I hate to criticise Don 
but;
after 8yrs if your not earning £50,000 pack it in
yes monitor your adverts but You should know in 6mths if they are effective
advertising is about making money not paying for themselves, when an advert just pays for its self it means you worked for nothing!
best advise I can give is don't spread yourself too thin, there's more than enough customers within 3miles of your home ( unless you live in middle of nowhere) to keep you busy for a lifetime, only advertise to them.
Mike
Mike, cheers for that, not criticised at all.
You probably have an established business so your name is recognised by people in all the ads and leaflet drops you do, You also seem to be a good sales person so work shouldn't be that hard to come by, most people are shy so don't make good sales people.
As for monitoring ads, 6mths.. come on!, maybe in 1970 you would monitor for this period of time. Theirs so much more competition your up against, the person who's ad appears in front of the same customers year in year out usually wins, and yes adverts in the 21st century should only be used for building databases, and for not pulling immediate profit.
If new starters are NOT interested in walking the streets and talking prospects into having their Carpets or Upholstery cleaned, they should seek advice from there bank manager regarding a long term plan (15 Year+) in order to start a business.
Remember that in business, you don't think in Days and Months, you think in Decades.
PS... Im currently monitoring my yellow pages ad over 15 years, with slight yearly alterations, I will then decide whether it works out viable.
don
