Blue Book Advertising
Some woodworking shops get good results from advertising in their local Blue Book. March 12, 2009
Question
I'm considering putting an ad in the Blue Book, and am wondering if others have found it worthwhile.
Forum Responses
(Business and Management Forum)
From contributor S:
Just another Yellow Book, but different color. Nothing can compare with internet advertising today. Forget about all those books - everybody is online (you, too, by the way).
From contributor L:
I've had my company in the Blue Book for close to 5 years now and feel it's more than paid for itself. I get a minimum of 3 to 4 RFQ's a day. Twice I've been awarded jobs from out of state contractors doing work in my area. If you're doing residential, I wouldn't spend the money, but if you're into the commercial arena, it works real well.
From contributor R:
I'm struggling with the same issue right now. But I ask myself, who's going to call me, and who are my clients going to be? I've looked in the Blue Book for my local area, and the competitors of mine that are listed in the book are mainly price lowballers, and I fear that I lose any value added on my product by competing against these guys. I gain value with referral clients because they are price checking me as rigorously, but if somebody's just shopping price, I generally don't want them as a client. I've somewhat concluded that dealing with contractors that I don't know is not the direction in which I want to grow my business.
From contributor H:
How do you really expect your business to grow if you don't allow other contractors to provide you work? Do you only send out bids to one or two GCs even if there are fifteen GCs bidding the project? If you ask me, that is kind of shooting yourself in the foot. You have nothing to lose by accepting work from other contractors, as you have all the legal recourse out there to recoup any nonpayment of funds due to you.
As for the Bluebook, I get all kinds of work through that site and I do 75% of my bids through that site online. It is well worth the investment. Even if you don't post your name in the Blue Book, you can still receive invitations to bid via different contractors once you have established yourself with them and show that you are capable and willing to provide accurate bid information. Don't limit yourself to a couple of contractors - go for as many as you can get and then weed out any bad ones. The ones you might not accept work from because you don't know anything about them might be the ones to take your business to a whole different level.
