How to grow a business on the side until you can go full-time?
Hey everyone, Aaron here with Latiolais’ Lawn Co. out of Lafayette, Louisiana 👋 I started my lawn and property maintenance business while working a full-time job during the week, and have been growing it through hard work, referrals, and trying to provide dependable service every time. Jobber has honestly helped take my business to another level with estimates, invoicing, scheduling, and keeping customers updated professionally. It’s helped me run smoother operations and build stronger relationships with customers. Excited to keep learning from everyone in this community and continue growing the business 👍 For those that started owner-operated, what helped y’all the most when making the jump toward full-time?Google Ads vs LSA — how is everyone actually using these?
Here's where I'm at: I run both Google Ads and Local Services Ads (LSA) for my business. On paper, that sounds like I've got it figured out. In practice, it feels a bit like throwing money at two different machines and hoping one of them spits out jobs. I don't always know which one a new customer came from, and I'm honestly not confident my settings on either are dialed in the way they should be. Obviously the LSA is something I pay for on an individual basis. I just feel like I never get any jobs out of these. Does this hurt me to kill these ads all together? Then google ads I have no idea. I feel like I get a lot of leads from google in general but I don't know how much of that is my website vs the ads. How do you guys approach these?Building My Cultural High Tea / High Coffee Business — What Lead Tactics Work Best
Hi everyone, I’m Desiree — I’m currently building Desire Treats, a mobile High Tea & High Coffee fusion service inspired by African, Caribbean, and Latin culture. I’m based in Edmonton and still in the early stages, but a recent win for me was finalizing my Passport Menu and getting my mobile setup ready for private events and office bookings, with plans to expand into yacht‑style experiences and warm‑climate markets in the future. One thing that really shaped my business direction is my Passport Menu concept — offering destination‑inspired desserts paired with curated tea and coffee flights. Customers can explore different cultural flavors and collect digital stamps to unlock rewards. I’ll be expanding the Passport Menu with dishes as the business grows, and I’m also exploring partnerships with existing commercial kitchens to help me get started operationally. Long‑term, my goal is to take Desire Treats into Florida and eventually expand across warmer countries like Mexico, Central America, and South America, where cultural fusion and outdoor experiences thrive. As I prepare to launch, I’d love to learn from others here: What lead tactics have brought you the highest‑quality clients for mobile or event‑based services (including higher‑end markets like corporate events or yachts)? Referrals, partnerships, ads, community groups, or something else? I’m also shaping my business model to stay accessible. Long‑term, I want to create options that support people facing financial barriers while still maintaining consistent pricing and a sustainable service. My goal is to build a business that grows while helping others grow too. Appreciate any insights as I get ready to roll things out.Any of you - OVER automated? Where's the Line
I was thinking about this as I'm reconfiguring our sales intake system. We are about to implement a system that will automate a lot of follow up and keep nudging people that haven't responded. I'm trying to do the same with email, and occasionally will send voice texts also. But when is it too much and you've lost the human touch? I definitely don't want to take the personality out of my business. Where have you drawn the line in your own business to keep the machine from running the whole thing?What information did you get from you Google Profile review?
First off thank you Jobber and Phil for doing this. What an amazing thing for you guys to do for us. For those of you who got a review, what did you learn about your profile to strengthen it? I hope we can all compile here and we can all read through and make our GBP that much stronger! I learned that I for sure need more photos on there and I need to link my social media pages.Sweat equity
Building a pressure washing business with sweat equity. I've been leaving flyers and tear aways at local businesses. About to post some on local Facebook groups, is there any additional advice for adding customers but keeping it local and personal. I am hoping to build a locally recognized company... patriot Pressure Washing, PPW!Has anyone landed a customer from showing up in an AI search result?
If you've gotten a new customer after showing up in AI search tools like ChatGPT, what do you think is driving it? Your 5-star reviews? Your site? Something else? In this episode of Masters of Home Service, PhilRisher talks about: How AI search decides which service companies to recommend The 7 steps to rank higher in AI search Why your content and online presence matter more than ever Want to put these tips into action? Download the 7-step AI search checklist for this episode. Never miss an episode of Masters of Home Service. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
At what point do you hire an agency?
I'm at the point in my business where I really need to not be doing stuff that I'm not good at and I have enough money to invest in different areas of the business to improve the operations. I'm actually rebranding as well so I'm changing our website then it got me thinking - My old website was good, I put a lot of work in to the back links, SEO optimizing it myself, but it does look a little DIY. I got to thinking, this would be a good time to do it correctly and potentially have a professional do it, and maybe I've been missing out on potential traffic because of the website. Has anyone hired an agency with success? What about failures? What things should I be thinking about when approaching this?
