Daryl Cabral ⋅ Colorado Springs, CO U.S. Army, Sergeant ⋅ 5 years served

Thank you everyone for the great ideas and resources. They were all very helpful and I will be implementing them all in my strategy.

Robert Cannon ⋅ Cornelius, NC Charlotte Fire Department ⋅ 35 years experience

Recommend you hook up with the Colorado Chapter of Purple Heart Homes.
Rob

Deanna Corbett ⋅ Winter Garden, FL VMware ⋅ 21 years experience

Hi Daryl,
Congrats on starting your business!

Couple thoughts to consider:

Social media can be a powerful tool these days to grow a business locally. Check for local pages dedicated to "Review, Rants, and Raves" as well as local community based pages that allow for posts from businesses or from customers of local businesses. Be sure you have your own social media presence for your business - complete with pictures of your work. Post "before & after" comparisons, work in progress pics, and consider doing something fun like capturing a pic of any resident pet who comes to check on you. Ask your clients to provide a review of your work - and make it easy for them to do so by providing electronic invoices that contain links back to your business page. Ask them to provide a review on either the community page or the "Review, rant, rave" page. Word of mouth praise by actual customers is gold!

You could also consider striking up a partnering arrangement with trusted, reputable companies that do complementary work - perhaps handymen, plumbers or electricians that you would recommend and vice versa - who could carry each other's business cards to share with other prospective customers.

Hope some of this is helpful.

Kindly,
Deanna

Chip Brown ⋅ Durham, NC IBM ⋅ 25 years experience

Just like any job, do it exceptionally well and you will be noticed if nothing else word of mouth will keep you busy. You may want to check our these resource to help you. https://coloradosprings.gov/economic-development/page/business-resources Also, staffing could break you if you hire incompetent people. Do conditional hires / trial periods and inspect the work they do/did. All the best.

Jennifer Polhemus ⋅ Santa Monica, CA Precision Research (self-employed) ⋅ 25 years experience

Good idea to connect with real estate agents. Also interior designers.

Document your current project with photos, throughout the process. You might even need to pay a professional photographer to shoot the end result.

Are you active on social media, assisting others and giving advice? NextDoor?

You can post specific questions here, but an ACP mentor would be a good idea I think. https://www.acp-usa.org/mentoring-program/veteran-application

Valerie Serdy ⋅ Sammamish, WA Egg and Feather ⋅ 10 years experience

Maybe check with higher end real estate agents? So many of the homes near me get a kitchen/bath facelift before selling, or a complete gut and rebuild right after someone buying...