Interview

Well, keep us posted...

Out of an initial 40, only two were selected for final interview; your truly was not one of them....sadly. Feedback wise, I was informed that I was completely over-qualified and over experienced for the role. Seems it turns out to be a 'puppet' management position and they felt that I was not the right person to be controlled so much.

San-fairy, tis-what-is. Back to the drawing board.

Thanks for the calls and your support....really means a lot.

I just want a bl00dy break! Despite all the work on the site the phone is just NOT ringing. WHAT on earth is wrong? I know there is a need for H&S, so why am I not being contacted?

Mike

Will have a word in my buddies ear, how far are you from Brizzol?

30 minutes buddy on a good day...60 when the grockles are on their way home from the West Country

Mike

Mike you thought about agency work?

Tomsk

I think I have considered everything...hopefully. I am registered with several specialist agencies and also on CV log-sites that recruiting agencies can pull from. I have one job to do at some next week which is a couple of days and that is it!

I have not even had a work based call let alone any enquiries. I worked hard getting my site as high up as I could but it is really down-heartening when you don't even get a sniff.

Not for consulting purposes, but as far as employment goes I know as far as they are concerned (employers) I am over the flippin hill at 55. Thing is my brain has not yet clocked the fact I am 55, nor fortunately has the body. A few lines here and there, but I still have life in me...I just need an opportunity. I could so be an excellent employee for an organisation.

By all means if you think I might be missing the wood for the trees, do say.

Mike

From my experience these come in 3's, bigger companies want lower prices so less profit for us small boys. Had a similar thing with a company wanting us to maintain a pool, tried to force me down on price, did not get work? 2 years later, same company knocks at door, told me last company had not given them the service and could i start tomorrow and what was our price, lol.

They have sent

Ok if your up for it, lets get this sorted out. Happy to give you a virtual kick up the jacksey, but you need to meet me half way.

1. Your site looks the part and is a 1000% better than it was.
2. you've done a bit of marketing - Your listing with us has generated 219 page views since 16/02/10. Take off some for vanity surfing, take off some for casual passing traffic, has any of these turned into a hard lead? If not why not? Quick look at your advert and it is pretty lengthy, a sea of text which can turn people off. The mission is to get them to pick up the phone, or click to your site for more info. What do other people think?
SMART Safety and Health Solutions - Health & Safety Consultants - Somerset

How many visitors have we sent you? If none, then thats maybe say 150 potential wasted opportunities?

3. Where else do you do online marketing? What are your adverts like there? Do they work? If none of them work, then maybe your copy isn't grabbing people. Great, you have a root cause, thats fixable, get a copy writer!

4. What are your analytic stats from your website telling you? Is your site getting any traffic? If not, no point sitting waiting for the phone to ring from web enquires!! If your not using analytics, then start! Googles are free and don't take long to master. If you need help, shout, I live in there!

5. What offline marketing are you doing? A trick that worked for us was to hit industrial parks with flyers. Then follow them up with a visit or a phone call, your flyer is the lead in. May not work for you, but the web isn't the be all and end all. Get networking, breakfast meetings, I know your already a top forum poster, keep it up.

6. Research. Your website has the following keywords in its meta data, so I assume these are the ones you have researched and are targetting in your marketing.

health & safety, health and safety somerset, iosh, health and safety consultant taunton, fire safety, safety law, certificate

In that case, your advert with us is only using 1 of 3 categories. We also have fire safety categories, and have added you to "Fire Risk Assessment" can change it something else if you think its more appropiate. Likewise, are you utilising the functionality and categories of any other directories, or online adverts?

Are you happy with these keywords, are you optimising your site for them, link building with anchor text etc.

Have done a quick look on Google Insights for Health & Safety. Its only a rough guide, but gives you an idea of the demand of your keywords, and where within the UK the searches are coming from. From the results, it seems Bletchley is a demand area, no where near you, but can you target any marketing for telephone consultation, or try and secure several leads to make a trip worthwhile? Just an idea, but shows power of tools available to you.
Google Insights for Search

Forget the 55 and scrapheap crap, turn it round to a positive and give your mind a boost. This job didn't work out because your over qualified, great, you set your sites to low, so aim higher.

You have a wealth of experience, it sounds like you are suited to larger companies. So get writing to all your local Bluechip companies. Get your name on file, don't wait for job adverts. A friend of the missus got taken on recently by the NFU, purely by asking if there were any suitable roles. Nothing advertised, but she struck lucky.

I feel your frustration and would love to waive a magic wand matey, but happy to help where I can, have upgraded you to a National Listing to try and drive you some traffic. You've been a great poster and helped other people, only happy to return the favour.

Enough doom and gloom, we have a problem, lets fix it!

Mike

My background is construction and had many a run in with health and safety (power hungry nut jobs )

I am sure your not like many I have met - however I do get the sense that construction is slowly getting back on it's feet, seeing a lot of jobs for people like estimators and QS's which is normally a good sign.

So I think demand for labour and management will return.

Just to support that view, we have seen a major increase in demand for our services, specially from builders and surveyors. Also been looking after a pool at a property thats been on the market for 2 years at