick to cut corners. Professional photography for your website and social media shows that you care about how things look, which is an important part of construction success.

Present a Professional Portfolio
It’s common for prospective clients to ask for a portfolio of images and details about similar projects you’ve completed in the past. You may want to keep one on your website so that customers can browse through it at their leisure. Since this is a point where people are usually getting ready to make a choice, professionalism is important. On the last day of the project, hiring a photographer to create pictures of the finished result is a great idea. You’ll have dazzling photos of your project from multiple angles, making every aspect look its best for posterity.

Keep Up With Competitors
Hiring a photographer is an investment. Sometimes it costs thousands of dollars or even more, depending on what you are asking for. It may make it difficult to justify the investment until you think about your competition. In most cases, contracting businesses have a handful of competitors in the area. In the early years, you’ll be working hard to present a professional persona that sets you apart from the rest. Professional photography can turn a website that looks amateurish to professional.

Save Time and Hassle
In the days where every job takes much of the week and the business only has you, there simply isn’t enough time in the day to do everything. And yet, you do want to present a professional look to clients, subcontractors, and your eventual employees. You can certainly buy an expensive camera and spend your nights and weekends learning how to take pictures of projects, but that takes away from your other work and relaxation time. Hiring a professional photographer saves you time and the hassle of worrying about how to get the best images without having to devote weeks to it.

Part of running a contracting business involves figuring out how to put your best foot forward. Professional photography for your marketing and other parts of your website can help you present an ideal image from the very beginning. To learn more about the things you’ll need for a career in construction, visit CSLS today!

Experts say that you’ll need to practice a new skill a lot in order to master it and remember all the steps in order. Sometimes you have the time to invest, and other times you need to get up to speed quickly. Here are a few ways you can improve your retention, so you can ensure a higher degree of accuracy from the beginning.

Get Invested in the Subject
Everyone has a skill they need to learn that either bores them to death or terrifies them. Most of the things you need to learn for your business won’t fall to either of these extremes, but it’s good to keep it in perspective. One of the best ways to avoid a natural disinclination to learn is to give yourself a reason to do it. Make a list of reasons that you need to develop the skill and make sure that they offer benefits for you. For example, you might note that the skill will help you complete projects more quickly or be able to offer a wider variety of services so that you can earn more money.

Take Good Notes
If the skill you want to learn requires notes, you might as well make them good ones. Most people don’t love the process of writing down the contents of an article or lecture, but experts say it is the best way to get the most out of learning through these methods. Don’t just regurgitate whatever you have read or heard. Give yourself the time to think about what you’re learning and put it into your own words. Practice getting to the point of a subject and being able to summarize it cleanly. That way, when you go back to your notes, you’ll be able to scan for information quickly.

Test Out Your Knowledge
So much of the construction industry involves hands-on skills, and that’s why a lot of people like it. Once you get some research and investigation under your belt, you’ll want to test out your knowledge. Of course, this depends on the thing you’re trying to master, and how easy it is to test out. If you’re learning how to use a new piece of equipment, it’s important to ensure that you can use it safely without risking the health of others either. As a general rule, it’s best to pick a time when you are feeling alert and not in a hurry. Exploring a new process can often tell you as much as you learn by reading about it.

Review the Fundamentals
No one gets behind the wheel of a car and is able to drive perfectly, without effort, from the very first day. Even if you understand the concept and the basic information involved with the skill, you may still need to review standards and guidelines to help you keep control of what you’re doing. Take a moment to look at your notes and review lectures as needed. Watching tutorials more than once can sometimes help you to avoid missing important details. This review process is important for the accuracy of the skill you build, as well as your ability to remember it.

Demonstrate Your Skills
Many experts believe that one of the best ways to solidify your ability to do something is to teach someone else how to do it. In the case of a complicated process or the use of possibly dangerous equipment, you may be demonstrating it more than you are teaching it. However, this process can also help you to put the individual steps into your own language. That makes it easier for you to remember. And when you do find yourself in the position of needing to teach someone how to do it, you will already have the language that you need to explain it in a way that makes sense.

Construction is a career full of skill-building. The faster and the better you can do it, the more you can make it pay off. To learn more about construction careers and how you can become a licensed contractor, contact CSLS today!

As a contracting business owner, you’ll need to carry insurance. And like other expenses you have for your business, you’ll want to get the best deal without compromising on that necessary protection. There are a lot of ways to save money on insurance that allow you to choose the best coverage. Here are a few tips to keep in mind.

Shop Around for Coverage
When you shop for any big purchase, you’ll probably go to a few different places to see which one offers the best product or service at the best price. You should be doing this for a variety of services you keep for your business, especially insurance. Insurance companies often have significantly different rates and package options, and you should check out at least a few of them before you make a choice. In fact, you might even notice different prices between agents of the same company. If price is a big factor for you, be prepared to invest several hours into considering your options.

Find Out How Much You Really Need
As you’re browsing types of insurance for your business, get input from your insurance agent about the amount of coverage you’re likely to need. You definitely don’t want to undercut yourself and end up in a situation where you don’t have enough coverage in the event of an accident or other kind of liability. But you can certainly ask about deductibles and other ways that you can lower the cost for the same level of coverage. It’s worth doing independent research or asking a mentor for information about coverage recommendations, so that you’re not just having to take your agent’s word for it.

Ask About Discounts
Insurance is a highly subjective service. The cost you pay depends on a variety of factors, including:

• Industry
• Area of specialty
• Size of the business
• Experience
• Claims history

Insurance agents may have some flexibility in determining the prices that they offer you for insurance. It’s a good idea to ask about discounts that you might qualify for. When you’re just starting your business, you might not be able to access discounts that require you to prove certain aspects about your business, like safety. But if you sign up for a package deal, including liability insurance and insurance for something else like a company vehicle, you may be able to lower your costs that way.

Update Your Policy
When people start a business and get the insurance they’re required to have, they often assume that their role in the process is done. But if you want to ensure that you continue to get the best price, you’ll need to periodically evaluate your policy. If the nature of your business changes, it’s important to notify your agent and get recommendations about changing your coverage if necessary. Updates may open up new discounts that you didn’t qualify for earlier, and they also ensure that you always have the right amount of coverage when you need it.

Make Safety a Priority
In an industry like construction, the safety of your business and your employees is a significant factor in your insurance costs. Insurance companies prefer to work with contracting businesses that have a strong commitment to safety. That means that you may be able to save a significant amount on your insurance premiums by implementing a safety program and maintaining it on a regular basis. It’s a smart practice to ensure that everyone you work with knows how to do the job safely and protect others. But from an insurance standpoint, safety also saves money on claims. It makes sense that companies that work to minimize injuries and damage will pay less for insurance.

Finding the right insurance coverage at a good price is another part of running a contracting business. For more information about what you’ll need to start your own, contact CSLS today!

There are many educational paths to working in construction, and apprenticeships can be a popular one. The concept of the apprentice is hundreds of years old, presuming that people who wanted to take up a particular trade would study under an expert for years. At the satisfactory conclusion of the apprenticeship, the apprentice would have the skills they need to move into their careers. Here are a few things you should know about construction apprenticeships.

Why Does Construction Offer Apprenticeships?
If you’ve worked in other industries, you might wonder why apprenticeships are much more common in construction. There are many industries in which you can learn everything you need to know simply by doing the job. In others, you might need to pursue a college education in order to get the foundation you need to qualify for the job. Construction is a little different. In this industry, workers can often start doing the most entry-level tasks with relatively little instruction. Over time, they need more support and training to be able to do the work correctly and safely. Apprenticeships are a great way to get that training in a supportive environment, without having to work for free.

How Does an Apprenticeship Work?
If you’re familiar with the concept of internships in other industries, it may be easier to understand how a construction apprenticeship works. Apprenticeships are paid positions, and they usually involve working with a specific company. You have to apply for the apprenticeship, and depending on how popular it is, it may be difficult to get one. The company pays your wages while you are in the apprenticeship, although they may get some of that funding from government grants. During the apprenticeship, you receive on-the-job training and support from a qualified mentor. By the end, you may receive a certification or meet most of the requirements you need to apply for a contractor license.

What Are the Basic Qualifications for an Apprenticeship?
Apprenticeships may have a variety of qualifications. It all depends on the particular job, so it’s a good idea to investigate and make sure that you can meet the requirements before you apply. As a general rule, you can expect these qualifications:

• At least age 16, or 18 for certain jobs
• High school graduate or appropriate alternative
• Ability to do all the tasks that the job requires
• Residency in the region, or a willingness to relocate

In some cases, you may need to have a certain amount of experience in the industry or additional training.

How Does an Apprenticeship Compare to College Education?
In many ways, apprenticeships are comparable to a college education. For example, an apprenticeship gives you access to experts in the field who can teach you and guide you through the tasks, not unlike a college program. Some apprenticeships can last for several years, approaching the length of a four-year college program. In some cases, you can even get college credit for completing an apprenticeship, although that’s heavily dependent on the individual program and school. The biggest difference is that you don’t generally get paid to get a college education, while an apprenticeship usually does provide some kind of stipend.

How Can People Find Available Apprenticeships?
The availability of apprenticeships depends a lot on the area you live in and the field you’re looking to go in. If you’re interested in applying for an apprenticeship, you can search online for options close to you. You may be able to locate them through job-posting websites, or from listings tied to local trade organizations. If you don’t find what you’re looking for, keep searching. The availability of apprenticeships may not follow a typical calendar or school year, as it depends on the company offering it.

An apprenticeship might be a way to jumpstart your construction career. For more information about what you’ll need to become a licensed contractor, contact CSLS today!

When property owners look for a contractor for a project, they are often searching for the lowest price. So it’s not entirely surprising that, on occasion, you might interact with a property owner or a contractor who reveals another contractor’s bid in an effort to get you to lower yours. This concept is known as “bid shopping,” and it is illegal in certain contexts. By understanding it, you can have a better chance of avoiding it.

What Is Bid Shopping?
It’s common for property owners to ask for lots of companies to bid on a project, so that they have various options. This is not the same as bid shopping. When a general contractor is looking for subcontractors for their own bids on a project, they might publicize the bids that they are receiving in the hopes that subcontractors will offer to do the work for a lower price. Bid shopping essentially encourages other contractors to lower their prices in an attempt to secure work.

What’s Wrong With Bid Shopping?
If you have ever done comparison shopping or asked a company to match the price that a competitor is offering, you might wonder what is wrong with bid shopping. As a contracting business owner, you may quickly understand how bid shopping can create significant problems within the industry. There’s already a lot of pressure for small businesses to compete with larger ones by lowering their prices and cutting into their profit margins. Bid shopping can create a “race to the bottom” mentality where the lowest price becomes the biggest factor for general contractors or property owners to determine who gets the bid. If you’re constantly having to cut your bid to meet the lowest price, you may eventually end up losing money on projects.

What’s the Difference Between Bid Shopping and Bid Peddling?
The difference between bid shopping and bid peddling is the person who is doing it. Bid shopping usually involves a general contractor or property owner looking for lower bids from subcontractors. Bid peddling comes from a subcontractor offering lower prices than another subcontractor in the hopes that they can supplant that subcontractor for the same job. Both actions can be sneaky and unethical, they just come from different directions.

Is Bid Shopping Illegal?
In many cases, bid shopping is illegal. In fact, California state law requires that for public projects, contractors have to publish a list of the subcontractors whom they would hire to complete the work for the project. With a few exceptions, this law makes it much harder for contractors to substitute a lower-bidding subcontractor on a whim. Outside of this context, however, it may not be illegal. It’s worth keeping in mind that most professional organizations in construction dislike the practice, mostly because it kills profit margins and makes it more difficult for businesses to thrive in a competitive environment.

What Should I Do If I Encounter Bid Shopping?
Although bid shopping is often illegal and generally looked down upon, you may still encounter it on occasion. The best thing you can do is to understand the laws for submitting bids to a contractor. If there’s a contractor in your area who you find is trying to push the envelope to see what they can get, try to avoid doing business with them in the future. Ask your lawyer about adding clauses in your contracts to protect the confidentiality of your bid. You won’t be able to get rid of bid shopping entirely, but you can establish yourself as an above-board contractor who prizes a healthy industry. You’ll be able to build more credibility with that view anyway.

Bid shopping is a problem in construction, but if you know what to look for, you can generally avoid it. For more advice about getting started in construction, visit CSLS today!

When you start researching the various things you need to start a contracting business, you might be surprised by the simplicity. In fact, you don’t need a degree in business or years of experience handling money to get started. But there are a few things that you should make sure you’ve done before you open. Keep these five things in mind.

Find Your Target Market
Once you start your business, you’ll be eager to build a steady stream of new customers. But before you can do that, you need to figure out who your target market is and how you can find them. You can search online to determine which people are most likely to need your services. Then, you can do more research to learn how they find businesses like yours when they need one. This step is not as simple as it looks. You might need a month or two to get answers to these questions. The good news is, you’ll have a much better chance of securing clients once you know where they are.

Figure Out Your Funding Options
People who start a small business often rely on a variety of types of funding, including:

• Personal savings
• Gifts or donations from family and friends
• Crowdfunding
• Credit
• Business loans

The amount of money you need depends a lot on the type of services you’re going to provide. For example, if you’re planning to focus on home repairs, you might not need as much as you would if you want to become a builder of new construction. Research your options and how to apply for different kinds of funding. That way, you’ll be prepared once your business is ready to go.

Make a Plan for Advertising
Construction professionals often rely on word of mouth to get new clients, but you may not want to make this your only option. You don’t need to have a hugely expensive or complicated marketing strategy, but you should probably have something. Think about how you would like people to find out about your business, whether that’s an ad in the local newspaper, online advertisements, or even your business’s name on your vehicle. Get a sense for what you can expect to pay for advertising so that you can budget for it once you have some funds to work with.

Research Rules for Starting a Business
Every state has specific rules that you have to follow when you want to start a business. Your city may also have guidelines that you need to obey as well. In order to get a license, you usually need to pick a business name that is unique and pay a fee in order to get your license. As a general rule, you should plan to maintain a business license, even if the business name is your own name and you’re planning to operate as a sole proprietor. If you decide to create an LLC or a corporation, you’ll need to follow those rules as well.

Prepare for the Contractor Licensing Exam
If you haven’t taken the contractor licensing exam yet, you’ll need to do that before you can open your contracting business. Keeping a current license shows your clients that you are committed to performing professional work that will provide a good investment for them. One of the best ways to ensure that you can pass the contractor licensing exam is to complete a course of preparation in advance. Exam preparation helps you understand what you can expect on the test and confirm that you have the right knowledge to get the desired result.

Starting your own contracting business might be a dream that you’ve had for years. If you do these things beforehand, you’ll have a good sense of where to go next. To get started, visit CSLS today!

Marketing is one of the best ways that customers can find you. But if you’re not investing time into it, you might find that you’re not getting a very good return. It’s tempting to set up your marketing and hope it will run by itself, but without occasional changes, sometimes you get stuck in a rut. Here’s how you can get out.

Get Data on Your Marketing Efforts
The first thing that you need to do is figure out what is working and what isn’t. In many cases, business owners start to gather data on their marketing strategies and discover that only some of the parts aren’t working. For example, your marketing might be driving lots of people to your website or your social media, even if it doesn’t lead to conversions. You don’t want to drop the first in favor of the second. There are a handful of free data-collection services that you can take advantage of, but it may be worth investing in a paid version that provides detailed insights that you can use to tweak your strategy.

Rethink Your Marketing Approach
There are a few things that you should know about marketing, including the fact that the most popular approaches change on a regular basis. This means that if you are taking marketing tips from five years ago, or even ones from last year, they may not be very relevant today. Regardless of your clientele, you’ll probably need to do more than rely on word-of-mouth or minimal advertising. This will likely require you to invest a bit more, usually in the form of money but also time. The good news is that trying out new methods gives you more information to make your marketing work more efficiently.

Look for New Sales Channels
In order to tailor your marketing strategy, you need to consider all possible sales channels for your business. The right ones depend on the type of business that you do. For example, if you work primarily with non-business clients, you might want to market your services directly or through an intermediary. An intermediary is a company that offers an auxiliary product or service through which you may be able to secure new customers. If you’re having a hard time getting clients by marketing to them directly, this may be a practical approach.

Try New Advertising Formats
Marketing may seem like one of the driest, most boring aspects of running a business. But it doesn’t have to be. In fact, improving your marketing and sales can sometimes be much more interesting and engaging than you expect. If you’ve gone through traditional advertising approaches and you’re not getting a big return, there isn’t much risk in trying something completely new. Create a YouTube channel with tips for consumers. Market your business on TikTok. We might be surprised how many new prospective customers you find.

Create Customer-Focused Marketing Plans
In some ways, marketing may be simpler than you think. Realistically, your primary goal is to ensure that your marketing efforts reach the customers most likely to pay for your services. This means you have to figure out where they spend their time and how your advertising can reach them. Keep in mind that the type of advertising depends on where prospective customers are in the decision-making process. If you focus too much of your advertising on discovery and not enough on persuading them to hire you, you might have leads but no sales. If you spend too much time pushing them to choose you, they may feel overwhelmed and back away. Plan to formulate different types of marketing and make sure that you’re covering potential clients at every stage of the process. That way, they won’t feel like you’re drowning them or leaving them out in the cold.

Changing up your marketing strategy is a great way to get out of a rut and get more sales. First, you need to be a licensed contractor. To find out how expert exam preparation can help you, contact CSLS today!