What are the extra things you do to sell a job that you don't charge for?
I had a client recently share with me that between me and another remodeler, I was the one willing to do the most without asking for anything in return before he booked the job, so that's why he went with me. I went and took measurements, got him a rendering of his new kitchen and a layout from the cabinet shop, met with him 2 other times, met them at the cabinet store. Really spent a lot of time developing report before I got the sale. I don't know how sustainable that is however my motto is just be as helpful as possible and the rest will come. What are the "extra's" you guys do to get that sale or create value with your customers?
What’s Actually Working for Marketing in 2026? 🚜📈
Trying to figure out what actually works for marketing a small service business in 2026 feels like throwing darts blindfolded sometimes. 😅 Facebook boosts? Marketplace? Reels? Before & after photos? Community groups? Google Business? Word of mouth? Door hangers? I run a veteran-owned rural property management company in New Brunswick, Canada, and I’m curious what’s genuinely bringing people, real customers lately — not just likes and views. For the people actually getting calls and booked jobs: • What’s been your most successful marketing approach? • What gives the best ROI for a small budget? • What completely flopped for you? • Are you finding people respond more to personality/branding or straight-up service ads and pricing? Would love to hear real experiences from other small business owners and operators. 🚜🔥How much Quote Follow Up is Too Much?
"Can you turn off my automations, your system is blowing me up?" I've gotten that a lot the last few months since I've set my system up. We basically text and email at day 1,2,3, 6,8,12,16,20,25,29 after the quote is sent unless they give us a "no". I feel like it can go two ways. The people that are going to accept but haven't gotten around to it are annoyed by it. The people that aren't going to accept usually don't say anything. I do get a "no" about day 12 though. The others, no response either way. What kind of nurture sequence are you guys setting up and how successful is it?Are You Selling Your Service… or Selling the Experience?
Customers have more choices than ever. Sometimes the difference isn’t just the service you provide, but how you make people feel from the first interaction to the final follow-up. What are some ways your business creates an experience that keeps customers coming back?Branding - Seem Bigger Than You Are
f you're a small home services company trying to figure out how to look more legit, maybe some of what I've learned will save you some time and money. When I first started out, I had a logo I thought was really cool. It had a ton of graphic elements in it, looked great up close, and I slapped it on everything. Shirts, trucks, you name it. I was proud of it. The problem was, nobody could actually read it from a distance. And in this business, your truck is one of your biggest marketing tools. If someone can't read your name driving past you at 40 miles an hour, that's a missed opportunity you'll never get back. The turning point for me was attending a conference where Dan Antonelli was speaking. Dan wrote the book Branded Not Blended, and he's one of the sharpest minds in contractor branding out there. He took one look at my logo and broke down everything that wasn't working. It stung a little, honestly. But everything he said made sense, and it pushed me to rebuild my brand from the ground up. Here's the big stuff I took away. Your logo has to be legible from a distance. This sounds obvious, but most people get it wrong, including me. If someone's driving past your truck or glancing at your yard sign, they've got maybe two or three seconds to register who you are and what you do. A complicated logo with a bunch of overlapping elements and thin fonts fails that test every time. Think about a plumbing company with a bold, clean logo that has a simple wrench icon and their name in big block letters. You know exactly what they do before you even finish reading the name. That's what you're going for. Your name needs to be the star. With my original logo, the word "Handyman" was actually bigger than the company name itself. So people knew it was a handyman company, but they had no idea who we were. Your company name is your identity. It's what people remember, what they search for, and what they recommend to a neighbor. Make sure it's the thing your logo leads with. Color matters more than you think. Everybody in home services gravitates toward red, white, and blue. And look, it works fine, but it also means you look like everyone else. One thing that stuck with me was watching a company called Entice work an event I was at. Every single one of their guys was in a purple shirt. All their equipment, their vehicles, everything was purple. You always knew when Entice showed up. That kind of instant recognition is worth a lot. I made a deliberate choice with my colors to stand out from the sea of red and blue, and it's made a difference. When people see our trucks around town, they know it's us. Truck wraps and signage need to be bold, not busy. One thing I've always admired about the wraps Dan Antonelli designs is that they're confident. Big lettering. Strong colors. Sometimes a fun character or illustration that gives the brand some personality. They're eye-catching without being cluttered. Your wrap should make someone do a double-take, not squint trying to figure out what's going on. Think hard about your company name before you commit to it. This is something I don't hear talked about enough. A lot of contractors go with their own name, like Joe's Plumbing or Smith's Electric, and I get the instinct. It feels personal. But there are some real downsides worth thinking through. For one, if you ever sell the business, a name tied to a specific person creates confusion. Customers built a relationship with Joe, and now someone else owns it. That disconnect can hurt the value of what you've built. It also just makes the business harder to sell in the first place. On top of that, people have a harder time remembering a person's name than a word or phrase. They might remember they used a handyman company, but forget whether it was Mike's or Matt's or Mark's. A more distinct name tends to stick better. I'm not saying my name is perfect by any means, but thinking through these things before you settle on something is really important. Rebranding is expensive and disruptive. I went from Huge Handyman to Huge Home Pros, and even what felt like a relatively small change ended up costing thousands of dollars once you factor in the website, the truck wraps, the shirts, the signage, and everything else. It adds up fast. So put in the thought upfront, before you've got marketing materials everywhere, because undoing it later is a lot harder than getting it right the first time. The payoff from all of this has been real. Since cleaning up our branding, something interesting started happening. People assume Huge Home Pros is a bigger operation than we are. And because of that, we get taken more seriously. We get better opportunities. Customers come in with a different level of trust right from the start. A polished, professional brand signals that you're established, that you care about the details, and that you're going to show up and do good work. It's your first impression before you ever knock on a door. If I could go back and tell myself one thing early on, it'd be this: don't wait until you feel successful to invest in your brand. A strong brand is part of what makes you successful. Get it right early, and let it do some of the selling for you.
