Hello all, just signed in to ask the community for some feedback. A little about myself. I was an installer/merchandiser for many years and remember going through lots of websites submitting my name for various projects. I used to have over 30+ companies I dealt with through the years from replacing gift cards all the way to full-blown remodels of stores, local too nationwide. Fast forward to 2015 I was brought on by my current company who I worked for doing IC work for over 10+ years to handle mainly the East Coast operations, but in reality, we are a nationwide company including Hawaii and Alaska, and I need to staff projects. We have had a strong database of merchandisers and Installers for many years and a great reputation not only with our clients who use our services but mainly our reps, a lot of them have been with us for 15+ years some 25 years. Some have moved on and some just cannot physically do the work we have, some also just want to stay local so took on FT or PT jobs close to their homes.

The issue I am facing is now I have projects popping up nationwide from major cities like Denver, Atlanta, Orlando, etc to smaller cities in the middle of nowhere or just on the fringes of being out of reach of major populated areas. The other problem is when using places like Indeed or Craigslist etc, the chances of finding someone that understands what 1099 Independent Merch or Project based means is almost futile or trying to explain to someone that it needs to be fit into an existing route, it is like listening to a dead phone call.

I am trying to find a place to post legit projects targeted towards the people who understand the business, dead seasons, project delays <client says June is a go and then we start in October>, what project-based work is, what 1099 means etc. Even when I direct people to our website and ask them to research us, look us up etc and then simply click a link most times they do not want to provide any information, they get to the point of the legit paperwork required by the government and think it is a scam etc etc

So I am asking where are forums where I could post legit projects available or routes I have available? Some projects are ongoing, a lot of it is 1 and done, some are bigger projects 2-3 weeks on the road etc, I have some road warrior reps that will drive or fly at the drop of a dime for emergency projects, but I am trying to get more local reps to cut down on the travel aspect it is good for us, as well as the reps out there not having to be too far from home. The new NARMs site is outdated, the database is not current most people you reach out to there forget they are even on that site, Indeed is not targeting the correct people for the projects we have, and Craigslist is like a 1/50 shot you get a decent rep.

Sorry for the lengthy post but I want to get our projects out to the right people and thought I would start here, I am not looking for recruiting services, or a company to take over my jobs they are staffed but I would like to get some of my projects out to a broader range of local reps to alleviate some of the workload and travel on my current merchandisers and reps.

Thanks

Dave

You are on what is probably the largest and most active forum right now. Why didn't you include the name of your company, website, your name and contact information? If you go to your personal profile on the forum, it is possible to create a signature line with all the pertinent information. It will then be included in every post you make. If you are trying to fill specific jobs there is a section of the forum devoted to job postings.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/2017 03:47PM by LisaSTL.

Hi Lisa

I will do set that up now. I just did not want to post anything about the company etc until I knew I was in a proper place to post that information.

As for the company information I will post that but we usually try and do target one on one calls with people when the projects are a fit for them and are available, we are a small company, 3 project managers total and we usually do all the recruiting, scheduling etc only 1 person to handle incoming calls so we try to handle all the calls through each project manager.

Our company information can be found at [www.mssinstore.com]

I will set my profile up now for future postings and appreciate your feedback.

As for job postings, I will look and locate that area and get all my current needs lined up and post that soon.

Thanks

David Stufflebean
Eastern U.S. Regional Manager
Merchandise Support Services
Dave@mssinstore.com

You are much better off here than Craigslist. The audience will be targeted to independent contractors who have been merchandising for quite some time. Not only will there be prospects, some of the more experienced may be willing to provide referrals in the areas you need covered. You will find the members here to be professionals.

Thanks Lisa

That is exactly what I am looking for. I was trying to find the thread containing job postings and maybe I am just not seeing it but I see one for Mystery Shoppers is there one for purely merchandising and installations? Or am I on that one currently. Once again thanks for giving me a heads up and information and answering some questions. I want to make sure I am getting the information in the right thread.

There is only one job board. I realize it is titled "Mystery Shopping," but it seems to be appropriate for both. Meanwhile, keep an eye on this thread. As more merchandisers chime in you will have a better handle on how to post opportunities.

Hi Dave, I just went to your website, and when I clicked on the "Contact" link, this is the error message I received...I am posting here, as well as emailing you, so other potential merchandisers will have a heads up as to the error message....thanks!

404 - File or directory not found.
The resource you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.

Hi Guysmom

Yes our IT guy is trying to fix that part of our website at the moment, I apologize for it not working it picked the perfect time to act up today lol.

Dave,
Well, it's working today, so thanks! The "contact" info for merchandisers to fill out is rather minimal, to say the least! There was no where to include what type of work/hrs & days available, etc on the form. The email I sent you personally did contain that info. Thanks for getting the contact tab up and running.

Yes, it is just a contact form for now. This way we can contact you directly and find out what we have in your area and also get an idea of what projects you might fit into. We are currently updating that area of our website for future job openings. Right now I am trying to test the Dallas, TX area to see what if any interest we get from that one post, in order to see how to go about offering future and current projects through this forum.

What I do not want to do is come in and lay out 20+ projects in multiple post and flood the forums so I figured if some merchandisers are interested the easiest way is to just gather some contact info, look at where they are and see what I have available, if I do not have a particular project going where they are at now, I might in the future and I can talk 1 on 1 and explain it that way.

I also posted it here as opposed to the MS Job Board because I think this area might be seen by more of the merchandisers and installers and I do not confuse people posting it in the MS Job Board and am hoping that helps.

Thanks

OK, thanks. So hopefully you received my email....you'll know it's from me, because I'm the one who copied/pasted the error message to you in the email....so if you ever have anything in my neck of the woods, please feel free to contact me.

I have not gotten any email like that. dave@mssinstore.com might want to look at the email again and make sure it is correct. Have gotten a couple of other people hitting the web page but none so far are from Dallas area who have contacted us through it but at least we know it is working for now.

Thanks

Hey Dave, I'm not from Dallas....I'm from a Southeast state....I'll resend the email. Thanks.

So World Alliance didn't work for you? That was previously NARMS. I get some leads from them occasionally. Also, I am signed up with the Instore Group, but that's not your company, is it?

Yeah NARMS / WA we used for a long time but as of the switch over we started to notice a decline in responses and when contacting folks about 75% of the time they forgot they were even on the site or they had full-time work and no longer were doing Installs or Merchandising. Nope, not Instore Group.

We handle so many different things it is really hard to post on Indeed also because we are not like TNG or Footprint, Driveline big, we get large nationwide projects that hit for 2-3 weeks maybe a month 2 months long but mostly a lot of them are ongoing 1-2 display installs, a reset here and there but spread out. So posting to Indeed worked for some metro areas but what I am trying to do is find the Installers, Merchandisers, Reset folks etc and build up a network of reps that understand the lingo and know what 1099 is and Project based pay etc.

Guysmom were you trying to call me back earlier just curious if that was you I called this morning if so I could never connect to you and when I got the call back it was just static. I am still going through emails lol 11 pm at night and I am still working it.

I find plenty of exactly the type of work you're talking about through World Alliance and The Retail Recruiter. Are you TouchPoint 360? I would love that route but don't trust the pay/estimated time ratio stated with the travel included the pay per store doesn't make sense.

@Dstuff71 wrote:

Guysmom were you trying to call me back earlier just curious if that was you I called this morning if so I could never connect to you and when I got the call back it was just static. I am still going through emails lol 11 pm at night and I am still working it.

Dave, I have "PM'd" (Private Messaged) you. You should get a notice from the Forum that you have received a PM. You can click on that and read my PM to you. Thanks.

Hey Spicy

Nope not Touchpoint 360, also for a long while NARMS/WA did work for us, it was about 2014/15 we noticed the drop off maybe they have come around cleaned up their database or got new people managing that part of their services.

WA is not really attracting the $9-$12 crowd anymore. Most of my assignments from there average $22.50-$55 an hour. That's probably the problem, assuming the pay offered is in that range. Retail sheds it's proverbial skin about every seven years, so 2018 should be a great year for the $11.11 an hour average merchandising pay.