Where your next job comes from — count it before you spend on it

Every job you have ever done arrived from a source. A neighbour mentioned your name. A directory listing turned up in a search. Someone clicked a paid ad. A social page got a message. Most owners could not tell you the split between those sources. So they spend on whichever one is loudest when it is time to get found. They do not spend on the one that pays.

List your last 20 jobs

Start with a plain list, not a system. Write down your last 20 jobs. Against each one, tag how it arrived. Tags can be a directory listing, a paid lead site, a past client or a neighbour. They can also be a social page, another trade or a local business. If you cannot remember, write that down too. An honest "don't know" is worth more than a guess. It tells you where to start asking.

From now on, add one line to your first reply to get the same tag. See the getting-found scripts for the exact wording. You ask at the moment someone first gets in touch. It costs nothing, and you never need to rebuild it from memory again.

Count won jobs and money invoiced, not enquiries

An enquiry count flatters a source that is easy to click and hard to close. A directory listing might send you ten enquiries a month and win one. A neighbour's word of mouth might send you two and win both. An enquiry count ranks the listing first. A count of jobs won and money invoiced ranks the neighbour first, which is correct. A source with many enquiries and few wins mostly costs you the time you spend answering them.

Cost each source twice: money, and hours

A source's real cost is rarely just its bill. A paid listing might cost $40 a month in cash. It might also cost two hours a week to read and answer its enquiries. That second cost is easy to leave out. Price your own hours at your target rate and add them to the money spent before you compare anything. If you leave hours out, a "free" source looks cheaper than it is. A slow-converting social page is one example.

Rank by cost per won job, then ask a second question

Take each source's total cost: money plus hours, priced at your rate. Divide it by the jobs the source won. That figure is cost per job won. It ranks your sources honestly. An enquiry count or a monthly bill cannot do that. The free lead source check runs this for every source at once, from the numbers you already have.

Once you have a ranking, ask a second question about each source. Does it grow if you give it more money or time? Or is it fixed, whatever you spend? A neighbour's referral does not grow when you spend more on neighbours. A paid ad usually does grow, at least for a while. The ranking tells you what is cheapest today. The second question tells you which source is worth trying to grow.

Act on the ranking

Keep your top source alive on purpose, not by accident. Whatever produced your cheapest won jobs this year deserves the time it takes to keep it running. That time may be only staying in touch with the people behind it. Test one new source at a time, never several at once. Then a change in results has one likely cause. Before you start a test, write down a stop date and a number that ends it. Use a fixed budget, a fixed number of weeks, or a fixed number of enquiries. A source that does not work then gets closed out. It does not run forever on hope.

The phone has stopped ringing this week

A quiet week is not the same problem as a quiet source. It does not need a new plan. It needs you to work the list you already have. Go back through open quotes that never got a decision (see chasing a quote you sent). Go back to past clients who are due a check-in. Go back to anyone you already told about the trade-swap or local-business offer in the getting-found scripts. This is a short list to work through now. It is not the twelve-month dip that the quiet season covers. That guide is for a slow period you can see coming a year out. It is not for a week that feels unusually quiet.

Common questions

Is advertising worth it?

That depends on what it costs you per won job, not on how it feels to run. Count what you spent. Count the jobs it won. Compare that to your other sources. An ad that wins nothing this month costs more than one that wins two.

Do I need a website?

This guide does not answer that for you. It only tells you how to check. Track a website the same way as any other source: enquiries, jobs won, money spent and hours spent. Then see where it lands when you rank it against the rest.

Should I pay for leads?

Only once you know what a paid lead source costs you per won job, not per enquiry. A source with a low price per lead and a low win rate can cost more per job. A source that charges more but wins most of its leads can cost less.

My phone has stopped ringing this week — what do I do?

Work the list you already have. Call past clients due a check-in. Chase quotes still open. Call the people you told about the trade-swap and local-business scripts. This is a short-term gap. It is not the twelve-month dip that the quiet season covers.