New Poll -- Your Fav Radio Station

After just a few days of conducting this 30-day poll and reading all the great replies and wonderful suggestions for improvement, I've reached the conclusion that my very limited advertising bucks will be better spent on an ad or two in car magazines than thrown at a broadcasting company.

Just to clear up any confusion and save you all a bunch of typing ...

I live out in the boonies 130 miles from Memphis, 140 miles from Nashville, and almost 250 miles from St. Louis.

My daily driver is a 1983 D150 pickup with a 360 that gets about 8 gallons to the mile so I obviously don't travel much at $4.00 a gallon.

There is ONE CAR SHOW a year here every October in my immediate vicinity, and it's not even a car show per se ... it's the Annual Fire Prevention Festival (i.e., a bunch of firemen and their trucks) and they have a little car show in conjunction with it. Last October, it had 17 entrants and only 3 of them were what I would call show worthy. A 1999 Chevy Celebrity -- 4 door no less -- took home a friggin trophy!!! It's more of a bad joke than a car show in my opinion. (One of the attendees was the kid I mentioned in an earlier post with his Pepto Pink late model S-10 ... I coated gauge bezels from a 1959 Impala that he wanted to install in it. He was my only customer from the show. One other customer in June was a referral from another attendee who has a beautiful 1971 Challenger, the car I really wanted to work on. He promised me some work back then but I have yet to hear from him.)

I have color flyers (and/or 4x6 color postcards -- see the photo attached) hanging up in every window that will have one, including the three auto parts stores and every auto- and bike-related business within forty miles. If they have a flyer or card in their window, I make sure they have a nice stack of business cards to go with it.

There's an entire page on my website devoted to customer feedback ("PSC Feedback") ... not surprisingly, most of the comments on it are from FABO members. :love7: In case you might've forgotten, I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!

I have ads on every "free" medium I can think of (Craig's Lists, Click2City.com, motortopia.com, my racingjunk.com profile, etc.) and am constantly searching out more. CudaSpaz, thanks for the kudzu.com idea -- that's one I've never heard of. If any of you are inclined to write something up, I'd be forever in your debt. (FYI: I have a memory like an elephant and if I get referrals from anyone who passes out cards or helps promote my business in any way, I WILL reflect that on your own powder coating bill whenever the time comes to get your own stuff done. Though it was recommended earlier to treat everyone the same, I DO try to take care of my pals.)

FastFish66, you're right -- I DO need a bigger oven. Of course, bigger ovens aren't free (or even cheap) so when finances permit, believe me, I WILL be upgrading my curing equipment to be able to do k-members, leaf springs, rear ends, blocks, etc. I've even considered getting a loan to buy one, but if business is so slow on small stuff that I can't even pay my bills, the last thing I want to do is incur more debt. I've been trying to set aside ten percent of every job to buy one, but in this economy even that's tough to do.

Thanks again for everything gang! I've said it before but I'll say it again ... I couldn't do what I love to do without you, and I appreciate each and every one of you!!! Keep those suggestions and ideas for improvement coming. Rest assured, I'll consider them all.