My early days, starting out years ago

Running a company delivering leaflets actually requires a fair degree of skill. When I started out, years ago in 2004, I made all the classic mistakes that new businesses make in this field. It took me a long time to discover the fundamentals that provide a guaranteed, successful leaflet drop. It is rare that a leaflet distribution company lasts for very long. I watched a good, hard-working man approach this business wrongly and complain to me at the end that “I have wasted 2 years of my life.” It was in my early days and I couldn’t help him, but now I would offer him a management franchise and teach him how to do it properly. The cost of the franchise would be more than paid back via avoiding all the typical errors that lose an amateur leaflet business (and its clients!) so much money.

Most leaflet delivery firms are frankly pretty awful! It won’t take you long ringing them at random based on a google search and entrusting them with your money to find that out! I also run a cleaning company, the management franchise www.nationwidecleaners.co.uk , and one of my first experiences of hiring a leafleting firm to drop my cleaning leaflets was that they definitely did “drop” them, but nowhere near any letterboxes! I was shocked at just how bad they were. After trying several, I decided I could do better, as I already had experience of managing my own leafleters delivering cleaning leaflets. How people applying for a job as a leafleter can try to lie and steal if they sense weakness and a lack of experience in managing leafleting would shock you. For example, a lady wanting extra income for her holiday spending money worked for me when I had just started up and I was a novice at it. In the beginning, I was just too trusting, telling her how I needed my new business to be a financial success for my new baby and wife who didn’t work. She listened attentively. At the time, I was driving an old VW Polo and she turned up in her husband’s fairly new Mercedes. She dumped my leaflets and demanded the cash. Stealing money intended for baby food is one of the most despicable things I can think of and I will never forget this. What I should have done is to have screened her reasons for leafleting initially which would set alarm bells ringing that she is just doing it for money, rather than additionally for weight loss, fitness, exercise, fresh air, to get out of the house etc. Then, if I decided to hire her, I should have made it very clear that I need a full list of streets done and that she would only be paid once the checks have been successfully carried out. Also, I should have stressed that if it is not done properly, there are penalties. She would then have thought very carefully indeed about dumping the leaflets, balancing her greed with her fear! Still, this knowledge only comes with experience and practice.