A Tale of Two Businesses

A composite story: the names and details are illustrative, but every piece comes from what I see local owners go through.

Picture two electricians who hung out their shingles about six miles apart here in the Quiet Corner, ten years ago.

They had a lot in common. Both had apprenticed with good outfits. Both were licensed, insured and honest. Both did clean work, showed up when they said they would, and got their first jobs the way most of us do: from family, friends and the guy behind the counter at the supply house.

And both believed what most good tradespeople believe. Do great work, and the work will find you.

Now jump ahead ten years.

The first one still answers his phone on a Saturday hoping it's a job. He's had good years and lean ones. When work slows down he can't say why, and when it picks up he can't say why either. He has tried marketing: a directory listing, a "Facebook guy," a website his nephew built. Mostly what it produced was invoices.

The second one has five trucks on the road and a three-week backlog. She raises her rates every January, and hardly anyone blinks. When new customers call, a lot of them say some version of the same thing: "You came up first, and your reviews are great."

What made the difference?

It wasn't skill. If anything, he's the better electrician. It wasn't effort; he works longer hours than she does. And it wasn't a big budget.

The difference was what each of them knew about how customers choose a business today, and what each did about it.

He assumed customers find you the way they did in 1995, by word of mouth. They still do. But today word of mouth gets checked. A neighbor mentions your name, and the very next thing that customer does is look you up on a phone. What they find in the next thirty seconds decides whether they call you or the next name on the list.

She learned that early and acted on it, a little at a time. She got a website that loads fast on a phone and says plainly what she does and which towns she covers. She kept a Google Business Profile current, with real photos of real jobs. She made a habit of asking every happy customer for a review. None of it was flashy, and all of it added up.

Ten years of that is the gap between those two shops.

If you've been burned, you're not wrong

Most owners who tell me "marketing doesn't work" aren't being stubborn. They paid for activity: posts, ads, a pretty website. Nobody first sat down to learn how their customers actually find and choose them. Activity without that knowledge really doesn't work. You were right to be suspicious.

What works is knowledge applied to your business, in your towns, for the customers you want.

That's what we do

Big Cat Marketing Group is the knowledge the second electrician had, applied to your business. I've been online since 1983, ran a manufacturing company with 17 employees, and have spent more than 20 years helping local businesses get found. We use one simple approach. I call it the Look-Up Method, because it's built around the thirty seconds after someone hears your name:

For most owners it starts with the website, because that's where every look-up lands.

Most of our websites cost between $800 and $4,000, one time. Care plans run from $59 to $500 a month. No buzzwords and no 40-page reports.

What one local shop found

Frank's story is the same tale, told by someone who lived both halves of it.

"Business used to be fantastic. I was the only show in town. Then competition crept in. Slowly, the business went down. I was seriously considering closing the doors, until I met John and the Big Cat Marketing Group. They turned things around for me. I'm very grateful."

What I can promise, and what I can't

I can't promise your phone will ring off the hook the week we launch. Nobody honest can.

What I can promise: you'll understand exactly what we're doing and why, in plain English. You'll see what it's doing for you. And you won't get an invoice until you're confident in the plan.

Back to those two electricians

Both of them are still good at what they do. Only one of them made sure customers could see it.

If your work is good, and I'd bet it is, the only question is which of those two businesses you want yours to be in ten years.