Where can I post flyers for my computer business ? (Houston area)
October 12, 2011 2:25 PM Subscribe
Where can I post flyers for my computer business ? (Houston area)
I'm looking for places that have public/community bulletin boards that would allow me to advertise for my computer repair business by pinning up flyers on them without worrying about them being taken down.
I've been posting at the universities and community colleges around here and recently heard that Five Guys Burgers & Ben & Jerry's allow postings, but can any Houston area members help me out here? Houston is just too big of a place to randomly go in and out of hundreds of places a day so I was hoping that a few Houston mefites would know :)
Thanks!
Travis
I'm looking for places that have public/community bulletin boards that would allow me to advertise for my computer repair business by pinning up flyers on them without worrying about them being taken down.
I've been posting at the universities and community colleges around here and recently heard that Five Guys Burgers & Ben & Jerry's allow postings, but can any Houston area members help me out here? Houston is just too big of a place to randomly go in and out of hundreds of places a day so I was hoping that a few Houston mefites would know :)
Thanks!
Travis
As somebody who used to hand out a lot of flyers, and who used to be a freelance IT guy: Your experience may be different but I would stay out of any place that lets you post flyers. They are fun to make but ineffective.
If you are able to work with small businesses (not sure what biz you're in) or manage any type of small server, I would start walking into the offices of local non-profits, or alternately, small companies with maybe 3-4 employees. They will be able to pay you to help with computer needs if they have them.
I am a web developer and regularly get asked to recommend IT guys or just computer generalists who can train, fix, etc., so you might touch base with some web designer/developer types, too.
posted by circular at 3:05 PM on October 12, 2011
If you are able to work with small businesses (not sure what biz you're in) or manage any type of small server, I would start walking into the offices of local non-profits, or alternately, small companies with maybe 3-4 employees. They will be able to pay you to help with computer needs if they have them.
I am a web developer and regularly get asked to recommend IT guys or just computer generalists who can train, fix, etc., so you might touch base with some web designer/developer types, too.
posted by circular at 3:05 PM on October 12, 2011
Response by poster: I do computer repair and a lot of spyware/virus/malware removal. A surprising amount of people still don't (at least with my experience) know how to remove viruses, etc for themselves. I would think that that market is still in existence?
posted by isoman2kx at 3:12 PM on October 12, 2011
posted by isoman2kx at 3:12 PM on October 12, 2011
Yes, that market is definitely in existence. If you can provide a solution for backups you will be in higher demand, too.
I'm not in the Houston area, but if you could upgrade a browser and teach somebody to post a link to a Wordpress blog, you'd be in high demand here, allowing for a bit of time to ramp things up and get to know people. And this is a fairly isolated town of 20,000.
My advice would be to find people who have the kind of connections you need. If you were in my town, I'd say: Go directly to your competitors, because many of them have more work than they can take and are looking for people to refer work to. Make friends with them and show that you are reliable. Drop off a business card and follow up with an email that maybe (extra credit) points to a vanilla-looking website that shows what you do. Bonus points if you have a blog where you talk about what you do.
There was a blog making the rounds once--an eastern European guy who fixed computers. He would post pictures of the dustiest ones, or describe how he fixed viruses, etc. and after reading a couple of posts I would have hired him on the spot if I was a potential client.
Anyway, I'd look up every IT company and IT freelancer in your immediate area and beat feet to their front desk tomorrow. Mention that you'd love to be in their network of people who can reliably pick up some slack. That'd probably be worth about 1,000 flyers at least. ;-)
posted by circular at 3:33 PM on October 12, 2011
I'm not in the Houston area, but if you could upgrade a browser and teach somebody to post a link to a Wordpress blog, you'd be in high demand here, allowing for a bit of time to ramp things up and get to know people. And this is a fairly isolated town of 20,000.
My advice would be to find people who have the kind of connections you need. If you were in my town, I'd say: Go directly to your competitors, because many of them have more work than they can take and are looking for people to refer work to. Make friends with them and show that you are reliable. Drop off a business card and follow up with an email that maybe (extra credit) points to a vanilla-looking website that shows what you do. Bonus points if you have a blog where you talk about what you do.
There was a blog making the rounds once--an eastern European guy who fixed computers. He would post pictures of the dustiest ones, or describe how he fixed viruses, etc. and after reading a couple of posts I would have hired him on the spot if I was a potential client.
Anyway, I'd look up every IT company and IT freelancer in your immediate area and beat feet to their front desk tomorrow. Mention that you'd love to be in their network of people who can reliably pick up some slack. That'd probably be worth about 1,000 flyers at least. ;-)
posted by circular at 3:33 PM on October 12, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by isoman2kx at 2:36 PM on October 12, 2011