Building Contractors, has your business dropped off? Is it tag on the toe Dead? Are you thinking of calling it quits? Is your spouse nagging you to death to do something? Are you even thinking of (choke,choke) applying for that building inspector job? Please for God sake say that ain't so! "Those who can't make it become an inspector".

Builders, no one has to tell you how bad it is out there. Just look at your bank account. Even with no work or the prospect of new work, estimated tax and insurances still have to be paid. In plain English, right now, it probably sucks to be you! Believe me I feel your pain. Been there, done that.

It takes a different breed of people to be a building contractor. I am not talking to or about the national chains of contractors. You know the ones. I am talking about the hometown contractor. Tell me if the list below is not true.

1. It pains you to call leads that friends give you. Wouldn't they call you if they needed your service?

2. You wish all of your jobs would come from word of mouth from all of your "happy" customers. No calling them first and having to sell yourself, again. And again.

3. You are a Building Contractor not a marketer! If you need something built give me a call. If you want to sell me something or if I have to sell you me, screw it! I do not want to hear it and I'm sure my "customer" does not either. If they want me they will give me a call.

Yep, that is the way most hometown Building Contractors think. Does it sound like you? I thought so. And that, my friend, is why you have no work. When times are good word of mouth works best! When not, does not work at all.

There are solutions. It is called marketing and it comes in many forms. Which marketing technique works the best for Building Contractors? Which is the most cost effective? Which will give you the best bang for your buck? (If you had an extra buck)

There is one method and it is basically free! This one method can potentially put you in front of hundreds of eager customers. Customers that want your service and actually want to call you! Just think! No cold calling. No having to make that dreaded call. They will call you!

I am about to tell you the Building Contractor the single best advertising you can do for your business. And the best part, it is Free!

Get that! The single best advertising you can do as a building contractor is absolutely Free! You do not have to pay a dime. It gets better. You do not have to talk to anyone or have to call somebody to do it for you. You can do it yourself from the comfort of your own home. It takes just a matter of minutes!

Now, here it comes. Google. Yep that is it Google. I am sure every one has heard of Google. But do you actually know what a Google is? By definition it is a number. A huge number with a bunch of zeros at the end. And that is also how many people use Google ever day!

I know what you are thinking. Your thinking "George what does that have to do with me"? I'm getting to that. First let me tell you a little how Google works. In the big picture, Google is a "search engine". What is a search engine? When you click on your internet browser (a browser is the software that connects you to the internet such as Internet Explorer) it opens a search box. That search box is connected to the word wide web via Google, or Yahoo or MSN or some other "search engine". It searches for information or web sites. You type something in and it will "search" billions of pages of information to find the best match and present it back to you. Got it? Great.

Google at the present is the number one search engine in the entire world. More people use Google than all of the other search engines put together. And Google as big as they are wants to help local business and they want to do it for Free! Chances are some of your competition has already figured it out. At least the big guys have.

Google has a self serve service called "local Google". Here is how it works and it is the greatest free adverting you can use. You sign up via your (or any) computer. You fill in your info by just answering the boxes. You push the submit button. Within 5 seconds you will get an automated call from Google to verify that your business is really your business. You will type in the 5 digit code they give you and that's it. Your done and on the web.

How it works.

A customer wants to find a local builder that has experience in there needs. So they type in the area, and builder (example: Dayton beach fl builders) the builders in that area will pop up in the browser with there phone numbers and a tag saying "more info". Now how sweat is that. It didn't cost you a dime and the potential for new customers is limitless. Get started today. Google.com/local/add

For more information on how to use Google's local marketing or on help signing up please visit http://ConstructionTimes.com