The journey to self-employment has commenced.

The first commercial website is written and promotion has begun.
What is the website?
It's a cost and estimating service, aimed at individuals and small construction companies. The main focus is to give said target audience the opportunity to outsource some of their cost management and estimating tasks, allowing them to concentrate on actually doing the construction work.
What "cost and estimating" services are available?
To quote directly from the new Mejia & Jones website
Estimating
Estimating services cover the following:
• Estimates can be prepared from Drawings, Specifications, Schedules and Bills of Quantities
• Full estimate build ups together with detailed resource & output schedules
• Approximate or budgetary estimates
• Material and plant schedules
• Estimates can be prepared for Contractors, Sub-Contractors or Individuals
Bills of Quantity
BoQ services cover the following:
• BoQ preparation in accordance with SMM7 or CESMM
• Bespoke BoQ preparation for Design & Build Projects
• BoQ preparation for sub-contract package enquiries
• BoQ's delivered in Excel format
Contractor / Subcontractor
Services for contractors and subcontractors cover the following:
• BoQ preparation
• Analytical estimates
• Tendering strategy
• Procurement of materials and subcontractors
• Monthly applications for payment
• Remeasurement of quantities
• Valuation of variations
• Settlement of current and aged final accounts
• Reclamation of overdue retention monies
• Advice on delay & disruption issues
• Preparation of insurance claims
As for there being a market, we know of many individuals / small contractors who are stretching themselves and not doing their project / business justice. We need to reach these people and convince them that by employing us, they will benefit from added time and improved financial status.
We know we can deliver a quality service, the hard part is making people aware of this and convincing them to give us a try!

Therefore marketing is crucial. So just how will the business be promoted?
1. Business cards are being printed, these will be distributed to all and sundry!
2. An email newsletter/advertising campaign
3. Google Adwords. Keyword selection is going to be very important, as our budget wont allow us to choose the obvious keywords. Construction, Outsourced is one option
4. Facebook Ads. As above.
5. Posting to relevant forums (a list of forums can be found here) offering advice to forumites
6. An ebook - "Save Money on Your Construction Project" - is being written. This will be available free to all as a download. The title is still not 100%. When the ebook is ready, we'll run it for a few weeks on Google Adwords or something similar as a test. (It will be the same ebook, however there'll be a couple of different ads and name combinations, which will give us an idea which combo is the most striking and likely to get hits in the long run.)
7. Twitter updates offering construction news/views and reviews, and advice on saving costs in construction, and the latest news from Mejia & Jones.
8. We will actively encourage recommendations from our clients. A word of mouth recommendation is a huge endorsement for any company or service.
There will be a more in depth series of posts on how the marketing is proceeding as things progress.
How will you charge clients?
At first, we are offering our services FREE to anyone who cares to give us an opportunity. From this, it is hoped that clients will recognize a good service that is useful and will be willing to pay for our help in the future.
Anyone who is interested in this service, learning more about what we can offer, or can offer help with marketing and the like, please leave a comment, contact us here or email roy@mejiajones.com.

Author Box:

My name is Roy Jones and I am a 29 year old currently working full time. I have recently started my own business, a construction company, Mejia & Jones Cost Associates. My main passion is travelling. A few years back, I backpacked around Latin America for eleven months. I now have a burning desire to travel again, consequently I'm planning the next installment of my travels - a bicycle tour of 20,000km starting in Istanbul in early 2010. The preparations for this tour - as well as the travel blog of my time in Latin America are available to read on my other blog - http://www.itinerantlifestyle.com.