Roll call! Meet & introduce yourself to other Service-based Skilled Trade pros
If you’ve ever thought, “How are other businesses like mine handling this?” you’re in the right place! This space is for Service-Based Skilled Trades pros to connect, compare notes, and talk shop with others who understand the day-to-day realities of running your type of business. 👋 Introduce Yourself Drop a comment and tell us: Your name Business name Industry Years in business Location (City/State/Province) Let us know if you’re joining us for LIVE networking on March 17 (more details below) The more context you share, the better connections you’ll make. 🙌 Pro tip: Search your city or state in the forum to easily find other pros in your area. 📅 Want to connect LIVE? We’re running a pilot to host virtual weekly LIVE Industry Networking starting on March 17, running until April 7. If you’d be interested in joining for the first or following sessions (don’t need to commit to all but you're welcome to join!), make sure to let us know in the comments. 🤝 Culture of this space Think of this forum board like a room full of peers who understand your world. Share what’s working. Ask real questions. Talk through challenges. The goal is to power your success and raise the standard of home service industries together. 💬 Looking for conversation starters? This space works best when conversations are industry-specific and experience-based. You might jump in with something like: “How are other [your industry] pros pricing this service right now?” “Is anyone else seeing this shift in their market?” “What’s been working for you when it comes to ____?” 🤔 Why are industries grouped together? We’ve intentionally clustered similar industries to keep conversations active and relevant. These groupings reflect shared business models, operational challenges, and pricing conversations so you can learn from peers who “get it,” even if they’re not in your exact trade. If your question applies to all home service businesses, feel free to post in our broader forum boards. Pro tip: Check out the industry tags to get even more specific Looking forward to seeing this space come to life. 🚀
Small Property Damage Restoration Company Needing Some Serious Guidance!!!
Hello Everyone, my name is Jonathan and i own a small property damage restoration company in Live Oak, FL. We service a big radius including Gainesville, Ocala, The Villages and much more. Right now its just me as I've been in the industry for 18 years i work better myself but as i get more jobs on each end of my radius of service i will need to hire someone and get a van and get them helping me with these jobs. What's hard right now is i started this business a year an a half ago with nothing, no capital, no loan, just starting a job collecting a deposit and then collecting the rest at the end, and if you know the restoration industry then you know these companies don't survive off of word of mouth. many people will say word of mouth is best but if you think about it, when your home floods normally you call your insurance company or you go to google to hurry and find a company to come out and normally the top 3 companies will be the ones getting picked. So i will need SEO Marketing so that my google business page and website pop up first on google and its very very expensive I've seen 5000-8000 to get started and 2000-3000 monthly to keep you at the top and it does work I've seen it!! but as a company that literally survives off each job and doesn't get that many jobs monthly to begin with its very very hard to get up there with these big companies!!! What really bums me out is after 18 years and working with many many different companies i have a plan to implement all the good traits about these companies I've worked for to create the ultimate restoration company that is there for the community and help the customers and not my pockets like these other companies do!! Basically i need help with funding, i am currently working on my business credit i have many tradelines right now to help me build it cause my personal credit is not good enough to get a loan or any kind of funding! Does anyone know how to get Grants, Funding, Loan, Anything to help me with some working capital??👉 “Turning My Logistics Vision Into Reality – Lyric Logistics LLC”
Hi everyone, I’m Flo, the owner of Lyric Logistics LLC. I’m currently in the process of launching my transportation business focused on reliable box truck freight services for small and mid-sized businesses. One recent win I’m proud of is completing my grant applications and building out my business foundation, including my services, branding, and operations plan. It’s been a big step toward turning my vision into something real. I’m excited to be part of this community and learn from others while growing my business. Looking forward to connecting!
How to convert more leads into booked jobs without sacrificing quality?
Running a general contracting business through UA Handyman, Uniquely Authentic LLC has shown that success isn’t just about doing great work—it’s about converting opportunities. We generate a strong flow of leads, which reflects our brand and demand, but the real challenge is turning those leads into completed jobs. Between scheduling, estimates, follow-ups, and active projects, it’s easy for opportunities to slip if systems aren’t tight. General contracting isn’t just about building—it’s about efficiency, communication, and consistency from first contact to project completion. The question is: If we’re already getting a high volume of leads, how do we increase our turnaround rate and convert more of them into booked, completed jobs without sacrificing quality?The Handyman Business Machine: Non-Negotiables for Scaling
Non-negotiables that turn a handyman business into a repeatable machine—systems that make the business operate whether you “feel like it” or not. Think standardized scope, flat-rate pricing, SOPs, quality control, scheduling discipline, job costing, and a comp plan that rewards speed + quality. If you had to boil scaling down to 5–10 tenets, what are yours—and which ones moved the needle the most? Make sure they are measurable actions and results. “What doesn’t get measured doesn’t get done.” - Peter DruckerIndustry virtual networking starting March 17
Update: Our 4-week networking pilot has wrapped. Thank you to everyone who joined! We brought pros together across industries for weekly 30-minute sessions focused on real business challenges, and the conversations delivered. There was strong participation, valuable idea-sharing, and great feedback from those who joined. 👉 The goal was simple: bring a challenge and get ideas from other pros, and that’s exactly what happened. We’re now taking what we learned and determining next steps, with plans to likely bring these back in the future. If you found these valuable, or are interested in joining future sessions, let us know in the comments and we’ll keep you posted on what’s next. Really appreciate everyone who took the time to be part of this!
How I Run My UK Handyman Business Remotely from Vietnam
For years, I was deep in the day-to-day grind of running a handyman business in the UK—on the tools, quoting jobs, chasing leads, and constantly firefighting. It wasn’t until I started building proper systems that I could finally step back and work on my business instead of in it. One of the biggest bottlenecks I faced—right up there with hiring reliable subcontractors—was quoting. Driving out to jobs just to quote ate up time, fuel, and momentum. It was inefficient, and I knew it had to change if I wanted to scale. Fast forward to today: I now live in Vietnam and operate the business fully remotely. The shift has only been possible thanks to the systems I’ve built—particularly around lead handling and quoting. We’ve leaned heavily into WhatsApp quoting. It’s fast, convenient for customers, and lets us triage leads without wasting site visits. But what makes it really work is our lead scoring matrix. It helps us determine—based on a few key inputs—whether we: Send a WhatsApp video request, Offer an instant rough online quote, or Recommend a full in-person visit. This automated decision-making process has transformed how we handle incoming leads. It’s a win-win: customers get faster answers, and we save time while focusing on high-value jobs.
