I’ve been running a successful home renovation business for 15 years. We’ve always had steady work through word-of-mouth and local advertising, but in the last 6 months, our revenue is down almost 30%. I hired a college intern to help with basic office work while we figure things out.

Yesterday, she casually showed me our competitors’ online presence. Our top 3 local competitors are posting daily content showing their work, processes, and before/afters. They’re getting tons of engagement and apparently most customers now find renovation services through social media and video content. We’re essentially invisible to new customers.

I started cold calling some clients we lost bids to recently. Almost all mentioned finding the other companies through their online content. One specifically said “we went with them because we could see exactly what to expect.”

I feel overwhelmed about catching up. We do great work but nobody outside our existing network sees it. Does anyone have recommendations on how to even get started increasing out online presence? Constantly spedning time creating and editing content all the time seems overwhelming and time consuming, but if that’s what we have to do then so be it. What were your first steps? This feels like learning a whole new business at this point.

My pride’s a bit hurt that it took an intern to show me why we’re struggling, but I’m determined to adapt. Would really appreciate hearing from others who’ve faced similar challenges.