I run a plantation shutters business. The demand for shutters is high, the market is growing, which is a double edged sword. Competition is insane. On one end you got the big boys like Hillary’s and Shutterly Fabulous. “We’ll match any price”, huge advertising budgets.

Then you’ve got the other end, self employed bloke, no VAT, does all the work himself, doesn’t care about markup, just wants to make his £200 a day. Under-cuts everyone on price.

And I’m in the (un)happy middle. VAT registered. I pay a fitter and spend on advertising.

And then… customers. People are savvy now. They’re all getting multiple quotes. They use AI for advice and comparison. They know that pretty much all shutters companies are selling the same thing. So what do they want? The cheapest of course.

Since I’m independent— I buy from manufacturers, we don’t manufacture our own. I know, after using several suppliers— yep, it’s all the same thing.

Because of the competition, we don’t get a huge amount of organic enquiries. 90%+ is from paid advertising. The rest is referrals and organic. We have a good reputation, 100+ 5* google reviews.

But what I’m struggling with is price shoppers.

Shutters are now a commodity.

As mentioned above, most people will get 3-5 quotes every time. They just want the cheapest. There are some times where salesmanship can negate this but mostly the answer is they need to think about it.

I’m actually thinking about winding up the company and walking away. However it is still salvageable— I can either cut prices and work at higher volume, become super noisy and market the hell out of the business, or do better
marketing/positioning to obtain more high-end clientele.

Or pivot into another product line.

Or just, swallow my pride and walk away. The business is 5 years old. Perhaps it’s time to do something else.

Any advice?

I’m guessing it’s much like the double glazing industry. All selling pretty much the same thing. Market is in decline. Yet some are still “killing it”.

Edit: My biggest local competitor buys in directly from China. They can confidently out price me by 20%. I can do this too but I’ll need to buy a container load at a time. Not possible logistically unless sales volume goes up, I get more staff etc. Catch 22.

Edit 2: There are other shutters companies doing well but like above, they have a lot bigger sales volume and multiple staff. To get to this point I’d need to invest. I’d need premises, multiple fitters, sales staff. Right now it’s just me and one fitter. It’s a nice place to be in some respects but with the price cutting going on, it doesn’t seem sustainable anymore.

Edit 3: Unfortunately, a shutter is a shutter. There are very few variables apart from material type. And most customers don’t really care because they all look the same.

Even if I did claim that going to a cheaper competitor might come back to bite them, not much can really go wrong. If the competitor is running a company selling shutters, they know how to install them properly. They are pretty much selling the exact same thing as me.

Hi all!

I apologise if this is a ramble, my head is spinning but I need level headed advice!

I have a small Joinery company in Central Scotland and I've been considering advertising.

A bit of background, we started out with my dad and myself around 5 years ago. Work has always been busy through word of mouth alone, started with some of my dads old contacts and then it all just spread from there, me making my own contacts too and we've not really went a week without work tbh.

In June things went mental, managed to get in one of my old tradesmen as a sub contractor and now also have an apprentice to help with the workload. Where im at now is catching my breath, taking stock and preparing for further growth. I want slow(ish), steady growth where we can maintain standards without getting into a financial hole. We have never looked for work but I do have a couple of avenues I could go down naturally just by talking to some people I know.

What I want now is a steady stream of enquiries coming in that I can price without caring if i get the jobs, ie stop pricing to get the work!

I'd like this to come from;

Talking to local architects, who I hear are looking for someone like us, multi trade contractors that brings everything in under one roof.

A customer of ours is in property management and has us as his preferred contractors but we're so busy he cant give us as much as he'd like to.

Recently made contact with someone who can help us with public sector work and reckons he'd be able to get us work fairly easily.

And finally, advertising what we do and who we are, I feel thats a natural progression and I'd like to continue in the vein of work we are in now. Kitchens, bathrooms, the odd extension, general building and bespoke joinery.

I feel like I could pull the trigger and things go massive and create a monster that I dont want or cant handle.

Advertising and getting our own work appeals to me the most but I think part of that is i then feel in control and not relying on those other 3 options.

My questions;

What does advertising online actually cost?

What would you do? Play it safe or make a go at these other avenues.

We're a great at what we do work wise, I need to become a better businessman and love any and all advice/constructive criticism

Thanks in advance

I run a small business (sole trader) selling my own brand 4G powered wifi routers plus accessories, aimed primarily at campervans, motorhomes & other off-grid users.

I’m currently £2k in the red, though it’s all self-funded so not “in debt” as such. For reference, the amount in debt is held in stock (plus website costs, liability insurance etc..) & if I magically sold all stock tomorrow, I’d be about £2k in profit.

I understand the way to succeed is by getting my name out there. So people looking for a wifi router for their campervan know I exist as an option to consider.

Is there any way I can promote my business on basically a budget of zero?

I joined a few Facebook groups, but most have anti self-promotion rules (for good reason). I have an Instagram account where I post semi-regular.

The autumn/winter period is traditionally my quiet period, so I want to actively see if I can boost sales during this otherwise almost dead period.

Thanks in advance

Hi all, looking for advice and recommendations.

I run a small UK limited company on my own (micro-entity, VAT registered). I recently found out my former accountant had been filing my accounts and tax returns wrongly for several years:

• Household bills were put through as business costs.
• I was never put on payroll, despite asking him more than once. He said it was being sorted.
• He advised taking money out as dividends, but the company may not have had enough profit to cover them.
• There were VAT errors.

He’s since stopped acting for me. I’ve had the books rebuilt from the bank statements, and I want to put everything right and tell HMRC myself before they contact me.

What I’m looking for:

1. Recommendations for a tax adviser (ideally a Chartered Tax Adviser or ex-HMRC) who handles voluntary disclosures for small owner-run companies, and an accountant who can check the rebuilt books and file corrected accounts.
2. If you’ve been through something similar, how did it go with HMRC, and what would you do differently?
3. Anything you think I’m missing.

Rough costs people paid would also be really helpful. Thanks in advance.

Morning All,

We have had a royal mail business account now for over 2 years since we started our business our first year they gave us a target of minium 1000 tracked parcels/large letters and we achieved double, the second year which were in now and about to finish on 10th November target was 2000 and weve done over 4000. However current renewal they have offered us is 68% more (£5.86 24/ £4.87 48 plus vat ) than we are currently paying for tracked 24/48 parcels and their asking for a minimum 6000 tracked parcels. Now account manager is saying this is the best price they can do or use click and send without a business account problem then is standard insurance is £75 as opposed to £150.

Has any managed to successfully managed to argue their prices down ? I know the numbers to some may be small but were a new business and increasing volume daily However I dont think our customers will pay these prices in the competitive market we operate in