I work through 2 tackle shops and independently in my home. It seems my name has spread and a last summer a large local sporting goods store contacted me to verify that I am REEL. They asked me for my business cards which I gave them 5 with my phone number but get calls through them regularly. Today at a small sportsman's flea market the local Cabela's/Bass Pro shop employee asked me for my info as they had heard about me and want to make referrals. Now I am flattered and grateful but I see this getting out of hand. I am particularly concerned about all the traffic in and out of my home. I think I am going to limit in house drop off and pick up to a few hours 3 days a week. Maybe Tues 10a-2p. Thurs 2p- 7p. and a few hours on Sat or Sun as I feel like it.
How do you handle the traffic if you work from home?
Thank you
My cards have only my phone and email numbers; no physical address, so people need to call before coming by. I tell repeat customers -- about 80% of my business -- to call before they drop by. That worked fairly well for over a decade. These days I've had to cut back considerably -- I had been doing over 1100 reels per year -- and people are pretty considerate once they know how and why I've cut back. But I think he most important thing is printing your business cards without your address.
Agree with Bill --
And 99% of my work is by mail.
Best,
Fred
No address on my cards, not even a phone number, just my email. The 2 shops take in work and I pick up and drop off at their location. People contact me on Face Book as I have a FB page and will post on local fishing sites or as the one shop already does is pass my phone number on to clients. Have people call and drop in only when I set the time. Just nothing regular and I think I can establish some boundaries now it will be better.
I don't do reels but thought about charging more for local customers unless it's through the mail. It's time consuming and usually inconvenient to be there at the appointed time.
-steve
My FFL does appts, he does appts on weekends and some nights only. Again, there is work involved in doing this.
I prefer to have customers mail in their gear. My home office is the official business address, so all packages are delivered there, but the shop address is not listed. Those that do come by the shop are pretty much by appt only. It becomes way too easy to "swing by Tom's and see what he's doing". I'm working! ;D ;D
In my city, when I applied for the business liscense, they were very detailed about foot and vehicle traffic to my residential address as a big no-no, but that's California...
I would set clear and fast rules, most will respect your wishes.
Good luck!
Tom
I have tried to limit all service through my shops. It is easier to manage and better to have control over quantity. Some locals still want to drop them off. I limit that to days I will be in the shop. Call first and make an appointment. I am working on a drop off bin for all others. I will pick up and drop off if convenient. I had a some service tags made up that requires name, address phone and email address. All sequential numbered. That way billing is much easier and no lost reels.
Andy
Another option is to have the shop take the reels in, and you stop by weekly or biweekly to drop off completed reels, and pick up new ones. There are seversl local shops that use this method. The reel tech leaves tags with the shop to fill out and attach to each reel. Downside is the shop may take in more reels than you have time to work on. You can however inform the shop to let custoners know turnaround times are longer (i.e 3 - 6 weeks) to give yourself a buffer when you get overloaded. If the shop doesn't want to do this for you, limit service to shops that do.
Either way you want to find a way to limit your contact with customers to when/how you want, and be able to manage workloads and turn around time.
Another approach is to start a list on call ins/service requests and only take in as many reels/week as you want to work on. Give customers a wait time to drop off, and a turnaround time to pickup/dropff times limited to posted hours, like 1 or 2 days a week.
Pick one way, stay consistent.
Local shops typically say turnaround is 3-6weeks, that way they can catch up if too msny reels are at hand. If not, the customer will be happy if the work is complted early.
I always liked to call custoners and provide an estimate on what there bill might be before proceeding too, but I focused on big game reels which can get pricy. I typically overestimated costs slightly and almost always completed work under the estimate.
Good luck!
John
When I first started I worked thru local tackle shop all pick up and delivery was done thru the shop. They got a small piece of the price, but keep my privacy. Done this for over five years. This can get crazy because they would accept any broken reels. One I will never forget was a barnacle covered reel that a customer found during a fishing trip. Now I only service to small group of locals.
I used to have a home business license,,,,, :D but there's always a nosey neighbors that's going to call the city and then there going to knock on you door because they need help starting there lawnmower,,,,, >:( but I help them anyway,,,,,,,, ;D
Yeah, keep thy neighbors happy,
I work from home and my trucks rarely move as I take an uber to the airport for business trips.
I had a few neighbors call city on me, those neighbors finally move out, I made sure I am super cool with the new ones.
So take em some smoked fish or something and keep em happy!