One more day! Make it count!
To everyone still working on their Jobber Grant Phase 2 application: You still have time. One more day can make a huge difference. Before you submit, ask yourself: ✅ Is the problem I’m solving crystal clear? ✅ Have I explained why my solution is different? ✅ Did I clearly show how the funding will be used? ✅ Are my goals specific and measurable? ✅ Would someone who knows nothing about my business understand my vision after reading this? A few tips: Be specific. Avoid vague statements when you can provide examples. • Focus on impact, not just ideas. • Show how the grant will help you reach your next milestone. • Proofread everything one more time. • Make it easy for reviewers to understand why your business matters. Many great applications are separated by clarity, not just the idea itself. Good luck to everyone applying. Finish strong and put your best work forward. 👏Good luck to all the Jobber Grant applicants.
Good luck to everyone pushing through Phase 2 right now! Making it to this stage is a huge win, but dialing in those deeper details while keeping the daily grind moving is a massive challenge. Whether you’re working on expansion plans, equipment upgrades, or just trying to finish your application before the deadline hits, I’m wishing you all the best. Let's finish strong, put our best foot forward, and keep moving our businesses to the next level. We've got this!
How to setup pricing for an Electrical Contracting Residential Service Provider?
Hey everyone, I'm fairly new to the residential electrical service side of the industry and I'm trying to get my pricing dialed in. One thing I've been struggling with is pricing service calls. Sometimes I feel like I'm pricing too low and leaving money on the table, while other times I worry I'm pricing too high and potentially losing work. For those of you who have been doing residential service for a while: Do you use flat-rate pricing or time-and-materials pricing? Do you charge a diagnostic fee, truck fee, or travel fee? Is there a pricing system or price book you would recommend? Did you build your own price book, or did you purchase one from a service like Profit Rhino, The New Flat Rate, or another provider? I'm looking for a system that's consistent, profitable, and fair to the customer. I'd appreciate any advice from those who have already been through the learning curve. Thanks in advance!
How long did you work a full-time job before going all-in on your business?
I’ve been building Latiolais’ Lawn Co. on evenings and weekends while working a full-time job during the week. The business has grown a lot since I started, and I’m at the point where I’m trying to be smart about growth instead of rushing the process. For those who made the jump from side hustle to full-time business owner: What was the moment you knew it was time? Did you leave because the business could support you, or because you were missing opportunities by staying employed? Looking back, what would you have done differently? I’d love to hear some real experiences from those who’ve already been through it. Thanks in advance.Building a consistent customer experience before hiring my first tech
Hey everyone, I’m Shaun, owner of Integrity Garage Doors & Gates in Arizona. I’m still early in the journey, but I’m trying to build the business the right way before scaling. One thing I’m focused on is creating a repeatable customer experience so every homeowner gets the same level of communication, professionalism, and education — even before I hire my first technician. Right now, I’m building around a few core systems. For those of you who have grown from solo operator to your first employee or first crew, what systems or habits helped you keep the customer experience consistent? What do you wish you had documented earlier?Painting Company here: Employees or Subs?
My Texas painting company has been operating with employees since we started. We offer benefits, WC, of course pay taxes, etc. Employees are expensive. Strangely enough, I have also found employees often are harder to keep motivated without constant oversite - they get the work done, but often not as fast as subcontractors, so that cuts into profits as well. I understand that a lot of franchises, like That 1 Painter, and CertaPro, have managers who are employees, but their laborers are 1099 subcontractors they basically treat like employees. The subs wear the company shirts, and work to the company's standards and the managers pop in here and there to check on them. This way the company avoids paying taxes, benefits, etc., and if they are low on work, they have no obligation to keep paying their laborers. This all sounds really nice. With how expensive my labor force and overhead are, I find it hard to be competitive against other companies with a subcontractor business model and still remain profitable. Any other painting companies or similar businesses - what do you guys do?
How to grow a landscaping business stuck at “owner + one crew” stage
TLDR: My spouse and I run a small landscaping business that’s stable but stuck at the owner + one crew stage. We still have to work in the field daily because we haven’t been able to develop reliable crew leaders, and hiring more staff feels unmanageable. Our maintenance model works well in a dense service area but doesn’t scale easily to nearby towns, and clients mainly see us as a maintenance company rather than landscapers. We’d like to move toward higher-value work and build a business that doesn’t rely on our physical labor long-term. For those who’ve grown service businesses: how do you break past this stage and start working on the business instead of just in it? My spouse and I run a small landscaping business that we somewhat fell into unexpectedly, and we’re looking for advice from people who have grown service businesses past this stage. The business started informally in a neighbourhood about 20 minutes outside a nearby town. Over time, several gated communities were developed nearby, adding a few hundred homes. Many are vacation properties and many residents are snowbirds, so there’s strong demand for property maintenance. Right now we operate with one truck / crew (2–4 people including us), and season that runs roughly March–December. We do have another truck and a few other trailers so have had short stints of running two crews. The business is financially stable. We pay ourselves modestly, have an accountant/bookkeeper, and use QuickBooks and Jobber. However, we feel stuck at this size. Main challenges We’re still on the tools every day. Most hires are entry-level and turnover is high, so we don’t have anyone who can reliably run a crew, quote jobs, train others, or solve problems independently. Crew leads aren’t long-term. Even when someone steps up, they still require constant support. Growth feels unmanageable. Hiring more staff means more work to manage, which already feels like full capacity. Our model relies on a dense service area. Maintenance works well in the clustered neighbourhoods we serve, but expanding into nearby towns becomes inefficient (plus there is a lot of more established competition outside our main service area). We’re stuck between models. Clients mostly see us as a maintenance company, but we’re not big enough to run separate maintenance and landscaping crews. Goals/Ideas We've Thought Of Move toward higher-end design and installation work Reduce dependence on daily physical labor Build a business that is sustainable and potentially sellable For context, I handle marketing (website, social media, Google reviews) and have a graphic design background. One of us also has an irrigation technician certificate, but we haven’t added irrigation services yet due to limited experience. Each winter we plan to work on business development, but the time usually goes toward preparing for the next season. Questions How do service businesses break past the “owner + one crew” stage? How do you develop reliable long-term crew leaders or managers? Is it better to scale maintenance crews or pivot toward higher-value landscaping work? How do you make time to work on the business when operations already take everything? Where do you start to work on the business? We’re approaching middle age and don’t want to rely on physical labor forever. I’d love to build something more sustainable than just owning a job. Neither of us have "dream" careers, but owning a landscaping business wouldn't have been on the list of contenders. We want to know how to make this work and how to figure out what to do in the future whether that is with the current business or doing something completely unrelated. If anyone has gone through this stage in a landscaping or service business, or just as a middle-aged person who still doesn't know what they want to be when they grow up, I’d really appreciate hearing what helped you gain clarity / move forward!How do you currently showcase your work?
What if you could showcase your work without stopping what you're doing to constantly pull out your phone? Imagine wearing smart glasses that could help capture your work as you build, install, repair, weld, wire, paint, cut, create, and solve problems throughout the day. Now imagine those photos and videos helping you build a professional portfolio that contractors, employers, and customers could discover. Would you use something like that? 🤔 A few questions: How do you currently showcase your work? • Have photos or videos of your work ever helped you get a job, customer, or opportunity? • Would you wear smart glasses if they could help document your work automatically? • If a platform helped skilled trades workers get discovered based on their actual work instead of just a resume, would you join? I'm curious to hear honest feedback from workers across all trades. What would make a platform like this valuable enough for you to use? 👇 Drop your thoughts in the comments
