If you glanced at our website, www.silversaints.com, and then at our main competitors, 0800handyman. You'd be forgiven for thinking that both our services are very similar. In fact a friend of mine passed a comment recently that all handyman services are the same. Oh, but how wrong he was and I took it upon myself to convince him other wise.
Comparing Silver Saints to 0800handyman is like comparing a Nissan Micra to a Aston Martin DB9. Sure they are both cars and they'll both get you from A to B. But one of them offers just the basics with questionable efficiency while the other comes with style, class and performance. In this analogy, Silver Saints Handyman Service is the Aston Martin and 0800handyman is the Nissan. Now imagine that you could get the Aston Martin for the same price as the Nissan, which one would you choose?
My friend chuckled. But anybody with knowledge of both handyman services knows this to be true.
Showing posts with label 0800 handyman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 0800 handyman. Show all posts
Tuesday, 11 November 2008
Thursday, 8 May 2008
Silver Saints Day Three
London's newest handyman service has just begun its third day of trading. We have three jobs booked in for today having taken a total of five bookings yesterday.
We have had a few teething problems, mostly to do with our website and our Google AdWords campaign. I spent almost two weeks designing our Google campaign and it worked perfectly for about two hours on Day 1, but then Google stopped showing our ads. I spent the rest of Day 1 trying to contact Google via email to find out what was going on. At the beginning of Day 2 our ads were showing again for the morning but not in the afternoon. JT managed to find a contact telephone number for Google and I spoke to one of their representatives. She explained that because our ad was new and was appearing at the top of the sponsored links so often it was flagged by their computers and our campaign paused until they reviewed it.
Luckily for us they approved our campaign and our ads are now showing again. I thus have high hopes for day 3 in terms of the number of bookings.
The second problem we've faced, is our website, http://www.silversaints.com/ . The website is vital to any professional handyman service, especially in London. Ours just was not ready in time, I forced the website designer to put a half complete website up on Day 1 so we had something to point our Google campaign to. But there is no doubt, given the amount of people that have viewed the Silver Saints website versus the number of booking we have taken. That the uncompleted website is turning customers away. A new version will be uploaded this morning and the final completed version should be up by Monday next week.
In order to try to drum up a few more jobs, JT has been dropping 500 leaflets a day around South West London. The weather in London this week has been ideal for this type of activity!
Keep reading for updates on exactly how things are progressing with our handyman service.
We have had a few teething problems, mostly to do with our website and our Google AdWords campaign. I spent almost two weeks designing our Google campaign and it worked perfectly for about two hours on Day 1, but then Google stopped showing our ads. I spent the rest of Day 1 trying to contact Google via email to find out what was going on. At the beginning of Day 2 our ads were showing again for the morning but not in the afternoon. JT managed to find a contact telephone number for Google and I spoke to one of their representatives. She explained that because our ad was new and was appearing at the top of the sponsored links so often it was flagged by their computers and our campaign paused until they reviewed it.
Luckily for us they approved our campaign and our ads are now showing again. I thus have high hopes for day 3 in terms of the number of bookings.
The second problem we've faced, is our website, http://www.silversaints.com/ . The website is vital to any professional handyman service, especially in London. Ours just was not ready in time, I forced the website designer to put a half complete website up on Day 1 so we had something to point our Google campaign to. But there is no doubt, given the amount of people that have viewed the Silver Saints website versus the number of booking we have taken. That the uncompleted website is turning customers away. A new version will be uploaded this morning and the final completed version should be up by Monday next week.
In order to try to drum up a few more jobs, JT has been dropping 500 leaflets a day around South West London. The weather in London this week has been ideal for this type of activity!
Keep reading for updates on exactly how things are progressing with our handyman service.
Tuesday, 22 April 2008
Silver Saints - The Beginning
After 6 years of preparation and training and 8 weeks of development, Silver Saints is about to go live. All the support I've received over the last few weeks from my friends and family has been very flattering and I thank them all.
When I started working for Redjacks six years ago, we wanted to revolutionise the handyman industry by offering a flexible, cost effective and friendly service. As we grew bigger these goals started to be pushed aside. When the company, now trading as 0800handyman, was sold in December 2007 these goals seemed to be forgotten by its new owners. They saw value in the brand that we had created and it seems that their goal was now to use that brand to franchise the service to other major UK cities.
As General Manager of 0800handyman when it was sold, I was forced to reflect on my current position in the Company and what direction I wanted the Company move in. It was clear that my vision and that of the new owners were not even close to being aligned. Thus I decided to leave 0800handyman and start my own London Handyman Service.
Learning from all the mistakes we had made in starting and growing Redjacks. I have set up a new handyman service called Silver Saints whose operations and policies are based on our original goals of providing flexible, cost effective and friendly service.
As with any small and growing company, we rely heavily on referrals and word of mouth. So please do tell all your friends and colleagues about our service, become our facebook friend and read our company blog regularly (readers are encouraged to leave comments on the blog)
Trading begins on 5th May 2008!
Seamus
Managing Director
When I started working for Redjacks six years ago, we wanted to revolutionise the handyman industry by offering a flexible, cost effective and friendly service. As we grew bigger these goals started to be pushed aside. When the company, now trading as 0800handyman, was sold in December 2007 these goals seemed to be forgotten by its new owners. They saw value in the brand that we had created and it seems that their goal was now to use that brand to franchise the service to other major UK cities.
As General Manager of 0800handyman when it was sold, I was forced to reflect on my current position in the Company and what direction I wanted the Company move in. It was clear that my vision and that of the new owners were not even close to being aligned. Thus I decided to leave 0800handyman and start my own London Handyman Service.
Learning from all the mistakes we had made in starting and growing Redjacks. I have set up a new handyman service called Silver Saints whose operations and policies are based on our original goals of providing flexible, cost effective and friendly service.
As with any small and growing company, we rely heavily on referrals and word of mouth. So please do tell all your friends and colleagues about our service, become our facebook friend and read our company blog regularly (readers are encouraged to leave comments on the blog)
Trading begins on 5th May 2008!
Seamus
Managing Director
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