This is the first post in a series of seven inspired by the third episode of the current series of The Apprentice on BBC. These business ideas are aimed at anyone wanting to start a business on a budget of £200 or less.
One business opportunity is to set yourself up as a leaflet distributor. It’s a service that many businesses need, just look at the number of leaflets that come through your door from free newspapers, insurance firms, local takeaways, restaurants, or property developers.
Typically most businesses expect to pay between £25 and £40 per one thousand leaflets depending on the area (terraced houses versus widely distributed properties). The main cost of distribution is your time and some travel to the target area if you can’t walk there. It should be possible to deliver between 200 and 400 leaflets per hour depending upon the area.
The £200 startup budget would be used to get some leaflets and business cards printed and a cheap pay as you go mobile phone, you can then approach local businesses and offer your services, providing them with the mobile phone number to contact you.
You can run this business totally by yourself or scale it up by employing other people to do the deliveries for you and concentrating your efforts on sales and marketing of the service. A simple scalable business, all for under £200.
This blog is about business opportunities and ideas that I spot, think of or hear about and think are useful and interesting. It is intended to provide ideas and inspriation for you to help you find the right business idea for you to then grow it into a successful business.
Good business idea, I’ve done some research into this area as I’m looking at doing some leafleting for my Utility Warehouse business, Piggy Bank Savings.
From my research, you can get 1000 leaflets dropped for as little as £20, however they will be dropped with other leaflets, or you can have them dropped individually for about £35 / thousand.
While it’s possible to get £20 per thousand when dropped with other leaflets it can be a false economy as they are more likely to be binned without being read.
Hi,
Im very interested in the leaflet distribution business myself, I tried it about 6 years back, and was scared by the response I received after posting 500 leaflets to shops and companies locally advertising my business.
Whilst posting, a carpet shop immediately offered me me £75 to deliver 5000 of their leaflets (£15 per thousand at that time! When I reached home the phone rang, a Balti house wanted me to deliver 20,000 of their leaflets locally, and another carpet shop wanted 2000 delivered.
The calls kept coming, but being a one man band I started refusing jobs, I was scared by the sheer volumn that my leaflets pulled in.
I hope this will encourage you rather than scare you off.
I now have a couple of freiends who like the idea, and so we might take up the challenge again.
Rob.
Anyone who thinks that they can deliver leaflets at a rate of 400 per hour is in cloud cuckoo land. Realistic numbers are more in the region of 120 per hour but even this figure is optimistic over an 8hour day, 5 days a week. In order to conform to National Minimum Wage rates you should expect to pay a single distributor about £45.00 per day. A bona fide distribution company would charge around £70.00+ per 1,000 for a genuinely solus distribution. If you are happy to share with other items then this cost can be reduced significantly but ask all the right questions at the enquiry stage or you may end up disappointed.
Chris
Are there any laws to get past regarding putting leaflets through peoples doors?
I am not an expert on laws to answer the question above posted by Matt. May I leave my comment that leaflets dropping through people’s doors is a way of marketing products or services on a budget while the consumers have the choice to use or bin the advertisement.
All advertising needs to conform to ASA standards – ie. legal, decent, honest and truthful. There are commonsense restrictions on what you can put through a letterbox such as samples containing nut traces, or any other ingredient regarded as potentially harmful to a child or animal. If in doubt contact the ASA.
I deliver my own leaflets fo my own business, and it is NOT easy, unless you ere pretty fit and have a good battery in your ipod give it a miss, it is mind numbing, repetitive and dangerous!!… (at least 1 in a hundred houses will have a stealth dog…the ones that dont bark or move until your finger is in sight!!)
I recently started as a leaflet distributor and i have just completed my first order of 5000 leaflets. This took me and my husband 2 days to do, i charge £35 per 1000 leaflets. In my opinion this is a great business to get into. Its a repeat business as well as gathering new business.
Hi Sam,
I am delighted with your news, im glad you have d
tried this very interesting business.
£175 ain’t bad for two days work I reckon.
Take no notice ofsome of the comments on this
blog, some people want money for doing nothing!
When establised and proven yourself, up your
price a tenner per thousand, your customers will pay willingly pay the extra … as they can afford
it for a good and reliable service.
Keep me posted. All the best for 2009.
Rob.
I started up in May 2007 Last Year with a budget of £700.
My first order was for 60,000 leaflets for Sutton college, and they wanted it done in a week!
yes it was scary and a terrifying prospect, but once i built up my post teams, and developed some automation routines, we have been going from strength to strength ever since.
we now have a fleet of x2 cars and a van, have just had our website revamped, and are looking to expand our operations throughout the entire West Midlands.
Leigh Wilson
Hi,
Can I just ask those of you in the know…do your clients expect you to deliver to residential properties that specifically state via a notice on the front door/surrounding area that they do not want, for want of a better phrase, “junkmail”? Or, to word the question differently, do you respect the wishes of those residents or to you deliver regardless?
I’m thinking of starting a leaflet distribution business and I wouldn’t want to get clients into trouble with residents – as it would be me who would be made to suffer in the end…
When I was leaflet dropping for my utilities business, I did see quite a few signs on people’s letter boxes saying they didn’t want junk mail, but there were more that stated that they didn’t buy from “door to door” salesmen.
I respected the wishes of those that didn’t want junk mail and didn’t put my leaflets through.
Oooh, another question. How does one go about mappping routes for distributors. In time I would like to hire staff but am at a loss as to how to instruct them to deliver to particular roads. Would I have to find out individual road names in the town that I wish to distribute to, and the number of properties on each road? This is the only way that I can think of to enable me to give the distributors a list of roads to work on. Is there a more practical way or is there any software (cheap) that I could use?
So glad i found this site as i am thinking of starting my own leaflet distribution business also. Lots of good questions and like Leon im thinking exactly the same. I want to start off doing this alone and then when i get a big order get people to help me. The mapping routes is also an issue i want to get around. Someone said to me you can contact yoyr local council for a map of the area and also a break down of the number of houses in that area, is this correct?
Im in the process of getting a website up and running. I work in my local take away doing deliveries so have already got my first customer! Also is £35 per thousand the going rate for 1000 on average?
I also run my own e lottery syndicate and can build this by handing out flyers when im out delivering the flyers so i can build my other business at the same time which is great!
I really want this to work as im peeved off working for someone else and would love to run my own business and this to me is a great idea, a simple one as well
Sam on January 2nd, 2009
Is it just you and your husband running the business?
Do you have a website? How do you get your business?
Hi
Yes it is just me and my husband doing this at the mo. I have now completed 3 jobs by 2 different companies. I haven’t got a website just yet as i have been so busy with my everyday job and studying and looking after my daughter, but it is something i want to get up and running soon its just finding the right people to go with. Anyone got any recommendations?
Grant: You can contact your council for an area population report, they should then give you details of how many houses etc are in a particular area.
To promote my business: All i have done at the moment is advertise on Gumtree and various business directories for my local area, you can find these by just a search. I also have a linege ad on Yell.com which costs £9 a month to be at the top of the page all the time.
thanks Sam. Where do you currently live? If its local to me we could team up!
I am getting things ready to go. What do you do if you get an order for 30,000 flyers say?
How long does it take you to deliver to 1000 addresses?
I will contact the council for the population reports, thanks
Good luck with your business
I live in Portsmouth.
If i got an order for 30,000 i would get some trust worthy people to help out before relying on people phoning me up for jobs.
1,000 leaflets would take us 4-5 hours to deliver (depending on types of houses and flats etc)
Brilliant – Well good luck with it Sam keep us posted here how you do. Nice knowing we are both in the same boat
Sam, when you say 1000 leaflets would take you 4/5 hours to complete do you mean between you and your husband i.e. 500 each, or that it takes one of you to deliver them in that time?
By the way, I contacted my council for a population report (thanks for the tip) but nobody knew what I was on about. Do you know what department deals with them?
I dont know if I’m allowed to post websites but if you google “scriptlance” you will be able to get a freelance webdesigner for a very good price. I got one for my old business and saved myself hundreds! You can also get logo’s designed should you need one.
Leon,
You’re welcome to post websites if they are relevant to the conversation and aren’t posted purely for self promotion.
So in this case a link to http://www.scriptlance.com would be fine.
It would take 4/5 hours for us to deliver 1000 leaflets each, but like i said it really does depend on the types of houses. Where i live there is a lot of terraced housing and flats so this would be realistic to say a 1000 each. But where houses with front gardens is concerned it could take a bit longer.
Bit strange that your council haven’t heard of an area population report, i emailed my local council and i got it that way. Maybe have a good look around your councils website it should be on there somewhere.
Thanx for the tip on the website i will check it out.
sam, if a client wanted say 5000 delivered would you do it over a few days or try to do it all at once and would you tell the client how long it would take?
sorry to pick your brains but this seems like a good oppotunity but unsure how everything would work.most companys near me charge £45per 1000 and can deliver upto 10000 per day! at this price cant see how i could compete!
If a client wanted me to deliver 5000 leaflets i would normarlly do this with my husband over a couple of days. The clients would probably have a deadline for the delivery, so we would work to that.
For these other companies to deliver those types of volumes in one day they would have to have a fairly big team as it takes 4/5 hours for one person to deliver a 1000.
this forum has really helped me make up my mind about starting my own business,
but other than fast food resturaunts im not sure whitch businesses to target, any ideas?
most of the local businesses i think dont have fliers to deliver.
and would you charge the same for fliers as you would, say business cards.
Hello
How do you guys/girls plan your delivery route?
Seems like a great business idea.
I’ve just found out I’m going to be out of work in 3 weeks. Have you any advice on how to get started quickly on this, and do you think it’s possible to earn a good living doing only this full time?
Also, how do business know they can trust you to deliver the leaflets? I imagine this may be a possible objection while trying to sell your services?
I all,
I started my own leaflet/flyer company after reading this site. I got 500 business cards from 123print.com that cost about £25, tshirt £10, then went around all the takeaways/fianace etc businesses in the area (Cardiff) and just handed them to the managers and waited for phone calls, within 1st week had 3 contracts, and i also taken on 2 more contracts since then. Booked up till mid april already. Its just about going out there and speakin to the people, the work will come. Just be honset with them, show them a map of the area you done for them. There is alot of trust with this business, just dont break it. Good luck.
If you are looking for a simple way to do a leaflet site go to http://www.moonfruit.com they have a free package with google adwords banner or you can pay £2.99 per month (what I pay) to have a banner free site and it is really easy once you get the hang of it to design your own professional site.
drew every company needs to advertise so don’t think your restricted to just doing take away’s we have distributed for estate agents, taxi companies, health clubs, pubs and clubs, restaurants, printing companies, local authorities (i.e. police missing persons, council, fire brigade safety checks) etc. We think that flyers are the best form of advertising and I have been approached by companies we never thought would use this method so don’t be afraid to approach anyone.
Enyone know, if you really need a license for distribution leaflets ?
only for static Hand-to-hand jobs
update :
I now have a contract with a large fast food chain for 400,000 per month !!!
Hi Jack
You don’t need a licence to distribute leaflets. There really is no limits with this business. Things are going great, i now have a monthly booking to deliver 15,000 mini directories.
Hi all, only just come across this site so thanks for all the excellent info and cheers John for setting the whole thing up.
I’m currently delivering leaflets on behalf of TNT for a national company but as I am self employed and my usual line of work is producing little, reading this has encouraged me to seriously look at doing this full time for local companies.
Do any of you live in a small town as I do (10,000) and still able to create enough business?
Hi,
Sam and Leigh, how many people do you employ then to deal with these larger contracts? I imagine it causes a few headaches.
How did you manage to deliver 60,000 in one week when you first started without the resources – that’s a lot!!
Glad that things are going well.
Still thinking about starting up myself. Just been laid off, so timing is right. Bit nervous though as I’m used to a steady salary, and I think there is a lot of competition here in W.London.
Wow, Leigh that is excellent. If you don’t mind me asking who its with and how you bagged it?
Tony,
My pleasure, I’m glad it’s proving so useful for so many people.
Dean : I basically called everybody i knew! all hands on deck was required to get it done. i was just lucky i have a supportive group of friends and family! ( even had my mum out!!! )
Sam : Thats the thing, THEY found me rather than vice-versa. they found my website, liked it, and contacted me. all of my biggest jobs have been from clients finding me. although i do sent out 1,000 piece mail shots once per month, and hand out business cards like confetti!
Tony : I started off only offering distribution within my town ( although my first job wasn’t ) and eventually realised that there just wasn’t enough work going at a decent price ( lots of idiots offering to do work for £15 per k ) so i eventually began to offer distribution accross the whole of the west midlands.
cast a big net.. catch many fish!
Ok, so i need to get me a website. Did you do your own website or did you get someone else to do it?
I did it myself.. its currently V3.0 as the first was terrible. i just improved it as and when i had more time. to my advantage, i am already familiar with HTML and basic webdesign.
another titbit of advice LASER PRINTER! nothing looks worse than having faded blurry invoices and letterheads printed off from a deskjet/inkjet printer, get an old cheap one off ebay for pennies, it may be slow, but the quality is so much better.
I also use OpenOffice to do my daily admin.. its like MS Office… only its free!
I’ll second Leigh recommendation of Open Office, I much prefer it, it’s free and it’s able to open, edit and save MS Office documents.
Heart Internet provide some free web templates with their hosting, you could probably do your own simple site using that.
Hey,
I really like this idea because i bet more companies need to advertise at the moment.
Quick question how do you go about paying tax and do you have to register the bussiness just to tell you i am a complete beginner at this starting your bussiness thing thanks
Wez,
That depends on how you operate the business (sole trader, partnership or limited company).
You have three months from the start of trading to register with HMRC and despite what many people think your local HMRC office will provide you with friendly advice on how to do so – for FREE.
Most accountants will also offer an initial consultation for free too in the hope that you’ll use their services.
In short, talk to a local accountant or two for advice on how to structure your business, then if you like them use their services otherwise talk directly to the tax man.
Like I said before go to http://www.moonfruit.com easy to set up free (with ads only google adwords) or you can have a paid site from £2.99 an month.
Just had a look at moonfruit.com, all looks good. Quick question though, can you upload logos/pictures etc??
Thanks for the advice this sounds really intresting ive been driving my missus mad about it for 3 hiurs solid lol
yeah when you go into it you can upload your pics plus they have a library of pictures you can use once you get used to it, it is dead easy to use no html knowledge needed.
just want to say thanks to this site i am about to go live with this idea.
I also negotiated 5000 free leaflets for my business so i will be distrbuting them soon.
While i’m waiting for them any ideas on who to target online
Thanks again
Hi all,
I have been involved in leaflet distribution, one way or other, for 18 years. Used to have takeaways and did employ distributors, managed them myself, gave the job to contractors etc.
I have sold my takeaways now and decided to start a leaflet distribution business in November 2008. I,ve had few guys/girls doing the distribution and myself or my partner managed them.
The quickest time 1000 leaflets were delivered by us so far has been 5 hours, in Catford, London (congested area). Done by 17,18 year Olds and they were almost running while distributing. I think in average you should allow 6 hours for distribution if you are doing a few, 3-4 leaflets together.
The problem that I am facing right now is that in my area,Croydon, finding that potential customers do not want to pay my prices. My prices are: if the job is 20K or more £30 per 1000. 10k- 20k, price £40 and 5k-10k is £50 per 1000.
Please post you opinions. I would appreciate it.
Hi Nico,
Im seeing the same thing, I do leaflet distribution in london, and since the crisis, ive seen people wanting discounts on 1000,
You have probably come across our site, but id not say which one is it… This nuts out there.
Im going to ask a really stupid question, im considering starting up as a sole trader for leaflet distribution, ive worked most things out, done the research, the numbers etc, but there is one thing puzzleing my. How do you all accept payment, i assumed alot of it would be cheque and cash, (which my business account may charge me for). it would be a great help if you could all share with me you’re methods of accepting payment, im terribly puzzled. many thanks, Gavin.
Im seriously considering setting up as a sole trader with my own leaflet ditribution business, now this may seem like a stupid question, but what methods do you all use to accept payment?
Hi all,
I set up as a sole trader with Barclays its free business banking for 12months, and after that then its really cheap any ways to make payments.
I accept cash and cheque, but will be looking now at account transfers.
The best advice i could give is get into business networking its really works, go along for the breakfast and chat to as many people as you can. It might not be that person that buys from you, but they might know someone who will.
I have just secured myself a contract and already will have to look at taking on staff, i only set up 2 months ago. Door to Door distribution does work, just make sure they can trust you.
In reply to you having probelms with prices, what are your prices per 1000? Do you offer a shareplan? What are your competiors prices?
Hope that helps.
Hey guys, sounds like this can really work! I am new in the country and cannot get work! One thing… you all talk of contracts? Will the client need to sign a contract with you the distributor, or do they simply phone you up when they have work and you do it?
This is a business i have been looking into for just over a year. I think this is a good opportunity as this is a service that businesses want to use as this is one of the best ways of direct advertising and it does not cost much to get running.
I lost my job last month like a lot of people are so i have been working on this in more detail as i was before. I have looked at the market for this service, the big competitors and the small ones and found out how much they charge per 1000 for a solo and shared service by emailing them saying im interested in the service. I have also contacted distributors to find out how much they pay people who deliver the leaflets when they advertise for distributors. This has gave me a bigger picture of how it works – and now ive no job lots of time and more knowledge im going to go for it. I live in Norfolk and i have found a lot of smaller distributors in this area who distribute in Norwich and all the surrounding areas for prices that vary. From £25.00 to £40 for shared and from £50 to £90.00 for solo. I saw about three different distributors advertising on ebay in the Norwich area at the same time and there are lots advertised on the internet.
My home town is in Lincolnshire and i have found only the big national distributors to cover the town and surrounding area , and one smaller one that is based in the midlands. I want to start it there for that reason plus i know the area and i have a friend who is interested in having some leaflets distributed so thats a start!.
There is some questions i would like to ask and would be greatful for some advice
Marketing the service= – I would send out letter to businesses with information about the service . One thing im not sure on is how many do i do at a time? I noticed one chap on here said he sent out 500 letters then got overloaded!It wouldnt be right to send a letter to every business at the same time would it , you could maintain some consistency by doing a set amount over a set time Should i send say 50 out then wait to see what sort of response i get? I have worked in marketing so im not to bothered about talking directly with people as i could hand the letters out directly and speak to the people who i deliver to directly.
Having a website set up = This would make it so much easier for businesses to look for you as well as making the service more professional. I have a friend who can help me set a web site up. What would you say should be on this web site and how should it be laid out? One thing im not sure on > should the prices on the website or should you reqire a quote for businesses?
Staff ==== Should you get busy or recive a huge order that involves more labour whats the best way to get people to distribute for you? I thought to have people who are self employed working for you as and when required , people say who are flexible. Is this a business that anyone has found to have some consistency? So you could maintain a mumber of distributors with regular work?
And is there anything within the law you need to know about having people work for you on a self employed basis
Thats all my questions for now! Thanks for any advice in advance Regards Jon
i am want to start this leaflet business, it sounds so good. what happens to someone who does not have a car, how can they cope and what is the best to maximise profit?
Secondly, this 1000 drops would entail how many areas? is that basically a neighbourhood where you can walk to?
thanks
again, how long does the company usually expect you to finish the work? do they ask you for any proof of delivery?
Hi Mike,
My prices are between £30 per 1000 on a quantity of 20k or more and £40 per 1000 for below 20k.
I put out a maximum of 4 leaflets together.
The competition varies between £22 and £45 per 1000 according to their prices on their websites.
My neighbour has been doing leaflet distribution for 3 years now. He charges £15 per 1000 flat fee for any size up to A3. He puts out 8-15 leaflets together. He is very busy.
I, now, have to choose which way to go on prices.
This is a good idea and ive been looking into it for over a year and now ive just lost my job im going to go for it
Jon – In ref to your question about staff, i can only give you the advice that has worked for me, at the mo, as its a new company, i have self employed people who will be working for me, lucky i have to few friends who are doing this as they have been laid off work, and what better job to do that walking around in the summer handing out leaflets and getting paid. With being self employed now it is much easier now all done online.
Nico – In ref to your neighbour puting out between 8-15 at a time, that is a hell of a lot in one go. The most i have done is 4 and there was 10,000 of each. Puting all those leaflets together in one is not easy, its takes hours folding them all 2gether, as its just to hard to carry 4 at once, so how he is doing 8-15 in one go is good work, he must spend hours and hours putting them all 2gether and then hours trying to fit 8-15 thought a letter box….Plus there isnt (or at least in cardiff) companies who would want there leaflets/flyers going out with that many others at once.
Best of luck to all.
Mike – thanks for the advice
Another thing which i keep thinking about is say a business wants you to deliver 4000, then another business wants 5000, then another say 10000 within the shared service how would you get round that?, you have 1000 on their own even if you distribute the 5000 with 5000 from the 10000 order and the 4000 with 4000 from the 10000 order. I hope ive explained that one ok? lol
And another thing, what is a good price to charge for the shared and solo?
And another question what if you have a business who wants say 50000 leaflets distributed shared in a certain week – and you cant get anymore leaflets to go with them, or a smaller amount?
If you are already committed to a shared delivery then you will have to bite the bullet and deliver them. I personally tell all my customers that their leaflets will be delivered in 7-14 days (gives me enough time to organise more deliveries.) But is it a bad thing? Look I would charge £35 per 000 for 50000 leaflets that’s £1750. Wages for 3 distributors with me would be £750 £50 per day for an eight hour day for 5 days plus myself and £50 for fuel cost. You would make sure your distributors are self-employed this would leave you a profit of £950 hell you could employ another distributor for £250 and get it done quicker and still have £700 profit!
Charlie – thanks for all the info on that i see your point, just one thing how many leaflets can you expect one person to deliver in 8 hours? 50000 distributed by 4 people over 5 days sounds a lot that means each person would have to distribute 2500 a day for 5 days. The profit mark up you pointed out would be the only way it could be achived, by delivering 50000 in 5 days? Thats 312 lealets an hour can this be done? How many leaflets would you expect one person to deliver in an 8 hour day – i was thinking about 1300 to 1600!
Even if you employ another worker (4 + you) you will make £750 profit (yes you will have to take out your wage from this). It can be done but it is a lot of legwork. Then I am forgeting during that week you may have a couple of 5000 or 10000 orders no extra leg work just combine them with the 50000 you are already delivering you staff still have the same wage but you end up with a bigger profit margin. This is what makes this business so good. Yes it is long hours hard work but it is such a rewarding business with little overheads.
Jon, can one achieve all this without owning a car
Secondly, the company you would be sharing 50000 leaflets for, what distance would you be getting up to?
Im not sure if this is the right wording for it
“312 lealets an hour can this be done?”
NO Chance! not round here anyway!
the best any of my guys ( me included ) can get is an average of about 250 per hour ( and that is HARD WORK! )
of course it depends on what the houses are like in your area.
terrace housing with no front gardens, i’d be supprised if you didnt get 500 per hr
affluent areas, or large front gardened council areas ( LOTS of fences, LOTS of fiddly gates ) its going to be sllllow going
As I said you employ an extra distributor still you will be pulling in £700 ok you have to take your wages out of this, but this is not including if you r taking in any other orders in the week. it is win win win
Charlie = thanks for the info i didnt realise you was including 5000 to 10000 more from another customer but i was refering to you suggesting that 50000 can be delivered by 4 people in 5 days. I just couldnt belive that one person could deliver so many – if they have to work extra days then you have to pay more so the profit drops?. With 10000 to go with the 50000 would take longer too? But i do know its a good business anyway. I was just asking about having a large number of leaflets that the customer wants to be delivered shared but there are no other customers who are giving you any more leaflets to go with the order.
Ashley i would say it would make it a lot easier to have a car as you would need to pick the leaflets up from the businesses – if there is 10000 or so or depending on the size they would be dificult to carry. If you are having other people distributing for you then you would have to drop the leaflets off or take the distributors to the locations. It depends though on how many you want to distribute>? If you got an order for tens of thousands and you had no car it could make it difficult. I would say without a car you would be limited to an area and the amount of leaflets you could distribute.
And with the distance with the 50000 well that would depend on the area as to haw far you will travel like how many properties are within a certain area.
Im new to this anyway im just getting some information from people on here ive got most of what i need!
Leigh Wilson = I thought 312 leaflets an hour was to many for an average – i worked that out on Charlies leaflet per person in 5 days i couldnt thats what i worked it out at. I know with terraced housed you could get loads of them done in a short amount of time. My home town where im starting up does have a lot of the terraced houses with no fronts and the majority of the other houses are just average 3 bed semis.
So what should i charge for solo and shared ? i think from £30 to £35 for shared and £50 to £55 for solo?
thanks! but wld it be the companies telling you what areas they want and how do you get 3 or 4 companies to choose the same areas you are distributing in?
Also how do you approach companies because i have called a couple of the delivery houses and they say that their staffs handle the distribution for them!
Ashley – i would say the companies could tell you where they want the leafets distributed and others would say that they just want them distributed in a certain area and leave you to decide where to distribute them and some would just hand them to you and let you make the decision as they would rely on you to choose where to distribute them. If you are approaching businesses in a certain area and you get 3 or 4 wanting you to distribute the leaflets you would be distributing the leaflets in the same area anyway as the businesses are in the same area.
About approaching the businesses – this is something i would like to know more about – like the best way to approach, how many at once – do you phone them? approach them directly?- send them a letter?
You did mention that you approached a couple of delivery houses? did you mean businesses you want to distribute leaflets for ? as in take aways?
Well i have worked in marketing and i would have to phone up 20 to 30 businesses before i got a lead so just by approaching a couple of businesses and them saying that they dont require your services should not put you off. You would have to approach a large number of businesses before you get any interest. Like with the leaflets you distribute – your not going to get the business a sale by just delivering 2 of their leaflets if you see what i mean?
My method of marketing the leaflet distribution service would be to set up a web site as well as sending out say 50 letters to businesses then see what happens and send more out as and when required. I know that the web site would be exellent as this would ensure that people could find you when they browse the web for the service within their area
I would like to know from people out there on a good method of marketing the service? I have worked in marketing as i worked for a company that reclaimed exess bank charges for businesses. I phoned businesses directly and i got a response or say 1 in 20 so im only basing this on my experience. I would approach companies by sending a letter and would start with say 50 and see what sort of response i get is this a good idea or is there anyone who knows a better way? regards Jon
Im going to have a web site set up to and i would like to have an idea of how much this would cost?
Jon
Hi,
I’ve been doing leaflet distribution on a piece-meal service for some time now, but am looking to step it up to make a full-time business out of it. I am thinking of printing some leaflets off to drop around local businesses, but would like to know how many leaflets I should print and deliver to make a return on my advertising. Anyone had any experience with this before?
Also, as a side note, there is a large Asian community in my area, which harbours a large number of temporary/illegal immigrants – most of which are involved in leaflet distribution, some for as low as 10 pound per thousand, and some do it in exchange for food! Does anyone else have experience of this “competition” from illegals?
Dave im about to start up a leaflet distributing business and im thinking like you about how to advertise, like how many letters to send out to businesses and what sort of response to get.
I have worked in marketing and i would say the best thing to do is write a letter which you would introduce your self and offer your services and give a some information about leaflet distribution eg a certain percent of people look at leaflets, a certain percent of people keep leaflets and a certain percent of people have bought a product or service as a result of having a leaflet posted through their letterbox. This ensures the service looks attractive to them and makes you look more proffesional.
When your happy with your letter print 50 off, place them all in seperate envelopes ready to deliver to businesses. With the 50 businesses you choose to take them to categorise the businesses like 15 take aways , 15 car garages , shops and say 5 others?
This ensures you even the types of businees out .
Then take them to them and see if you can speak to the business owner and hand the letters to them
What you say about illegals makes my blood boil! Even the influx from eastern europe who are legal.
In my home town where im in the process of starting this business there is a high number of immigrants legal and i would say some who are illegal but while i have been doing my research i havent found anyone round here who i would say would be difficult to compete with.
I have only looked for my competitors by looking on the internet and through directories, there is only one small company that covers this area and only offers a ’solo’ service. The rest are delivered by bigger boys like royal mail and the nationwide distributors but they do tend to distribute material which large companies want distributing in hundreds of thousnads accross the country. I might well find when i get out there i could find that there are people distributing for peanuts……by what you said ‘litterally’!
Dave….. dont let it put you off try and focus on the positives. Think of it this way – You are a business owner and you want 10000 leaflets distributing and you do not know of any company at the top of your head where would be the first place you looked? i would say the internet or a business directory – would you find illegal immigrants advertising on the internet or in a directory for such a small price or them offereing their services in return for food?
Another thing i would say that the sort of businesses that would use illegal immigrants to distribute their leaflets are take aways owned by legal immigrants who probarbly harbour the illegals. I cant see businesses like the council, lesiure centres, travel agencies etc using them.
Say i wanted some leaflets distributing and i had to choose from an illegal immigrant and a small company with a £25 price difference per 1000 i dont think it would be the price that bothered me i would want a reliable service. I would want to know that the leaflets were distributed – i would be gratful for a map to be returned to me afterwards showing where the leaflets have been distributed- i would like to see a name and contact number for the distributor as well as a website and seeing the distributor in a directory as all this would reassure me that this distributor is reliable. I would want to use a distributor who i could trust which would inspire me to use them again and again.
Dave… are these immigrants advertising their services on the internet or in a directory?
Thanks for the tips.
Another issue I have thought of is how to recruit reliable distributors? Usually I just rely on family and friends to do part time work, but this isn’t a long-term solution if I want to grow the business. Does anyone have any tips for tracking your distributors and ensuring you get trust-worthy employees?
Hi all
Thanks for this page, I have also been thinking about the leaflet distribution company and want to get started asap. I am currently in a full time job and want to get to the stage to give up and go full time with this. Can you all help me with how to start up i.e what insurances do I need to have before I start do I need to register a company name (I know I have to let the tax office know within 3 months of starting) If I wanted to employ staff what would you suggest to pay them and is it better to employ self employed people.
Also a question earlier on which was not answered posted by two people is how would you break the areas up to deliver and what is the best method.
Thank you all for the great advice
Jay hello im in the same boat as you as i want to start a leaflet distribution business only i dont have a full time job anymore!
I dont think you will need any insurances and even when you take people on if they are self employed i dont think you would have to either. You ask if self employed is the right way i would say it is due to the nature of the business. And my research says to pay by the 1000 letterboxes distributed to.
Ive been looking into this for over a year and since i lost my job in march ive spent a lot of time researching the leaflet distribution business and i want to get my business started in within another month.
About areas covered- well map out your area and the surrounding villages and get a settlement report from your local council
Ive gathered a lot of information and i need to start building my business like price, marketing etc.
I going to talk with a business adviser later so i will share any information you want with you. You can contact me by email jonnys5sathotmail.co.uk as it will be easier to chat to you
Jon
hi jon thanks a lot for your last comment I am new at this ,I absolutely like the idea of a leaflet distributing business. however I have done a bit of research and have noticed that most of the illegals are doing for peanuts , anyway how long do you think the planning of this kind of endeovour can take ?
Casey
im too interested in starting up my own leaflet distribution service in the southampton area ive currently been working on the technicalities of building my own website, but am puzzled concerning what to write when promoting my business to potential clients. what would i offer that someone else cant? sure i could boast, trustworthy, reliable, hardworking. But what else is there and what prices should i expect to charge per 1000, at a standard rate sholuld i be offering maybe the first 1000 are free ???!! something that may distinguish my business from others? Also how would i go about registering my business and do i have to before i can begin? also concerning liability when it comes to setting up an employee base and whether or not i would require some kind of insurance.
Hi Allan,
In ref to your post, i wouldn’t go offering people 1st 1000 free, unless that is they give you an order of at least 6/7 thousand, just so you can cover the costs, but i would do it as an intro offer only, otherwise people might take the mick.
With setting up, i just went into barclays and set up with free banking and reg as a sole trader a few days before i took my 1st contract, the people i employ are all classed as self employed, so it means u dont have to mess around with there tax etc.
Best advice i can give tho is get loads of business cards printed, walk around every business going and hand it out, people need to advertise and theres nothing better than leaflet distribution, direct to the customer. I would also say sign up to a networking group i.e 4networking, its free and they also do forums and breakfast meetings, i have gained good work from those and not directly from the people i was speaking to, some are friends of the people who where there.
Just be honset with who every you deal with, but dont let people take the mick out of you and try and get more because you new. Best of luck.
What type of buisness’s shall I ring up to get leaflet jobs?
Take Aways and …
Hey,
Just noticed this thread and I’ve been really interested reading everyone’s experiences. I would like to do something like this because I don’t have alot of capital to invest and im sick of being unemployed!
I have scouted round the internet and noticed there are a few big boys in the leaflet dropping game and just wonder how people have differentiated their service from the big companies?
Also noticed they offer distribution strategies but suppose local takeaways etc are not bothered about paying loads for all this stuff.
Any updates on how ppl are getting on with their distribution ventures?
Hi Guys
I am starting a Post-Graduate course in September which will mean leaving my 9-5 Financial Services job of 3 years. Bit of a scary proposition going back to Uni and being skint again. I had resigned myself to getting bar/cafe work for just above min wage.
I have been a (quiet) member of this great site for a while now and have been thinking about this thread for several months. I have decided to go for it and start up a leaflet distribution service. If it works i should make a decent bit above min wage and if I can scale it up to have students working for me doing the deliveries in a few months then it is absolutley ideal!
I’m quite confident I’ll be able to acquire some clients as I live in Glasgow which is full of takeaways and local businesses. I’m going to get some business cards made and go in and talk (if poss) to the business managers and explain the new business and the services I’ll offer.
I’m excited about this opportunity and will post here again with an update to let you know how I’ve got on.
I set up my own Leaflet distribution some years ago as a side-line and it has proved to be very successful. I have read the articles posted here and there is only one thing I would say to all you people who are thinking about starting – DO IT. The world is full of procrastinators, while you are all procrastinating the rest of us are out there doing it and making money. Stop worrying about what problems you will face before they happen. If you start as I did then concentrate on the smaller quantities of 4000 and 5000 which is easily managed, I did not and still don’t offer ‘Solus’, the more leaflets you can get booked on each drop – the more money you make. We have a minimum fee of £100.00 so if someone only wants 1000 or 2000 delivered then it will cost them £100.00. We still keep ours all in-house with family members and have built up an excellent reputation because of that, the clients know that their leaflets go through the letterboxes and not into a skip. We get loads of repeat business on a regular basis. We do not over-promise, we tell our customers that their 5000 leaflets will be delivered over a two-week period, that keeps the pressure off, we charge £38.00 per 1000 and would usually have 6 to 10 leaflets per drop. We have now set up mini-franchises of our Leaflet drop business and my idea is to build up a network of people like yourselves who will all run their own leaflet distribution business in your own areas. The reason we market it as a ‘mini-franchise’ is that we promote it as a part-time, home-based business, we provide all the info to get you started and it is up to you how large you want to grow. My advice to all who are ‘thinking’ about it is GO FOR IT, get started and keep a totally open mind as to who your clients will be, takeaways, all retail shops, alternative medicines, garages, taxi companies, garden centres, electrical and plumbing companies, Cinemas, Pubs/hotels, restaurants, you name it and they need promotion, this is probably the best time to get into leaflet distribution as the company who will survive this so-called recession is the ones who are still promoting themselves, this is targeted marketing, you are getting their message straight into the hands of their prospective customer direct to their home. I love this business and it certainly pays for our little luxuries in life. I am not touting for business here, it is up to the individual how he/she sets up their business, all I am offering is reassurance that this is probably one of the least expensive businesses to set up, overheads are minimal, is home-based, if you have a husband/wife and/or children and all are reasonably fit and active then this is a serious business to get into. Best wishes in all your endeavours.
I decided to have a go at this and am disheartened as Ive been advertising for 2 months and nothing where am I going wrong
I would love to know how you are approaching the business, how and where you are advertising and how you are contacting your local business owners as we are very successful at it and it turns in a good profit. Unfortunately I am new to these forums so I do not know how you can contact me directly, apparently I cannot put my website on here or leave my e-mail address. Any suggestions?
Drew,
Anyone interested in contacting you can click on your name, which is a link to your website.
Regards, John
Thanks for that John, you learn something new every day
Regards, Drew
Hi,
one question that has not been fully answered is how you plan your route I have been doing this for a few months now and have a few big orders on the way how do you plan the routes I contacted my council for area population report but got nothing back
After readin this blog only 4 days ago I decided to give it a go. I got 100 business cards printed and visited all the businesses in my local area on Saturday, on monday I managed to secure 2 on going contracts from businesses requireing 5000 delivering each until christmas.
Thanks everyone for posting on the forum as it has given me the push to do it.
Can I ask anyone, apart from spending the day visiting every business in the area, what other marketing stratagies do people find most effective and how do you go about it.
I obviously want this to grow and last as myself and my husband have both been made redundant.
Thanks again everyone.
Kelly,
On your website it says:
“We have distributed for local authorities, charities, finance companies, take aways, police, and most other business types…”
which seems to be rather a different story to what you’ve posted… So my marketing tip is this: be honest. In this case, as your domain is newly registered I assume that this is more a case of over enthusiasm than deliberate dishonesty.
Kelly,
The important thing is that you have made a start. You know your area best therefore you have to establish your own routes which is easy, go from estate to estate or housing development to housing development. Don’t depend on someone else supplying you data. This is all common sense stuff. I totally agree with John, be totally honest and build up a reputation for dependability and honesty, deliver the service that you are promising you will do. We tend to under-promise and over-deliver, it is the best way.
Best wishes, Drew
best thing to do with in the situation dave was in during may 2009 where facing competition from illegals or legals on low wage because of family business is too recruit them offer them more and expand into bigger areas now that you got a bigger team
@ Leigh Wilson
How did you setup your automation routes?
Its mainly admin tasks that ive done that with. producing templates, and scripts to do repetitive tasks for me.
as well as producing myself my own database of routes that are 1,000 leaflets long.
coming from an I.T background, that is something that comes second nature to me.
Thanks for answering that,
How did you go about knowing the amount of houses on each street? – I am Stuck here
Some of the comments being left I find hard to take in or take seriously. If you want to succeed at this get back to basics, don’t look for the difficult ways to do things. You should be concentrating on your own local areas first and it is best to have local knowledge, drive the streets, count the houses, mark down the Terraced, semi-detached and detached streets, work out your routes from that. If you don’t possess a wee bit of common sense then this may not be the line of work for you. You do have to do some local groundwork to get started and on-the-ground is the best place to learn it.
Hi all im really excited about this im planning on setting up my business plan and sending out my feelers, in this credit crunch many small businesses wwill be very interested and if anybody knows a program for planning routes in Middlesbrough england that would be awesome, im not bad on computers but I dont have the knowledge to create my own route planner. An Email would be so helpful, thanks all and good luck to yas.
Gaz.
How great I rang my local council and they basically laughed at me down the phone and passed me around every person there and they all said they had never heard of an area population map and they didnt have anything close to having the number of houses on each road. Nightmare !
Gaz.
Hi we have just started a leaflet distribution business today and after reading this site it gave us the confidence to have a go at it.
We have just moved to a new area on the east coast and thought we could do with a little business,so we thought why not leaflet distribution?
Anyway we went to a local printers shop and asked about leaflets,we got talking to the man and he asked “what business you want leaflets for?”
we said leaftlet distribution.
he laughed and said you don’t need leaflets i can give you as much work as you require.
we have 2000 for tommorow at £25 a 1000 and have as much as we want next week as he has atleast 30000 for just next week to do,and says they will always have work for us!
We will do 2000 for him tommorow but have had some leaflets done elsewhere and are gonna send them around as we feel we can earn more for ourselves.
I work full time nights so really it is just for my wife to do mainly but i will do a bit but we can get others to help us if we got busy!
How quick was that hey?
We will just do there work as a learning curve for when we need distributers working for us.
Gaz try http://www.mouseprice.com these are very useful for how many houses are on a road very accurate the only downside is it goes by postcode.
Kev i can understand your exctiement but for that price i would kindly tell the printers to get stuffed it will take all day to do 2000 (if not longer) i would charge a shared distribution for that price try and charge at least £40 per K for solo distribution or you will quickly find out its not worth it and anyone charging less than this are not doing it properly if you need any help contact me via my website
Totally agree with Wesley, we charge £38.00 per 1000 with absolutely no problems, our clients know we do a good job, are reliable and on time so they don’t mind paying £38.00. Kev, you will not survive on £25.00 per 1000, I reckon that Printer saw you coming!
We are considering putting our prices up to £42.00 per 1000 from Jan 2010.
Just found this website and read through the link as it’s something I’ve been thinking about having a go at.
From my research into the subject the biggest problem customers seem to have is wanting to be confident leaflets ARE actually getting in doors and not dumped. How do you back check this if you are employing others to deliver?
Hi, I’m in south London and I’ll shortly be starting a leaflet distribution business.
In the past I’ve done carpet cleaning and I’ve delivered many leaflets myself and I’ve also used leaflet companies.
Over the next few days I’ll be visiting local businesses to speak to the owners and to leave them my cards – which are postcard size.
Anyway, I’ll be employing several people hopefully, and I’m not sure how to pay them. In my area it can take 10 hours to deliver 1000 leaflets or it can take 5 hours, depending where you are. I used to average about 7/8 hours in ’semi detached’ land, which a local distribution business said was quicker than they could do.
The difficulty I have is working out how much to pay people. If I pay per thousand then some people will earn this in say 5 hours and others in say 10 hours which doesn’t sound right. If I pay per hour, then that might also cause problems.
I’d be interested in anyone’s comments on this.
Thanks, Peter
In my area it might take say 5 hours to deliver 1000 leaflets or it could take 10 hours. Is it best therefore to pay people by the hour or by the thousand leaflet?
Thanks,
Peter
Hi All,
We have started a leaflet distribution and design business in Aberdeen and we are very excited. We have advertised heavily in various forms and results are good. We have launched our website, used white-hat marketing, listing in business websites, face-to-face marketing and it is really working! Thank you for all the comments, they have really helped us. Great forum. Best regards,
Nick (LEMON Marketing Company)
HI All,
As some of you might know from my previous comments on this site a few months ago, I distribute leaflets in Croydon, Surrey.
I have a client who wants medium to high income houses done every 8-10 weeks. They are looking for distributors Between M4 to the West and M2 to the East; Bromley, croydon,Sutton, Kingston and Stains to the North and the South coast between Bognor Regis and East Bourne to the South.
The pay less than usual prices but have ongoing, large quantities and their leaflets weigh like a business card. About 1.6 kg per 1000.
If you do not mind to include another one and are within the above mentioned areas, give me a call on 07533 525293 and I will give you their number to contact direct.
Nico
Peter, best to pay by the 1000. If you pay by the hour they could stretch it out and do less per hour therefore it will cost you more. If you pay me by the hour I suppose I could stretch it out to maybe distribute 100 per hour or even 50 per hour and have a few cups of tea in between. Do you see what I mean. Pay by the 1000.
Regards, Drew Gregg
Drew, yes I see what you mean. Paying by the 1000 is much simpler.
Thanks,
Peter
Hi,
I have just set up a leaflet distribution service in Southampton.
I was hoping to do the delivering myself but it looks like I am going to have to pay other people to do some of it too.
Can anyone please advise me as to whether I would need to take out any insurance if I am getting people to deliver leaflets for me on a self-employed, part-time basis.
Thanks
Daniel
Hi,
I was just wondering what sort of jet-pack some people are using to say one person can deliver to 1000 houses in 4-5 hours? If each house takes only 30 seconds (which is optimistic) it takes over 8 hours to post 1000!!! (do the maths) I have been in the leaflet business for 7 years (on and off) and enjoy it but don’t be fooled….IT ISN’T EASY!!!
Dave,
when i first started on average it was taking me 8 hours to do 1500 this was including a break (Was not easy though).
Guys it all depends on the areas i have been in areas where you can do 500 per hour at walking pace but then i have been in areas where 1000 can take you 8-10 hrs.
You have to very much study the areas before you do them FAIL TO PREPARE, PREPARE TO FAIL!
I have done a few leaflets drops working for a leaflet distribution company and I would say work on a average of 125 – 150 per hour. You will do more if terraces and less if there are big gaps between houses. About route planning I use google maps which is on the google home page. What I like about this is you can zoom right in and almost count the houses without visiting the area. At least you get a rough idea of the area. I working for a company this week and been thinking of starting up myself. I getting £5-80 an hour so the company must be getting more to cover my wages so consider this when pricing. If doing it yourself you have got to earn at least minimum wage if not more so dont undercharge the client. Fot eg if you charge £20 per 1000 and you average 125 leaflets per hour so it would take you 8 hours which works out at £2-50 an hour which is less than minimum wage. would you accept a job less tha minimum wage. You could get round this by delivering more than 1 leaflet at a time to each house but it may take you longer to sort them all out which is still work and must be charged for so think about all this when setting your prices. Hope that may help someone.
Hi what sort of pay do you pay people by the 1000 just curious
Some great stuff on here lads.
I’m thinking of starting a distribution business to run alongside my cleaning business.
Does anyone know if there is any additional insurance needed for this line of work?
any one doing gutters companies
I’ve just started to try and get some sales. So far I’ve visited about 30 business, dropped off leaflets to 15 more, and posted leaflets to about 35.
I’ve had several enquiries, nothing confirmed yet.
Having talked to a few potential customers, I can’t really see how people can deliver say 4/5 leaflets at the same time to make some decent money. The customers seem to want deliveries at different places at different times. It seems difficult to find customers who are flexible in their requirements. I’ll keep trying though.
Thanks,
Peter
Peter
Hi, I recently set up a leaflet distribution business and have had to start to pay other people to deliver for me. Are there any implications regarding minimum wage when paying people to distribute? I pay £25 per 1000 leaflets for people to distribute for me but someone queried that it would take them maybe 6 or 7 hours so it is under the minimum hourly wage. I pointed out that I was paying them for per job, not per hour. Any info please??
I work out my distributors’ wages by paying them for every hour I expect it will take them to distribute. They get paid minimum wage per hour.
For instance, I know 10000 leaflets usually take in the vicinity of 70-80 hours, so 3 distributors get paid 3 day wages each to distribute it. They usually get just over a week’s time in which to do it, and I don’t need to know about when they do their hours or if they do slightly more or slightly less hours.
This way I don’t have to count shared leaflets separately, or come up with a different rate for solo leaflets. Whether they hand out 1000 solo leaflets or 4000 shared leaflets they earn the same.
£25 per 1000 leaflets works out to £3.50-4.00 an hour which is well below minimum wage. Less, even, depending on where you distribute. That is, unless they alternate between distributing several leaflets and distributing one at a time. Otherwise I don’t see how anyone would work for that much.
Hi, I was wondering how you track your employees whether they are distributing properly the leaflets? For 3 weeks I had 6 employees and I already fired 4 of them because they didn’t distribute the leaflets. Also it is very difficult to find a person to distribute leaflets for more than 4 hours per day, I have around 20 CV with people asking to distribute leaflets only at weekends. And I am paying them 29 per 1000! What more can I offer them? Any advice…
I’ve recently set up a leaflet distribution business. I’ve now got a business account and the people at the bank say that I’ll need insurance.
They say that I’ll need public liability which is fair enough, but they also say that I’ll need employers liability insurance.
I explained that I’ll only use part time self employed people but they said that unless these people have their own public liability insurance ( which they won’t ) then legally, I have to have employers liability.
Anyone else had experience of this?
Thanks,
Peter
What are the tax implications of employing casual staff to deliver leaflets? Also what insurance is needed if any to carry out leaflet deliveries?
‘And I am paying them 29 per 1000! What more can I offer them?’
Thats bordering on slave labour in my opinion.
That will be the reason you cant get/keep reliable staff
I have been distributing leaflets in Croydon, Surrey, for over a year now.
It was tough in the beginning to get jobs, reliable staff and 3-4 jobs in the same area at the same time.
I see above that some of you are experiencing the same problems.
I would say when you find reliable staff, pay them well and generally look after them as they are hard to come by.
On getting a few leaflets together at the same time, you better do a deal with one or two customers who do not mind what area and how many of their leaflets you put out. When you have a couple of jobs like that then you can do any area which you get the next job. These customers who do massive leaflet drops are looking for reliable service and want to make deal.
I have one customer like that right now who want to do anywhere in the south and south east. Anyone interested can cal me on 07533 525293 and I will give you their number to contact direct.
They want medium to high income houses done every 6-8 weeks.
The pay less than usual prices but have ongoing, large quantities and their leaflets weigh like a business card. About 1.6 kg per 1000.
Nico
i have done everything so far from opening business account to sending out letters to potential customers and meeting some but nothing seems to work out for me. i’m ii going wrong anywhere?
Depends on what you are doing and how you are doing it. You mention ‘letters’, what is content of letter?, who are you targeting? etc. If you care to e-mail me a copy through my website I will give you my opinions for what they are worth.
Afternoon all,
Have been following this thread over the last few months and have been slowly starting up my own distribution business.
My biggest concern is payment, does everyone accept only cash? I haven’t opened a business account as yet so would only be able to accept cheques in my own name which I feel might seem slightly unprofessional?
Also, How is everyone getting on? any updates from previous posters?
Gregg
can you please give me you email address so i can send you a copy?
thanks
Not permitted to print e-mail address here I believe but if you click on my name it will take you to my website and then use the ‘Contact’ section and you will get my e-mail address there
Hi Drew,
Great piece of information. I will let you know how i get on.
Tah.
hiya am ery interested in starting my own business in leaflet distribution sound really cool and as i am a door to door canvasser i think this will be a good thing to start up, but only concern is do the companies give you the leaflets or do you have to make them. If someone got any answers id be very grateful.
Thanks.
I’m thinking of doing something similar.
Now, i have a somewhat obvious seeming question but i don’t know the answer! Do you let the business you’r working for print the leaflets themselves? The £40/1k is purely delivery right?
Do any of you design leaflets for your customers? I am quite competent in photoshop so wwas thinking i could offer a design service for x-amount, or offer free design on orders over x thousand deliveries etc. Just a little bit more incentive…
Also, not sure if i’m allowed to say this here but if anyone needs design services I’d be happy to help.
(I’m from Cardiff)
does anyone need maps of areas that show how many 1000’s of houses per post code. its subject to availbility because i only own a limited amount of post codes.
Joe, I think it is best to offer both services, we do. You can deliver leaflets supplied by your client OR you can offer to design, print AND deliver. This is what we recommend to all our franchisees. There is a profit opportunity in offering the full service, but stick to your guns on delivery price, don’t offer to deliver them cheaper if they give you the print job. There is no point in offering a design service and a delivery service without providing the bit in between, the actual printing of the leaflets. Contact me if I can be of further help.
Hi, Great discussions here and I though I’d share my story so far.
Having graduated from uni last year, I’ve taken a gap year to try my hand at business. Started reading this blog post 4 weeks ago and thought I’d give it a shot. I’ve worked on the other side as an distribution employee so got a good grasp of how things work.
First thing Monday will be day 1 of marketing. Got my business cards and sales letters ready. Feeling good/great/scared as I’ve been planning and designing the company image/website, sales letters, employee contracts, etc with little sleep for the past 3 weeks. So much work for a one man team at the moment.
I’ve been doing some number crunching and well I just hope I can bring in high volumes to offer cheap rates like everyone else. It would be great offer in-house printing, but production printing systems are out of the question so that’s another 3rd party making of with the money. On the subject of in-house I will be offering design services, although nice and cheap to undercut (horrible word, but its a mad world). With regards to Joe, that looks like a good approach too make a customer bump up the volume just a bit more. Better incentive as you say.
Has anyone here bought the Royal Mail PAF data? And do you promote yourself online through yellow pages etc or is your website just to have online presence
I’ll post back when I get my first £1. Big Thanks to everyone who has been posting here.
Hello, I would like to start leaflet business.. I can find a workers without a bigger problem.. But how can I start it? If someone can say me how find a customers I will be really gratefull,, thank you.
how do you make/ get invoices for companies?