As a small business owner, I know in order to succeed you need to advertise. Potential clients and leads don’t often just fall in your lap, unless you have a top notch website, knowledge of SEO, and know how to put it to work for you. Otherwise, you need to pound the pavement as they say.
The off-season most know is the best time to get your name out there and a lot of people turn to Craigslist to do so. Through experience I can say that it is not a bad route to take because it’s free, but there are some risks that everybody should be aware of.
I’m going to use my own experiences to hopefully shed light on how to successfully post a Craigslist ad without dealing with those shady people out there that just want to steal from you.
Now, when I say steal from you I mean that literally, they want to steal your time and they want to steal by actually taking money out of your pocket. Do I have your attention yet?
Last Summer, I got a text message asking if I work on fences. I took time out of my day to reply, yes I can rebuild or replace a fence. Soon, I get a reply back from this potential customer who then gave me the address of the potential job location. The next phase of the conversation is where the red flags started flapping in the wind . He goes on to tell me that he just purchased this property and will not be able to be there due to illness and was wondering if he could wire the money to my business account .
Hmmmmmmm…… keep in mind I already knew this person was wasting my time and had a criminal agenda. How do I know…… because I already looked up the address he gave me. (Thanks to Google) The address existed and yes, the house was on the market. So……I contacted the realtor, again wasting my time to find out that there was no pending sale. So you see there are people out there who have nothing better to do then prey on business owners or anybody else for that matter who do not take the time to investigate.
Now do I know exactly how this would have played out and where or how I would have lost money…. kinda, but the bottom line is I didn’t allow it to get to that point. Now, this wasn’t the only scenario, but it’s a prime example of what can happen if you post to Craigslist and leave a contact number for people to reach you. If you have a website put that on your Craigslist ad, link them to your website, many websites, such as mine has an info page for customers to fill out what they’re looking to accomplish on their property. Now if you don’t have a website just be vigilant and Be prepared for scams!
Check this link out scams
Things I look out for:
- Broken English
- Misspelled words
- Aggressive
- Won‘t meet in person
- Doesn’t reply to all your questions
Here are some more great tips to consider.
I have had great success with craigslist but perhaps it’s because I also subscribe to your list of 5 things to look out for.
It can be a great tool, as long as people are careful. Sadly we live in the world now where there’s a lot of con artists.
I have had great success with craigslist but perhaps it’s because I also subscribe to your list of 5 things to look out for.
It can be a great tool, as long as people are careful. Sadly we live in the world now where there’s a lot of con artists.