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Best place to advertise


Danny__345
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As a new artisan who has just received their siret I wondered if anyone could recommend the best place to advertise my services i.e. publications.

 

I have already done leaflet drops in local shops and advertised on other forums that are free.

If it is any help I am in Dept 17.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks Danny

 

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We advertise in the local pages jaunes but it is expensive - 1000€+ per year but if get three or four good sized jobs from it, it pays off. You need to have site boards and your van signwritten,this gets works too and just generally put your name about although people will usually want to see some of your handywork first to recommend you. You could also try getting in with local architects and estate agents. There are also british publications dealing with France like FPN and of course, Living France.
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Signwriting seems to work very well!

We borrowed a friends British van once to collect some stuff from the local builders' merchants, it was signwritten General Builder and Plasterer. We were in the bm for around an hour choosing our stuff and when we came out a queue had formed at the van!!

Seriously though, we are lucky enough now to be in the position of not having to advertise our services much, as most our our jobs come via word of mouth (and we have got a few through forums). Also, get known by the local artisans as well. If you are a sparky, chippy or plumber it can be very beneficial to others looking for an ensemble of skills for some jobs.

We started off by putting cards in all the usual places and hanging around the local bar. I've just picked up some work for an elderly French couple via the woman who works in the village La Poste!! If your work is good you will soon get known. Good luck.
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Hello, signwriting on your van is a super way of attracting business...

I also have a large trailer with 3m x 60cm signs on each side that I park near markets and in the village square when I am not using it.

Zeb used to prostitute herself at the local bar I once remember her saying...

 

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Ha Ha - I think you are confused Ty (too much sun?). I once had a little problem with my shirt buttons whilst strimming and unfortunately the client and his male friends were eating al fresco. Sooo embarassing , but I got more work from it (and make sure I always wear a T-shirt)!!
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  • 4 months later...

Not a suggestion, but maybe some work...   We are looking to fence the pool this april probably with metal railings. Would this be the kind of thing you do?

 If I have insulted you I'm sorry but I don't really understand the Artisan label I'm quite green with english renovation speak let alone french!!!

If you are interested please email me.

Carole

 

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We've advertised in the pages Jaunes. The organisation is a serious shambles and advertising is very expensive. My particular problem is that we are based on the borders of three departments, now I understand that the telephone books have to be Department based but you would think that on the website a customer could search on locality ignoring Department borders but, no such luck, you have to place 3 seperate ads. at 750 euros each. I finally told them where to go this year and it never really generated many enquiries. For effective advertising to the expat community I would recommend http://www.artisan-anglais.com/entrymap.htm at 15 euros a year - can't be bad.
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Charles we have the same problem being right on the border too and we can only afford to advertise in the dept in which we are registered and live. The first year we advertised with FT they wanted to charge us for the annuaire for the adjoining dept and I kicked up such a fuss that ever since then they send one of each automatically now. This year alone we have had six enquiries from local people via PJ asking for estimates. The PJ sales people are all brain dead when it comes to renewals though and start pricing you up for everything going which if I had signed upto last November would have cost getting on for 2000€. It took pages and pages of ad refusals going back and forth by fax before they finally got the message and we got what we wanted.
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As a new artisan who has just received their siret I wondered if anyone could recommend the best place to advertise my services i.e. publications.

Danny

I have noticed that our local Mairie has a list of registered artisans in the area which they will hand out to people seeking local tradesmen. Maybe you could be added to the local list, it's certainly worth asking. Other people also seem to place small ads. on the newsagent's notice boards.

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As somebody who frequently travles to different jobs and often has call for local artisan services I would endorse the useage of local Mairies as this is the first port of call for me when I need an artisan and they rarely dissapoint. As far as reaching the expat community goes I have noticed a new newspaper called The Connexion offers a display ad for 100 euro for one year wich seems like a good deal to me as it is quite a decent publication and seems to be well distributed. Apart from that, get into the local bars, make yourself known and have a few business cards or flyers available - everyone loves to be the one 'in the know' who can recommend an artisan, especially a good one...
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We are in a similar situation, my husband has received his siret for creating websites and computer trouble shooter and we are already receiving bills from retraite, maladie etc but as yet haven't managed to pull any work in. We have done some leaflet drops and are contempleting advertising in a magasin or Pages Jaune but again this is more expense.

Any advise or leads would be very useful.

Kate

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I've just registered with Find a trade in France as a result of the link posted above. They have emailed me persistently for some time but I've never looked at the site before. It's 85 euros (which is a lot compared to Artisan Anglais which is only 15 euros). Once registered, I had a quick look at the other companies registered for the same trades (building contractor) in my area. The first thing I noticed was some pretty dodgy looking Siret nos. not even the right number of digits in one case also several advertisers are listed as covering the whole of France - must be mad! The thing that worried me was the only company with a rating so far (5 stars no less)  also does Dog-Sitting and Boarding Kennels, wonder how that works with the Chambre de Metiers?

 

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