Worldwide DX Amateur Radio Forums - Ham - CB - HF - VHF - UHF

Hey guy's,
Was wondering how most of you advertise.
In all the years I have been into cb and ham radio repair, I have never did any kind of advertising. Only word of mouth.

Most of my repiar work deals with older tube equipment. And a lot of it.
I do repair newer state of the art equipment but I love the old stuff.

I would say that 50% of my repairs are local. 50 miles and less. 40% is 50 to 100 miles. The remaining 10% comes from Florida to Virginia.

Well yesterday I decided to run down to the local dollar store and buy some floresent poster board and a thick black magic marker. Came home and made some simple signs with phone number:

The Radio Shop
CB-Marine-Ham
Radio Repair

I put these up yesterday around 5:30pm at several intersections. I live in the sticks here. And already got a dozen phone calls. Should of thought about that sooner. Most of the locals around here do not even know I am here.
Dont get me wrong. I stay as busy as I want to. But you can not beat the walk in simple repairs either. Some of the stuff I work on may take many days on the repair bench. That makes for slow income.

I yet to sale any new stuff. Radios, antennas, ect. I may start stocking some cb and vhf antennas soon and maybe a radio or 2. I have been selling used stuff. Icoms, Kenwood rigs.

Just thought I share.
Business is good.

You can always start your own web page.
That should help immensely!
It's not that expensive to maintain - just find someone who can do help you. Some kids can even design the pages - just ask at your local high school...

__________________
What gear do I use?
BASE: Icom IC-718 & GAP Titan DX, Yaesu FT-8800R & Diamond X50A, Magnum OmegaForce S45 & IMAX 2000 w/Astatic D104/TUP9.
MOBILE: Galaxy DX99V & Wilson 1000 w/Astatic D104-M2, Yaesu FT-8800R & Diamond NR-770.
"...The 444 in San Jose CA; the Central Gold Coast..."

Start sponsoring one of those ridiculous forums that live to rip people off. That will get your name out there and they will gladly protect you from any upset customer in exchange for you lining their wallets.

Not bad ideas guy's, but like I said, I do have plenty to do. I only want to snag the locals. Dont want to deal with a lot of shipping. I like to meet people face to face.

LOL.

The shipping is the easy part. The hard part is sitting on the phone all day trying to explain the really basic stuff and figure out how in the heck they screwed it up.

If you can stay busy enough to mostly local stuff, you'll be so much happier in the long run