The Finished Look

Here are the images of, "The Finished Look"

Hopefully the rest of the neighborhood will want a free fence estimate for their fencing needs from Fix-A-Fence LLC.

Noticed during construction of the project there were some cars that drove by really slow. Maybe they were writing down the yard sign information from the authorized placement.

Just thought I would share the pictures of what Fix-A-Fence LLC has accomplished through the marketing techniques that have taken place lately.

It does seem like a good time to go out and place some more phone pole tear tag advertising. Sun is coming out because spring is almost here. To be honest the sun hasn't gone anywhere it is just that the clouds are in the way. 

Fix-A-Fence LLC Returns To Stomping Grounds

Returned today to the stomping grounds that began this fence company by stapling Fix-A-Fence LLC pull tag flyer's up on high foot traffic area phones poles. This is a simple but effective marketing concept. If you have the time and the talent to make a decent designed flyer with all of your business information it is well worth the pennies and time spent.

Publisher has some good tools to use in the flyer category and with clip art the flyer becomes a professional marketing tool in minutes. Cut along the lines to make the tags easily accessible for people to tear off. Make sure you have a decent staple gun and plenty of staples. Find a location near your place of business or where you would like to conduct some business and get started stapling the flyer's you created to all the phone poles in high traffic areas you can find.

There are the community bulletin boards and other businesses that allow this marketing tool to be placed on their bulletin boards. The response may be at a low capacity but still it is a great way to gain company recognition just by having been seen in so many different locations. This is just a very inexpensive way to market your business if you are willing to get out and gain that extra bit of exposure.

One thing I have told myself is that I don't want to forget where I started this business from. This business like most started with just a few tools, a vehicle, and a whole bunch of knowledge on building and repairing wood and chain link fences. I started by placing flyer's on phone poles and my design talent wasn't that great but it sure has improved since the beginning.

Just because the season is slow doesn't mean that the marketing has to. After the next batch is made up the saturating will begin all over again. It just came to my mind that whenever I get out of the truck and someone sees me, the truck has Fix-A-Fence LLC and the phone number all over so I am sure even then the fence company is getting just that much more exposure.

Happy Holiday's From Fix-A-Fence LLC

Since Fix-A-Fence LLC has established the company in 2009 I have sent a small thank you letter to all of my customers that did business with Fix-A-Fence LLC. There really not much there, but that is not what matters.

The card was created from the Publisher 2003 version Microsoft provides and I have added a fencers touch to it with a picture of a wood fence.

Inside reads: Happy Holidays

                   Small business depends on people like you
                   Thank you for hiring Fix-A-Fence LLC this year
                   May your holiday season be filled with
                   Peace, Joy, and plenty of great memories

      Thank you for doing business with Fix-A-Fence LLC

On the back of the card is all the information necessary to pass on to anyone that may need a free fence estimate. Name, phone number, CCB#, etc.

Like I mentioned there really isn't much to the card, but it is jam packed with a big Thank You!

One of my cards was returned because of the address being wrong, so I hand delivered it and was surprised to find that the address matched the address on the mailbox. Huh?! The customer and I were sorta confused and got a laugh out of our postal service. It is a thank you card that the customer should never forget.

To be honest Fix-A-Fence LLC should have sent out more cards than what was sent out. At least that is the way my body feels, certainly not the pocketbook. Fortunately for this year there has been work every month this year. Got to do a small repair yesterday to start out the month of December with.

A previous customer had to move an Osprey perch off of city property so all I had to do was a center stretch opening up the fence line and removing a couple of posts to allow heavy equipment in to move the Osprey perch. There was only supposed to be one post removed but since the heavy machinery was there I took advantage and didn't break a sweat. Broke a come along cable trying to pull the set out of the earth but still didn't break a sweat pulling the posts. I love watching other people do my work for me.

Free Fence Estimates Ranks No.1 On Google

Fix-A-Fence LLC has been ranked no.1 on Google fro the last four months now for Free Fence Estimates Portland, OR. That has come from hustle and reading books on how to enhance my internet marketing strategies. A lot of how this has happened is from the free advertising that the internet has to offer.

Youtube, craigslist, backpages, Facebook, Twitter, and blogging and some of the free services the internet warehouse has to offer. I am not going to say it isn't hard work, so the best thing to do is to master one at a time. Research, read and apply with hands on knowledge because it is all about repetition. The more that you do something the better you get at it and therefore the faster it becomes.

For instance, I have a file of different posts to copy and paste so that saves time. I have several videos to copy and paste the URL into the posting so advertising Fix-A-Fence LLC on Craigslist in the morning takes me all of about 5-7 minutes per post. That's the thing about repetition, at first when I was a newbie at this it would take me twenty or thirty minutes because I didn't have a file of posts I was typing every post. I didn't have video's nor did I have a blog such as this one. All this took time and research and now I have companies calling me asking me to spend $169.00 per month on what I have already accomplished on my own. Nice thing about this is that I now have friends that would like me to help them accomplish this for their business.

Because fencing is seasonal, I may just have to help my friends out with there business just to make ends meet during the off season for fencing. That's what is nice about having a bit of internet knowledge. My friends see that I am No.1 on Google and now they want a piece of the action. I tell them that it takes time and hustle. It is a learning process and with today's technology the internet just keeps getting better. What difference does it make how many people look at my videos when they pop up on the first page of Google? This is what free advertising is all about. The only thing I have paid for are the books and the time that it took for me to apply the knowledge of others. All this advertising that I have been doing is all free. The sooner that you get started the sooner Google will start ranking your results. Action speak louder than words, so get going and make yourself No.1 on Google with free advertising.

So,...your Honor,...whose Fence is it?

Being in the fence industry for nearly 20 yrs now I have seen a lot of issues with fence lines and have heard a lot about fence lines and even have defended against fence lines over whose fence it is or if the fence or even the concrete is on the property of who I am working for. The concrete being two inches on one side of the guys property was one that kinda sticks with me.

There was an estimate that I had went out on and the guy I was seeing asked me about the fence his neighbor had put in. Now his neighbor without getting permission cut up this guys Holly tree in order to put the fence in. The Holly tree was and is clearly on the property of the guy I was called out for and estimate with. The fence wasn't on his property, however the concrete was clearly seen on this his property. He wanted an estimate on what it would take to remove the fence and install it two inches.

To be honest I really couldn't believe it at first but then as I thought about it this guy didn't get permission from his neighbor to hack up his Holly tree to put a fence in. The guy I did the estimate for obviously won the case in court because the company went out and moved the fence over two inches.

Another time it was because of a fence that I was installing. This Vietnam Vet that I was working for decided to have a 7' high brown slatted chain link fence installed with the option of applying barbed wire in the future. The fence is really close to the neighbors boat and so the feud begins. The Vietnam Vet takes pictures and even to the point of leaving a concrete set in line with the post in place, and saving a concrete chunk from the existing fence line. I kinda thought that was a bit odd at first. After the evidence was brought before the judge and the jury deliberated the fence stayed in the spot where it was constructed.

So,...whose fence is it? The one with the most evidence wins in these cases. So if you ever have any questions as to whose fence it is, present your evidence before the judge and let him decide. Or just figure things out before hence the terminology, "Good Neighbor Fence".

Oh,.... I have more to blog about and more to come so keep watching for the Mending Broken Fences blog updates.

Networking - Building Exposure For Your Business

One of the biggest things for any business is exposure. One of the ways to expose your business is by attending a networking association. There are plenty of networking associations to get involved with. For instance here in Portland, OR, Portland Business Alliance, Oregon Executive Association, Oregon Entrepreneurs Network just to name a few. These network groups are made up of like minded people that share in each others business in one way or the other. This is a positive growth factor to be affiliated with in one way or the other, if you happen to be a guest of someone, or just decide to attend to check things out you are able to give a 30 second to one minute pitch about your business.

Now I don't know about you but I could use the business when ever possible. I really don't like sitting around unless I am sitting behind my computer screen working somehow whether it be posting on craigslist, making a video for the youtube acct., or blogging. The point here is to just stay active on the computer. There are so many distractions that the internet has to offer today that it is necessary to stay focused on what you are doing and what your really after.

I like the freedom of owning a business. I like telling myself what to do and when to do it and not having someone else telling me what and how to do what I already know how to do. Now if this was a customer telling me how they wanted their fence to look then of course I will be listening and complying with their requests. That is freedom of business.

If your now involved in some kind of networking association may I suggest that you seek one out and attend an event to see what is really happening behind the scene of business. There are a lot of great experienced and motivated people that attend these functions and they are a wealth of information once you get to know some of these people that are associated with these functions. Build exposure for yourself and your business, remember word of mouth is huge, because how will your business ever take off if you or someone else doesn't speak about it to anyone else? Even if you contact an advertising agency to place an ad your creating word of mouth exposure. Let your word be impeccable to your business. Help your business grow by attending a networking association event. Who knows you might gain a new customer or a new friend and the possibilities from there should lead to success and with that success it should demand more action to maintain the results your looking for.