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Would You Encourage The Next Generation to Get Into Your Trade?
What industry are you in? And would you actually recommend it to someone younger looking at their career options right now? 67% of Gen Z say they'd recommend a trade career to a sibling or friend. Curious if that tracks with what shows up in the comments here! More stats like this in the full Blue Collar ReportWelcome to the Community! Hi team What’s Your Business Journey? 👋
Whether you’re brand new to Jobber, just starting your business, or have been running a successful company for years we’d love to hear your story! Introduce yourself: What type of business do you run? How long have you been in business? What’s one goal you’re working toward this year? What’s one thing you’ve learned that could help another business owner? This community is full of people at different stages, and everyone has something valuable to share. Let’s connect, learn from each other, and grow together!July Community Spotlight: A Little Recognition Goes a Long Way
Every trade is different. Every business is at a different stage. But the members in this month's spotlight have one thing in common: they showed up, shared what they know, and made this community more useful for everyone who comes across their posts and replies. 🌟 Mims01 — has a talent for asking questions that make others want to share. His What inspired you to start your own business? post drew 27 replies, and Would you fire a difficult customer even if they spend a lot? pulled in honest takes from members who'd been in the exact same spot. 🌟 Windowwizardusa — shared how a local BNI group alone accounted for a third of their first year revenue in a thread on slow season marketing, then took the conversation further by asking what marketing gets you the biggest return. 🌟 TPSD — replies with the kind of honesty that moves a conversation forward. Their take on getting your spouse involved in the business is the kind of reply that makes you rethink your approach, and their reply in the AI and kids career thread brings the perspective of someone actually living it with four kids and a business on the side. 🌟 Sophiera — asked a genuinely useful question about what networking actually looks like day-to-day and brought the same curiosity to a thread about when you stopped thinking like a tradesperson and started thinking like a business owner, where she shared her own perspective as a solopreneur and kept coming back to engage with every reply. 🌟 ChuckHireExpert — shows up in hiring threads with answers that go beyond the usual job board suggestions. Their reply on finding part-time workers without expensive postings and breakdown of vetting new hires with automated screening are worth reading if hiring is on your radar. Know someone who helped you out this month? Tag them below, or better yet, start a post of your own. 👇
Setting the Worst Case Upfront — Why My Restoration Clients Rarely Freak Out
After enough restorations, I started seeing the same pattern every time: lawn looks awful right after seeding, client panics, more weeds show up, they get more anxious, then it fills in and they're thrilled — but they go through a rollercoaster to get there. So now I tell them the rollercoaster upfront. Before I even start, I walk them through exactly what's going to look worse before it looks better — patchy spots, weeds coming in that we can't treat yet because it'd kill the new seed, and a timeline that depends on weather, not their calendar. I also just won't top-dress and seed under mature trees unless it's a small area — the success rate is too low to sell someone false hope. Real example: I did an overseed for a client in May who had an event planned on their lawn. Season was running a few weeks behind that year because of a late cold snap. I told them straight — the lawn responds to heat, sun, and water, not to anybody's schedule or how badly they need it done. Their event ended up happening on the driveway instead, because the weather wasn't cooperating — not my fault, not theirs, just weather. They weren't happy about it at first. But because I'd never promised it would be ready in time, there was nothing for them to be upset at me about — and shortly after, they got the lawn they wanted. Another one: I did a seed and top dress job under a mature tree where I'd specifically told the client not to expect much there — too much shade, too much root competition, low odds. With the amount of rain we got this year, they ended up with a lush lawn in that spot anyway. I don't think it'll hold once things dry out, but it's a good example of the same principle — I set the bar low and honest, and reality beat it. Now, with enough of these under my belt, I can tell clients with confidence: follow the plan, you'll get your lawn. If something's off along the way, we'll fix it. I've got enough data behind that now to say it and mean it.At what point did growth become less fun?
Every revenue milestone comes with new challenges. More employees, more compliance, more overhead, and more responsibility. The problems don’t disappear, they just get more expensive. For me, it was realizing my finances were a mess and I had to stop treating the business like a personal piggybank. I’m curious to hear everyone else’s!
Firing Clients - How do you go about it?
I posted about a "quick sand" job we've been on the last couple weeks and I've come to the realization, we probably need to fire this client. So how do you go about it? Personally, I don't want to turn it in to a big thing. I'm thinking next time they reach out for work, just say we are too busy and give them a referral to someone else. What strategies have you used that have been received well? I think for us because we are on a per project basis it'd be a little easier than a business with reoccurring visits.
