I feel the pain haha. But lately since ive been so busy, Ive changed all of my hours online to closed, will even lock the doors and don't answer calls until I have time to return voicemails. Sounds like bad business model to some, but in order for me to get things done, this works best. I have enough work on the board, i dont need someone calling around low balling and asking for a price on a seat roughly 2' by 9' and want me to come up with pricing on the fly then never to come anyways..
No solicitation sign might help keep those unwanted sales people out. But its best to be very blunt and straight to the point when they come in, No im not interested and leave it at that..

I’ve begun to set walk-in hours from 9-12 and do my small stuff then. Beginning with lunch, the door locks and phone goes straight to voicemail. Of course, there is always the person who stops by at 11:59:smile:

This sooooo caught my eye today! It is driving me mad also. It is just me and my Husband.... but I do all the sewing - estimating - bookwork - janitorial... you know the drill....most of the phone answers ect...I was just writing ideas on how to work around this all the while not being and ass.. We do have a no solicitation sign on our door which does not stop them...To stop the people who want to come in at 4:49pm We now close at 4:45pm - we are still here to 5:00pm but no longer answer the phones. Since it is dark out right now it works fine. Its even hard to eat lunch... our busiest time of the day - since we also do glass work .... This year I have to do something - this stich 6".... answer the phone stich 6".... someone walks in.... friends walk in like you said and want to converse since its their day off or out of work... A seat that should just take a day to do takes me three..sometimes you forget where you left off cause the last walk-in was here for an hour... Fridays are our slowest day - so I was thinking straight to voice mail on Fridays- cause it is usually glass and they need it done that day. that way I have time to get something done... My husband does not like when I put the phone straight to voice mail- he says people will start to get teed off .............. Another was from 2:00-4:00pm straight to voice mail. and just deal with walk-ins. But - I feel the pain - and its not making my customer who have dropped off interiors happy because of how long it take me..... This is a great thread -

It's a battle we all deal with. I myself haven't found the best solution yet. We are all burried in work in this industry and my favorite thing lately is the inquiring customer who wants a full interior re done and wants it yesterday and wants it for basically $1000. When you legitimately can not touch it for a year and they scream and say your running a bad business and so on. We all get those people. Thats my favorite when they don't understand how stuff works and they feel they are the only one wanting work done. The other local shop in my area is booked out 3 years. He isnt taking any new work at all unless its tiny petty stuff. He locks his doors and doesn't answer phones unless its a good customer or something of importance

We have a small shop making awnings. I do all the estimates, a lot of the sewing, all the ordering and I make the schedule for everyone else. I do have several employees, however most of the stuff I need help with, they can't/shouldn't do. Well intentioned people told me to delegate - so I tried to train several people last year. Let's just say, it went poorly. I ended up spending more time correcting/explaining how to do something than if I just did it myself.
The only real solutions I've found is 1) work some crazy hours - sometimes 3 or 4am to 5pm. 4-7am are the most productive hours for me since I'm in the shop alone with the door locked. After 7am is constant interruptions. I don't always work that early, but I never regret it when I do. I will often take the weekends for personal stuff to balance. And 2) get rid of the tire kickers as I call them. I started putting into place minimum prices to scare off the people "just pricing" or "trying to shop local". My time is valuable. If I'm not using my time to bill out a job, I have to at least be spending time securing a future good paying job. If your phone call/email/visit doesn't help me accomplish either of those things, I can't spend that time on you.

We since moved our shop into a 15,000 square foot building. Moving a shop is absolute chaos. Never could have imagined how backed up it set us. It forced us to make some changes. We close on Tuesday and Thursday to all walk-in traffic and turn phones off. Voicemail says our hours and days closed and mentions the email and that it is the best means to get ahold of us. I’ve found that serious inquiries leave a message or email the address . I even made the address simple. 1350projectservice@…. This really helps and found that sales are not falling off. You’ve got to shut it down out of respect for existing customers and projects. If I’m spending time taking in new work, I’m not getting existing work out the door.

Ching Ching $$$$$$

This to me is a current problem I have. I even have one bad yelp review because of a customer who walked in. Told them I was backed up for two months and they said it’s ok I’ll look elsewhere. Yet they still wanted the estimate. I told them it wouldn’t be fair for the other person since I am not doing the job. He left. An hour later his wife(which wasn’t even there present posts a bad yelp review about how I don’t want any new work amd how I am still in business. I wish people can respect us more. I would love a Percy world to be able to set up and be appointment only. But people always walk in. Yeah I had a customer call me 15 minutes before closing wanting to come in and browse materials. I said no I’m closing. I am a one man shop. It drives me insane that I cannot focus like I want to. But I close on weekends now and just work behind closed doors and don’t answer the phone on weekends.