Finding new customers for a carpentry biz

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(FORTUNE Small Business) -- Dear FSB: I'm a skilled trim carpenter. I can also do lots of other carpentry jobs; I have a truck and tools. I am sick of making $15 an hour. There is so much competition here in South Florida in the carpentry field. Any ideas to find clients? Or something else you feel might help me? Poverty sucks! Thanks.

- Matt Crosby, Pompano Beach, Fl

Dear Matt: You might be the Michelangelo of mahogany, but to build a successful business for yourself, you'll need to learn how to craft a business strategy as well as craft wood.

"Think less about being a carpenter and more about being a person who owns a business that does carpentry," says Rafael Cruz, Associate Director Florida Atlantic University Small Business Development Center. "You need to start right with an entrepreneurial outlook to be able to grow your business."

One challenge is that many people in your line of work have spent so much time learning their trade that they haven't had time to learn how to do things critical to running a business, like networking, he says.

"Start by clearly defining what you offer. How can you improve the quality of other peoples' lives through your services?" asks Cruz. And don't say, "I do it all." Nobody believes you. "Find the one or two areas of carpentry that you know you're really great and focus on those." Then, what Cruz call the "halo effect" should kick in: once people are convinced you can do one thing well, they begin to believe you can do anything well.

Define your customers. Do you want to focus on residential or commercial work? "They're two different markets with two different customers," Cruz says. "For residential, you're target group will be women; for commercial, mostly men. You market differently to each so you need to know whom you're focusing on."

Network with anyone you already have a relationship with, says Cole Calhoun, an Atlanta, Georgia-based contractor and businessman who recently published the e-book The Starving Carpenter, a business guide for contractors. "Like any business where someone comes into the home to do work, there's a trust issue," he says, "If you have a common contact it goes a long way."

"Make sure you have good communication habits and follow-up with customers," he says. "I can't tell you how many people say 'no one called me back' or 'no one delivered a quote on time.'" If your business habits are as exact as your blueprints, you're already ahead of the game.

Once you become established, look into joining professional trade organizations, suggests Gerry Fritz, communications director for the Washington, D.C.-based Associated Builders and Contractors, a national organization of construction-related businesses. "They're a great way to get yourself on the radar," he says.