What marketing channel works best for you right now???
Hello, We are currently evaluating our marketing strategy to improve lead consistency and build deeper community trust. While we currently use Yelp, we find the results inconsistent and often attract price-shoppers rather than long-term clients. :( Moving forward, I would like to pivot our focus toward community-based marketing, such as sponsoring local schools and Little League teams. These sponsorships build the kind of long-term goodwill and trust that ensures local homeowners think of us first during emergencies. To clarify our strategy, we are avoiding the following channels: - Lead Aggregators (Angi, Networx, HomeAdvisor): These platforms sell the same lead to multiple contractors. The requirement to respond within seconds to avoid losing the job—while still being charged—does not align with our workflow. - Yelp for Major Projects: Due to high cost-per-click metrics and a high volume of price-sensitive inquiries, we find this to be a low-return channel for larger plumbing jobs. Your Friendly Neighborhood Plumbers,
Built something for the tip splitting problem — would love feedback from other operators
A while back I came across a thread here about splitting digital tips between technicians and pushing them to Gusto. Nobody had a clean answer. Solutions were either manual, incomplete, or overkill. So I ended up building something for myself. It handles the tip data from Jobber, calculates the split based on your own rules, and pushes it to Gusto automatically. Been using it on my end and it does the job. Now I'm trying to make it usable for everyone else dealing with the same headache. I put together a demo at CrewSplit demo preview to show how it works before I open it up properly. Would love to hear from people who actually run crews — does this match the problem you're dealing with, or am I missing something? Honest feedback only.Banking with a Credit Union vs a Large Bank
Your Bank Should Work With You — Not Just Hold Your Money I used Navy Federal for my business for a while. Honestly, it was fine — until it wasn't. Someone got into my account and started sending money out. That's when I found out just how unprepared they were to handle something like that. Every person I talked to had a different answer. No clear process, no consistent protocol — just whoever picked up that day making it up as they went. The security stuff alone was wild. I went in to do a wire transfer and nobody asked for secondary ID. Went back another time — different employee — and suddenly it was required. Which is it? If your own staff doesn't know the rules, the rules aren't actually protecting anyone. Then to top it off, an employee talked me into doing a cashier's check instead of a wire because he said it would be faster. I took it to my new bank and they put a 7-day hold on it. A week of frozen money because someone gave me bad advice. That whole experience made me realize credit unions — at least the ones I've dealt with — are basically just holding your money. And for a personal account, maybe that's enough. For a business, it's not. What Big Banks Actually Offer That Credit Unions Don't After that mess, I looked into Chase and US Bank. The difference in what they offer for business accounts is significant. ACH verification. You can set up filters so only specific, pre-approved companies can pull from your account. If something unexpected tries to come through, it gets blocked. Navy Federal had nothing like this. Check verification (Positive Pay). You upload the checks you've issued. If a check comes through that doesn't match, the bank flags it before it clears. Simple concept, big protection. Wire transfer controls. Large banks have actual multi-step verification for wires — callbacks, dual authorization on large amounts, confirmation steps that make it hard to accidentally send money somewhere wrong. Not "ask for ID sometimes." Business credit. This is a big one. Credit unions tend to have low limits, limited products, and not much flexibility. Big banks have dedicated business credit cards, lines of credit, SBA loans, equipment financing — actual tools to help your business grow. If you ever need capital, a credit union is going to hit a ceiling fast. Online banking built for business. Multiple users with different permission levels, QuickBooks and Xero integrations, real-time alerts, the works. A lot of credit unions are running systems that feel like they were built for a personal savings account. 24/7 support. Something goes wrong Friday night — you need help Friday night. Big banks have business banking lines around the clock. Credit unions are often a Monday morning call back.What funding programs actually helped your business grow and which ones should you avoid?
I own a residential/commercial cleaning and interior painting company in Indiana and I’m trying to grow responsibly. Between equipment, payroll, insurance, marketing, and vehicle costs, expenses add up quickly. I’m looking for legitimate grants, low-interest funding, or small business assistance programs that actually helped your company grow — especially for service businesses. Any real experiences, recommendations, or programs to avoid would be appreciated.What's Standard Gross Profit for Your Industry?
I once listened to Tom Reber preach about 50% gross profit and how if you aren't aiming for that, you are going to hurt yourself short/ longer term. He was basically saying, for every dollar you make, you need to make two. This has been super impactful for me and my business but I'm noticing on my really big projects, it's so hard to keep that. I have one $120k exterior BBQ that has definitely had some inefficiencies but we are probably looking at 35% end of day. But that's 35% of a large $$ so that is kind of ok. For those of you who do a good job tracking this (btw Jobber's gross profit calculator is objectively amazing for this btw)- what is your gross profit and what do you usually shoot for?How Understanding Gross Profit Changed My Business
For a long time, I thought I was doing everything right. Work was coming in, the crew stayed busy, and the revenue numbers looked solid. But every month I was stressed about money and I couldn't figure out why. It wasn't until I really sat down and looked at my numbers that things started to click. I came across Tom Reber's work, and it completely changed the way I thought about pricing. The biggest thing I took from it was understanding gross profit — not just revenue, not just what a job "feels like" it's worth, but what's actually left after you pay for labor and materials. Once I understood that number, I realized I had been leaving a lot of money on the table for years. What I Learned Gross profit is the money left from a job after you cover your direct costs — labor and materials. That number has to be healthy enough to cover everything else it takes to run your business: your truck, insurance, tools, software, your time. If your margin is too thin, all of that comes out of your pocket and you never get ahead. For me, setting a clear gross profit goal on every job was the turning point. It gave me something to price toward instead of just guessing and hoping it worked out. What Changed I stopped pricing jobs to win them and started pricing them to actually make money on them. Some bids I lost. But the ones I won started feeling worth it. Cash flow got easier. I could actually see where the money was going — and more importantly, where it was staying. It wasn't an overnight fix, but getting honest about my numbers was the first step to building a business that felt sustainable instead of just busy. If you've been in that same spot — working hard, staying booked, but still wondering where the money went — start by looking at your gross profit on every job. It might surprise you.
Financial setup to start a business
I know some free resources like for Michigan but how is everyone going about getting grants/loans to startup cause that’s what I need in Muskegon Mi. Started a go fund me gofund.me/67d96e4c5 that’s not working at the moment so I applied for here still have to sort thru the states economic grants and loans.
