Hi,
First - welcome to the world of the self-employed!

From what you say it seems that you've gone about things the right way. You've secured a basic income stream from the beginning, and that's given you the ability to start your own marketing campaign to secure your own clients.

But, as you've discovered, it's not easy to find these elusive clients (despite what the ad-sales reps may try and tell you!) In fact it's extremely difficult. So let's look at a few home truths about marketing health & safety services.

1) Mailshots can certainly work, but it's a "numbers" game. If memory serves the success rate you can expect from a successful mailshot is in the region of 2%, i.e. just 2 in every 100 recipients will actually respond - and they still have to be converted from a response to a sale.

Writing the initial letter is in itself a skill, which means you might decide to use the services of a marketing specialist/ copywriter (for a fee). The conversation rates can be enhanced by techniques such as follow-up emails and/ or follow-up phone calls to close the sale, but it can be time consuming, there are always costs involved, and it's hard work.

2) Print adverts can be expensive (as you've no doubt discovered already) and my personal view is that they're not very effective (but I must stress that that is a personal view). The ad sales rep will no doubt point to a circulation figure of x '000s of readers - but the reality is that only a very small fraction of these readers will actually notice your advert (unless you pay an arm and a leg for a 1/2 of full page spread - which I don't recommend). And there's a big - and crucial - difference between just noticing and actually buying.

3) I believe you do need to have a web presence, if only to reassure potential clients that you actually exist, but fighting to get to the top of the Google rankings will probably necessitate your bringing in a competent web marketing adviser - which will involve additional expense.

4) The ultimate problem you face (indeed, we all face) is that there is a surplus of general health & safety consultants out there. Some are good; some are bad; some are qualified; and others just have a telephone and a book on health & safety (but that's another issue!). Most clients have no idea how to sort the wheat from the chaff (a polite word for "cowboys") and you have to somehow make your voice heard above the general clamor - which is quite a challenge.

My advice is that you need to have something special to offer which sets you aside form the masses. Maybe you can offer specific advice in a particular area, or you can legitimately claim to be an expert in some area of health & safety?

Don't try and sell just on price (cheapest is not always best and it can be a suicidal tactic) but try and carve a little - yet lucrative - niche for yourself.

It's not easy (otherwise everybody would be doing it) but it can be done!

marketing and sales are at least as important [I personally say more important] as the actual physical work activities undertaken when being a being a self employed person so U will have to get used to it

U need to cast your net as wide and far as U can and as often as U can so it is another skill to master

best of luck and keep punching!!