I do mods to widgets in another hobby. I’m the only person who provides this service in the country. I don’t consider this a business so much as a service. I don’t advertise but my reputation spreads by word of mouth. I get inquiries on a forum devoted to that hobby. I try not to give out my phone number or email since I’ve learned that people will want to chat with me continuously. I answer questions about installing the upgrade but generally ignore or shut down idle chatter. I get a lot of messages that would like to go on-and-on. A couple of guys have gotten my phone number and called frequently just to chat until I learned not to answer their number.
My point is a businessman working 60 hours a week can get 59 hours or work done and spend 1 hour a week answering questions or he can get 40 hours of work done a week and spend 20 hours a week answering questions.
Generally you’ll get better answers to an email that is one paragraph long, has a simple greeting, a well-worded and clear question, and a thank you. If you write a novella, he may not even get around to reading it.
One thing I have noticed is that most customers act like they are the only cutomerer out there. they assume you remember everything they ever told you, even though 40 others may have chatted with you since then. they often don't even put a note in the box telling you who they are, what their symptoms are, or what work they want done.
Jerry
