Forum Discussion

Chilandscape's avatar
Chilandscape
Contributor 3
1 month ago

Which clients should I be contacting?

Are commercial clients better than residential clients? 

6 Replies

  • Commercial clients are generally better for long-term stability.

    They give you recurring work and more predictable revenue once you're established. The downside is they take longer to land and are usually more price-sensitive.

    Residential work is typically easier to get started with and clients often pay faster, but the volume can be inconsistent.

    Most successful companies I know do a mix of both. They use residential work to pay the bills while they work on landing steady commercial accounts.

    What type of service are you offering? That makes a big difference in which side is better for you.

  • I like the idea of using residential work to build cash flow and reputation while slowly positioning for larger commercial relationships.

  • AnthonySalazar's avatar
    AnthonySalazar
    Jobber Ambassador

    It depends on your goals, commercial accounts are harder to acquire and takes longer for them to approve because they need to go through a board for budget approval, and they typically contract the lowest bidder. But if you can land one commercial account and do a great job, it gets easier to land more accounts with the same property manager/business.

  • Yes , as I’ve started to grow I’ve been taking on both but more commercially due to the repetitive work schedule / with residential customers not paying upfront  and multiple trips to customers homes can get costly with gas or your techs not abiding by the rules you can be loosing- I would push more commercial contractors 

    • dandalabor's avatar
      dandalabor
      Contributor 3

      I was thinking the same thing. The commercial business can turn into contract work which means monthly or routine payments based on the services provided.

  • Redd2021's avatar
    Redd2021
    Contributor 2

    building relationships with both are great an grants more  over time an building a foundation,