Sicc Media // Break the Mold \\ DARE TO BE EXTRAORDINARY.

Tag: Get Paid

  • Structuring Emergency & After-Hours Rates

    Structuring Emergency & After-Hours Rates

    Getting out of bed at 2am should pay properly. It only does if the customer agreed to the number before you left the house.

    TL;DR Publish tiered rates by time band. Disclose on the phone before dispatch, every time. Get a verbal yes and log it. Never let a premium rate first appear on the invoice.

    Price the disruption, not just the hour

    An after-hours call costs more than overtime.

    • Overtime labour, at premium rates.
    • The disruption itself. Sleep, family time, the reason people leave trades.
    • Next-day capacity. A 2am call degrades tomorrow’s work.
    • Availability. You are holding someone on call whether the phone rings or not.

    That last one is the cost most businesses never price. Being available is a service, and it costs you even on quiet nights.

    The tier structure

    Band Hours Multiplier
    Standard Mon to Fri, 8am to 5pm 1x
    Evening 5pm to 10pm 1.5x
    Overnight 10pm to 8am 2x
    Weekend Sat and Sun 1.5x
    Holiday Published list 2x

    Plus a call-out fee for the trip itself, which should be higher after hours than during the day.

    Keep the bands simple. Four tiers people can understand beats nine that require a calculator.

    Publish the holiday list. “Holiday rates apply on the following dates” removes an argument every December.

    Disclose before dispatch, always

    This single discipline prevents almost every emergency-pricing dispute.

    The dispatcher script

    I can get someone out to you tonight. Before I book it, our after-hours rate is a $175 call-out plus $195 an hour, and there is usually a one to two hour minimum depending on what we find. Daytime tomorrow would be $95 call-out and $130 an hour. Which would you prefer?

    What that achieves

    • The number is stated before anyone moves.
    • Two genuine options, so they have a real choice.
    • A minimum, so the range is not open-ended.
    • A yes you can log.

    Then note it on the job. Date, time, who confirmed, what was quoted. Many businesses follow up with a confirming text before dispatch, which is stronger still.

    The confirming text

    Thirty seconds, and it eliminates disputes.

    Confirming: after-hours call-out $175 plus $195/hr, minimum 1 hour. Tech on the way, ETA 45 min. Reply Y to confirm. – Sicc Plumbing

    A reply of “Y” is a written record. Screenshot it into the job file.

    On-site disclosure, before starting

    Say it once more when you arrive, before any tools come out.

    Just to confirm what you were quoted on the phone: it is the after-hours rate, $175 call-out plus $195 an hour. Based on what I can see this looks like about two hours, so somewhere around $565. If I find something that changes that, I will stop and tell you before I carry on.

    That last clause is the change-order promise, and it is what prevents the worst version of this conversation later.

    Waiving the call-out, strategically

    The call-out fee is a useful negotiating tool if you use it deliberately.

    Reasonable to waive

    • When the repair goes ahead and is substantial.
    • For membership customers, as a stated benefit.
    • When you misdiagnosed on the phone and wasted their time.

    Not reasonable

    • Because they pushed. That teaches everyone to push.
    • Routinely, which means it was never a real fee.

    “The call-out is waived when the repair goes ahead” is a clean, popular policy. It rewards the outcome you want and it is easy to explain.

    Automatic premium invoicing

    Get this out of your head and into the system.

    • Set time-band rules in your field service software so the rate applies automatically based on dispatch time.
    • Show the rate on the invoice as a line item, named. “After-hours rate applied, 5pm to 10pm.”
    • Include the quoted range from the phone call on the invoice, so it visibly matches.
    • Attach the confirmation where the software allows.

    Naming the premium on the invoice is important. A total with no explanation invites a call. A line saying exactly why is self-explaining.

    The genuine emergency exception

    When a storm, freeze or heatwave creates community-wide distress, hold your published rates rather than raising them further.

    Two reasons. Many jurisdictions activate price gouging statutes during declared emergencies, with real penalties. And a business that raised prices during a freeze becomes a local story that outlasts the revenue by years.

    Your normal after-hours rate is already published and already understood. Applying it consistently during a crisis is defensible. Inventing a crisis rate is not.

    Deciding whether to offer after-hours at all

    Not every business should.

    Offer it if the premium genuinely compensates the disruption, somebody reliably answers, and your trade has real emergencies.

    Do not offer it if you will answer inconsistently, because an advertised 24-hour service that rings out produces worse reviews than no after-hours service at all.

    Being honest about your hours beats overpromising. “We are 7am to 6pm, and here is who we recommend overnight” is a perfectly respectable position.

    Write your rate table and publish it on your site this week. The premium is only defensible if the customer could have found it before they called.

    Need a pro to structure it? [CALL NOW]

  • Value-Add Upselling at Point of Service

    Value-Add Upselling at Point of Service

    The word “upsell” is why most technicians refuse to do it. Reframe it as “telling people what you found” and the resistance disappears.

    TL;DR Build a visual inspection checklist so recommendations come from evidence, not from a quota. Show photos. Give a priority rating. Never pressure. Comp plans that reward volume over honesty will eventually cost you the business.

    Why technicians resist and how to fix it

    Good technicians did not join the trade to sell. Push a sales target on them and you get either compliance and resentment, or quiet non-compliance.

    The reframe that works. They are not selling. They are reporting what they found and letting the customer decide.

    I am not here to sell you anything. While I was in there I noticed two things. One needs doing fairly soon, one you can watch. Here are the photos. Want me to price either?

    That is a service. Most technicians will do that willingly, because it is what they would want as a customer.

    The visual inspection checklist

    The checklist is the whole system. It converts upselling from a personality trait into a process.

    Build one per service type. Ten to fifteen items the technician checks on every visit regardless of why they came.

    A heating example

    Check Status Photo
    Flue condition ☐ OK ☐ Watch ☐ Act ☐
    Corrosion on connections ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
    Shutoff valve operable ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
    Expansion vessel pressure ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
    Pipe insulation ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
    CO detector present ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
    Filter condition ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐

    Three outcomes, not two. OK, watch, act. The “watch” category is what makes the system credible, because it proves you are not marking everything urgent.

    Photos change the conversation entirely

    A verbal recommendation is a claim. A photo is evidence.

    • Photograph everything you flag. Ten seconds each.
    • Show the customer on the tablet, not a description.
    • Point at the specific thing. “See that green corrosion at the joint? That is a slow leak.”
    • Leave the photos with them in the emailed report.

    Customers who see the photo accept the recommendation at a dramatically higher rate, and they do not feel sold to, because they saw it themselves.

    Priority ratings, honestly applied

    Rank every recommendation and be conservative.

    Rating Meaning Customer hears
    Now Safety issue or active damage “This one matters”
    Soon Will fail within a year “Plan for it”
    Watch Monitor, no action yet “You are being told the truth”

    The “watch” items build the trust that makes the “now” items credible. A technician who only ever finds urgent problems is not believed.

    Never mark something “now” that is not. One inflated urgency, discovered later, destroys the credibility of every future recommendation and generates the reviews that cost you most.

    The script

    Do the job you came for first, completely. Then:

    All sorted, that is running properly now. While I was in there I ran through our standard check. Two things worth mentioning.

    This one [photo] is the shutoff valve, it is seized. Not urgent today but if you ever have a burst you cannot isolate it. That is $140 and I could do it now while I am here.

    This one [photo] is some corrosion on the return. Nothing to do yet, just worth watching. I will note it so we can compare next visit.

    No pressure either way. Want me to do the valve while I am here?

    Structure: finish the job, report the findings with evidence, price it, give the choice, stop talking.

    Then be quiet. The most common failure is filling the silence with more selling.

    Bundling and discounting add-ons

    Doing extra work in the same visit genuinely costs you less, so passing some of that on is honest.

    The valve is $140 on its own. Since I am already here with everything open, $110.

    Real logic, real saving, and it converts well. Do not invent a discount off an inflated price, because customers compare notes.

    Compensation, carefully

    This is where upselling programmes go wrong.

    Reasonable

    • A modest commission on genuinely additional work.
    • Team bonuses on customer satisfaction alongside revenue.
    • Recognition for high inspection-completion rates.

    Dangerous

    • Aggressive per-sale commission with no quality counterweight.
    • Quotas.
    • Ranking technicians publicly by upsell revenue.

    The failure mode is well documented across the trades: commission-heavy models produce unnecessary recommendations, which produce complaints, refunds, bad reviews and eventually regulatory attention.

    If you pay commission, also measure callback rate, review sentiment, and the ratio of “act” to “watch” findings per technician. A technician whose findings are 90% urgent is a problem, not a star.

    Measure the right things

    • Inspection completion rate. Are checklists actually being done?
    • Recommendation acceptance rate. Below 20% suggests low trust. Above 70% may suggest pressure.
    • Average job value, tracked over time.
    • Review sentiment, watched for any mention of pressure.
    • Callback and complaint rate by technician.

    Build one inspection checklist for your most common service call this week and have every technician photograph what they flag. That single change usually raises average job value without anyone doing anything that feels like selling.

    Need a pro to build the system? [BOOK A CALL]

  • Unbundling Services for Modular Pricing

    Unbundling Services for Modular Pricing

    Some customers want everything. Some want the minimum. Selling only one bundle means losing one of those groups every time.

    TL;DR Break your service into a required core plus optional modules. Price the core to protect margin. Never let the à la carte total be cheaper than the bundle, or the bundle stops meaning anything.

    When unbundling helps

    Good fit

    • Customers regularly ask to remove parts of your package.
    • You lose quotes on total price while your components are competitive.
    • Different customer types genuinely need different things.
    • Some components are high margin and some are low.

    Poor fit

    • The components are genuinely inseparable.
    • Unbundling creates a confusing menu.
    • Every module requires a separate visit, which destroys your economics.

    The test. Can a customer take the core alone and be genuinely well served? If not, do not unbundle. A crippled core produces complaints.

    Core plus modules

    The core is non-negotiable and always included. It must be a complete, defensible job on its own.

    The modules are genuine additions. Each one solves a real, separate problem.

    A cleaning example

    Core: Standard Clean: $180
    All rooms, kitchen, bathrooms, floors, surfaces.

    Modules
    – Interior windows: +$60
    – Inside oven: +$45
    – Inside fridge: +$35
    – Interior cabinets: +$50
    – Laundry: +$40

    The core has to stand alone. Somebody who buys only the core should get a genuinely good clean, not a deliberately incomplete one designed to force upgrades.

    Protecting base margin

    The risk of unbundling is that everyone takes the cheapest core and your average job value falls.

    Three protections

    1. Price the core at full margin. It is not a loss leader. If the core alone is unprofitable, unbundling will hurt you.
    2. Set a minimum. “Minimum visit $180” regardless of what is selected.
    3. Load fixed costs into the core. Drive time, setup and admin happen regardless, so they belong in the core price, not spread across modules.

    That third point is the one people get wrong. If your travel cost sits in the modules, a core-only customer is unprofitable.

    The bundle must always win

    If a customer can assemble the same services à la carte for less than the bundle, the bundle is pointless.

    The rule

    Core $180. All five modules à la carte: $230. Total $410.
    Complete package: $360. Saves $50.

    A visible saving of 10 to 15% is usually enough to move most people to the bundle, which is where you want them.

    Show the arithmetic on the quote. “À la carte total $410, package price $360, you save $50.” People respond to a stated saving far more than an unexplained lower number.

    Presenting the menu

    Too many options produces paralysis. Structure it.

    • Core clearly separate, at the top, priced.
    • Modules grouped by type, three to six per group, not a flat list of twenty.
    • A recommended combination, marked. Most people take a recommendation.
    • The full package, with the saving shown.
    • Prices next to everything. A menu without prices is not a menu.

    Cap the total at around a dozen modules. Beyond that, group them into two or three preset combinations instead.

    The scheduling trap

    The economics fall apart if modules require separate visits.

    • Only offer modules deliverable in the same visit.
    • Anything requiring a separate trip gets its own minimum and its own call-out.
    • State the time impact. “Adds about 40 minutes.”

    If a customer selects modules that push the visit beyond your slot length, that is a scheduling problem, not a pricing one. Build duration into your booking system so it allocates the right window automatically.

    Where unbundling backfires

    • When the core feels punitive. If people routinely feel they were sold an incomplete job, you have unbundled too aggressively.
    • When the menu confuses. Complexity costs conversions.
    • When modules are trivially small. A $12 add-on is admin overhead, not revenue.
    • When it invites negotiation. Some customers will now try to remove parts of the core. Hold the line.

    Watch your reviews for the word “nickel.” If it appears, you have gone too far.

    Test before committing

    Do not restructure everything at once.

    1. Pick your most common service.
    2. Split it into a core and three or four modules.
    3. Offer it to the next twenty customers.
    4. Track: what percentage take core only, average modules selected, average job value versus before, and whether anyone complains.
    5. Adjust. If average value fell, your core is too generous or your modules are priced too low.

    Comparing average job value before and after is the only honest measure. More options is not the goal. More revenue and better-fit customers is.

    Take your most common service and write down what is genuinely essential versus what is optional. That list, on its own, usually reveals two or three modules you have been giving away.

    Need a pro to structure the menu? [BOOK A CALL]

  • Pricing Audits: Finding Hidden Profit Leaks

    Pricing Audits: Finding Hidden Profit Leaks

    Busy and profitable are different things. Plenty of service businesses run flat out and lose money on a third of their jobs without ever knowing which third.

    TL;DR Cost twenty recent jobs properly, including drive time, non-billable hours and overhead share. Rank them by margin. The pattern is almost always obvious and almost always surprising.

    Run the audit on twenty real jobs

    Not averages. Actual jobs, from the last three months, across your normal mix.

    For each one, record

    Item Notes
    Invoice total What you charged
    Labour hours on site Actual, not estimated
    Drive time, both ways Almost always excluded and shouldn’t be
    Materials at cost Your cost, including waste
    Quoting time Site visit, writing it up
    Admin time Scheduling, invoicing, chasing
    Callbacks Return visits, warranty work
    Overhead share See below

    Then calculate true margin per job and rank them.

    Overhead allocation, done simply

    You do not need cost accounting. You need a defensible number.

    1. Total monthly overhead. Insurance, vehicle costs, phone, software, rent, accounting, licences, marketing, admin wages.
    2. Divide by jobs completed that month.
    3. That is your per-job overhead share.

    Example. $9,000 monthly overhead across 60 jobs equals $150 per job before any labour or materials.

    A refinement worth making. If job durations vary widely, allocate by hours rather than by job count. Divide overhead by total billable hours and apply per hour.

    Non-billable time is where the money goes

    The number that shocks people.

    Track a full week honestly. Every hour, categorised.

    Category Typical share
    On-site billable work 45 to 60%
    Driving 15 to 25%
    Quoting and estimating 5 to 15%
    Admin, invoicing, chasing 10 to 15%
    Ordering and supplier runs 5 to 10%

    If you bill 25 hours in a 45-hour week, your true cost per billable hour is nearly double your nominal rate. Every price built on the nominal rate is wrong.

    The fix is not working more hours. It is pricing correctly, and reducing the non-billable categories that are avoidable.

    Material margin, checked properly

    • Are you marking up materials at all? Many trades charge cost, which means the ordering, collecting, storing and warranty handling is free.
    • Is your markup keeping up with supplier increases? A markup set two years ago on prices that rose 30% is now a smaller real margin.
    • Is waste accounted for? Offcuts, spoilage, the extra fitting.
    • Are supplier runs costed? An hour driving to collect a $40 part costs more than the part.

    A standard markup of 20 to 40% on materials is common in the trades and covers the real costs of handling them. If you are at zero, that is a leak with an easy fix.

    Find the loss-making jobs

    Rank your twenty by margin, worst first. Then look for the pattern.

    Common culprits

    • Small jobs. Fixed costs swamp a low invoice.
    • Distant jobs. Drive time destroys margin.
    • One particular service you consistently underprice.
    • One particular customer who generates callbacks and change requests.
    • Emergency work priced at standard rates.
    • Anything you quoted “to be nice.”

    The pattern is usually a category, not bad luck. Once you can name it, you can price it or decline it.

    The five questions the audit answers

    1. Which service line is least profitable? Reprice or stop offering it.
    2. What is my true break-even per job? This sets your minimum.
    3. How much time is non-billable? This corrects your hourly assumptions.
    4. Which customers cost more than they pay? Raise their prices or let them go.
    5. Where is scope creep concentrated? Fix that quote template.

    What to do with the findings

    Immediate, this month

    • Raise prices on the worst-performing service line.
    • Set or raise your minimum job size.
    • Add a materials markup if you have none.
    • Add exclusions to the quote template where scope creep concentrated.

    This quarter

    • Reduce drive time by clustering jobs geographically.
    • Cut admin time with better tooling.
    • Re-quote or exit the customers who consistently lose money.

    Ongoing

    • Re-run the audit every six months on a fresh twenty jobs.

    The benchmark question

    Owners always ask what margin is normal. The honest answer is that it varies enormously by trade, region, structure and what you count as overhead, and any single number quoted at you is probably not comparable to your situation.

    Use yourself as the benchmark. Run the audit, note the number, improve it, re-run in six months. Your own trend line is more useful than somebody else’s average.

    Cost your last five jobs properly this week, including drive time and overhead share. If any of them come out negative, you have found something worth more than a month of new marketing.

    Need a pro to run the audit? [BOOK A CALL]

  • Automated Progress Invoicing for Long Projects

    Automated Progress Invoicing for Long Projects

    Financing a customer’s project out of your own bank account is the fastest way for a busy business to run out of money.

    TL;DR Never be more exposed than the customer. Tie every milestone to something objectively verifiable. Bill automatically on trigger, with notice. Deposit covers materials, final payment is small enough that nobody holds it hostage.

    The exposure rule

    At every point in a project, the customer should have paid for at least what you have delivered and spent.

    The failure pattern. You order $8,000 of materials on a $20,000 job, having taken a $2,000 deposit. You are now $6,000 exposed to somebody you met three weeks ago.

    Draw the exposure curve for your typical project. If it ever goes meaningfully negative, restructure the schedule.

    A workable milestone structure

    Milestone % Trigger
    Deposit 25 to 30% Contract signed
    Materials 25 to 30% Materials ordered or delivered to site
    Progress 25 to 30% A defined, visible stage complete
    Completion 15 to 20% Sign-off

    Keep the final payment modest. A 40% balance gives a difficult customer enormous leverage over a snag list. 15% keeps them engaged without being a weapon.

    Adjust by materials intensity. A job that is 70% materials needs a bigger, earlier materials milestone.

    Triggers must be objective

    This is where most schedules fail.

    Bad trigger Good trigger
    “When we are about halfway” “On completion of first fix”
    “After a few weeks” “On delivery of materials to site”
    “When the customer is happy” “On passing inspection”
    “At substantial completion” “On completion of [defined list]”

    Write the trigger so a third party could tell whether it happened. If it needs interpretation, it will be interpreted differently by each side at the worst moment.

    Automating it

    Manual milestone invoicing gets forgotten in a busy week, which is exactly when cash flow matters.

    The setup

    1. Build the schedule into the contract, with amounts and triggers.
    2. Enter milestones into your project or field service software at job creation.
    3. Mark the trigger complete when it happens, on site, on the tablet.
    4. The invoice fires automatically, or the card on file is charged.
    5. Receipt sent immediately.

    Send a notification before the charge. A text 24 hours ahead.

    Heads up: materials milestone of $5,400 goes through tomorrow as per the schedule. Materials arriving Thursday. Any questions, call me.

    That message prevents almost every dispute and every chargeback. Surprise is what causes both.

    Down payment versus final completion

    The deposit covers your initial exposure, secures the slot, and confirms commitment. Non-refundable terms should be stated plainly, and in many jurisdictions there are consumer cancellation rights that override them for contracts signed in the home. Know your local rule.

    The final payment should be small enough that withholding it is not worth a fight, and tied to a defined completion standard.

    Define completion explicitly in the contract. “Completion means the work in the scope is finished and any snag list agreed within 5 days is addressed.” Without a definition, completion becomes whatever the customer decides it is.

    Handling delays and holds

    Projects stall. The contract should already say what happens.

    Delays caused by you. Milestone waits. That is fair.

    Delays caused by the customer. Access not available, decisions not made, their other trades not finished. Include a clause that milestones can be billed on schedule regardless, or that storage and remobilisation are chargeable. Otherwise you are financing their indecision.

    Delays caused by supply chain. Bill the materials milestone when materials are ordered and paid for, not when they arrive. You have spent the money.

    Suspension. Define what happens if a project pauses for more than 30 days: work already done is billed, remobilisation is chargeable, and pricing may be re-quoted.

    Retainage, if it applies to you

    Commercial work often withholds a percentage until final sign-off.

    If you are subject to it, know your state’s retainage rules. Many US states cap the percentage and set deadlines for release. Price it into the job, because that money is not free to you while it is held.

    On residential work, do not volunteer retainage. It is a commercial convention and offering it invites a hold you did not need to give.

    What the schedule needs in writing

    • Each milestone: amount, percentage, and objective trigger.
    • Payment terms and method for each.
    • Late payment terms, with an interest rate that is lawful in your jurisdiction.
    • What happens on delay, by cause.
    • Definition of completion.
    • Change order process and how changes affect the schedule.
    • Suspension and termination terms.

    Measure your cash position

    • Days sales outstanding, monthly.
    • Peak exposure per project. Your worst moment, in dollars.
    • Milestones billed on time versus late. Late billing is usually the real cash flow problem, not late paying.
    • Percentage of projects where the final payment was disputed. High numbers mean your completion definition is too vague.

    Draw the exposure curve for your current largest job. If there is a point where you have spent significantly more than you have collected, restructure the remaining milestones this week.

    Need a pro to build the schedule? [BOOK A CALL]

  • Incentivizing Early Payments & Auto-Pay

    Incentivizing Early Payments & Auto-Pay

    Chasing money is unpaid labour. The best invoice is the one that gets paid before anyone has to think about it.

    TL;DR Card on file and auto-pay solve most of it. Shorten terms, invoice the same day, make paying a single tap, and run a fixed follow-up sequence rather than deciding each time.

    Fix the causes, in order

    Most late payment is friction, not refusal.

    Cause Fix
    Invoice sent days later Invoice same day, from the van
    Paying requires effort One-tap payment link
    Wrong contact Confirm who pays at booking
    Buried in email Send by text as well
    No deadline felt Shorter terms, stated clearly
    Nothing happens if late Consistent follow-up

    Same-day invoicing is the single biggest lever and it costs nothing. An invoice sent while the work is fresh gets paid far faster than one that arrives next week when the memory has faded.

    Auto-pay is the real answer

    Everything else is managing a problem that card on file removes.

    • Take the card at booking, stored with your processor.
    • Charge on completion, with notice.
    • Receipt immediately.

    For recurring work, auto-pay is straightforward and expected. For one-off jobs, card on file plus charge-on-completion achieves the same result.

    Never store card details yourself. Use tokenised vaulting through your payment provider.

    Terms, and shortening them

    Net 30 is a convention, not a law. For residential and small commercial work it is usually unnecessary.

    Terms Use for
    Due on completion Residential, most standard work
    Net 7 Small commercial
    Net 14 Commercial, established relationship
    Net 30 Larger commercial, where required

    Just changing your default from Net 30 to due on completion shortens your cash cycle by weeks and most residential customers do not blink.

    State terms on the quote, not just the invoice. Learning your payment terms at invoice time feels like a change.

    Early payment discounts, assessed honestly

    The classic is 2/10 Net 30: 2% off if paid within 10 days.

    The arithmetic. Paying 2% to get money 20 days early is an annualised cost in the region of 36%. That is expensive money.

    When it makes sense. If your alternative is genuinely a credit line at a high rate, or if late payment is costing you more than 2% in chasing time and risk.

    When it does not. If customers already pay reasonably promptly. You are discounting behaviour you already had.

    Usually better: shorten terms and take card on file, rather than pay 2% for the same outcome.

    Late fees, used properly

    Legality varies by jurisdiction. Many places cap the rate, require the term to be disclosed in advance, and treat undisclosed fees as unenforceable. Check your local rules before setting one.

    If you use them

    • Disclose on the quote and the invoice, with the rate stated.
    • A modest monthly rate on the overdue balance, within legal limits.
    • Apply consistently. A fee you waive on request is not a fee.
    • Waive deliberately for good customers as a gesture, not under pressure.

    Honestly, late fees rarely change behaviour on small invoices. The follow-up sequence does more.

    Payment methods, and their real costs

    Method Cost to you Speed
    ACH / bank transfer Low flat fee 1 to 3 days
    Card Percentage Instant
    Cash or cheque Free, but slow and manual Days to weeks
    Digital wallets Similar to card Instant

    Offer both ACH and card. ACH is much cheaper on large invoices, card is faster and easier on small ones. For a $12,000 invoice the fee difference is significant enough to nudge customers toward ACH.

    A cash discount for bank transfer is generally safer than a card surcharge, which is restricted in several states and by card network rules.

    The follow-up sequence

    Fixed, automated, not a decision you make each time.

    Day Action
    0 Invoice sent by email and text, same day
    3 Friendly automated reminder
    7 Second reminder, payment link repeated
    14 Personal text from you
    21 Phone call
    30 Formal notice, late fee applied if disclosed
    45 Final notice before escalation

    Most invoices resolve at the day 14 text. A short personal message from a named human works far better than a third automated reminder.

    Hi Michelle, just circling on the invoice from the 12th, $640. Here is the link if it is easier: [link]. Any problem with it, tell me and we will sort it. – Dave

    Ask whether something is wrong. Sometimes there is a genuine issue nobody raised, and you would rather know at day 14 than day 60.

    Measure it

    • Days sales outstanding.
    • Percentage paid on time.
    • Percentage on auto-pay. This is the number to grow.
    • Hours spent chasing, which is the real cost.

    Move your default terms to due on completion and start invoicing from the van before you drive away. Those two changes cost nothing and shorten most service businesses’ cash cycle by weeks.

    Need a pro to set up the automation? [CALL NOW]

  • Transitioning from Hourly Rates to Value Pricing

    Transitioning from Hourly Rates to Value Pricing

    Hourly billing punishes you for being good at your job. The faster you work, the less you earn.

    TL;DR Price the outcome, not the clock. Build fixed prices from your real costs plus the value delivered. Define scope in writing or you will give the difference away in scope creep.

    The hourly trap, stated plainly

    You spend twenty years learning to diagnose a problem in ten minutes. Hourly billing charges for ten minutes.

    The three costs of hourly

    • Expertise is penalised. The slower operator earns more for the same result.
    • Every conversation is a negotiation about time, not about outcome.
    • Your income is capped at hours available multiplied by rate. There is a ceiling and you will hit it.

    And customers hate it too. Hourly means an unknown final number, which is the thing people fear most about hiring a trade.

    Fixed pricing is the first move, not value pricing

    Most businesses trying to jump straight to value pricing fail because they skip the middle step.

    Stage Model What it needs
    1 Hourly Nothing
    2 Fixed price per job type Knowing your true costs
    3 Tiered fixed pricing Packaging skill
    4 Value pricing Ability to quantify customer outcome

    Get to stage 2 first. Fixed pricing alone solves most of the hourly problem and it is achievable this month.

    Know your true cost before you price anything

    You cannot price up from a number you do not have.

    Per job, calculate

    • Direct labour, including payroll tax and benefits, not just wage.
    • Drive time, both ways. This is the most commonly ignored cost.
    • Materials, at your real cost including waste.
    • Equipment, depreciated per use.
    • Overhead allocation. Insurance, vehicle, software, phone, rent, admin time, divided across your billable jobs.
    • Non-billable time. Quoting, invoicing, chasing payment, ordering. Frequently 30% or more of the week.

    That last one destroys most pricing models. If you bill 25 hours in a 45-hour week, your true cost per billable hour is nearly double what you think.

    Build the fixed price

    1. Take your true cost for that job type.
    2. Add your target margin.
    3. Sense-check against the value to the customer, not against competitors.
    4. Set the price and publish it.

    The value check is where the upside lives. A $400 repair that prevents $9,000 of water damage is not priced against other $400 repairs. It is priced against the alternative.

    Value mapping, practically

    For each service, write down:

    • What it costs them not to fix it. Damage, downtime, higher bills, worse failure later.
    • What it saves or earns them. Efficiency, reliability, resale value.
    • What the alternative costs. The bigger job they avoid.
    • What the risk is if it is done badly.

    Then price inside that gap, comfortably below the cost of the problem and comfortably above your cost of delivery.

    Communicating fixed pricing

    The change is easier to sell than owners expect, because customers prefer it.

    The script

    We price by the job, not by the hour. You get one number before we start and that is what you pay, unless we find something we could not see and you approve the change in writing. No surprises either way.

    What that does. Removes their biggest fear, positions you as confident, and sets up the change-order process in the same breath.

    Do not explain your costs. Nobody buys a plumber based on your insurance premium. Price the outcome and let the number stand.

    Scope creep will eat the difference

    Fixed pricing without defined scope is a trap you set for yourself.

    • Write the scope in the quote. What is included, what is explicitly not.
    • Name the exclusions. “Does not include drywall repair or repainting.”
    • Set a change-order process and use it every time, without exception.
    • Get the change approved in writing before doing the work. A text message counts.
    • Price the change. Never absorb it “to keep them happy,” because that is where fixed pricing quietly becomes hourly at a discount.

    The one that matters. “While you are here, could you just…” That sentence is where the profit goes. The answer is “yes, that would be $X, want me to add it?”

    Migrating existing clients

    • New customers get the new model immediately.
    • Existing customers move on their next job, not retroactively.
    • Give notice if they are on a regular arrangement.
    • Do not apologise. Explain it as an improvement, because for them it is.

    What to expect

    Some customers leave. Usually the ones optimising purely for the lowest hourly number, who were your least profitable work.

    Your average job value rises, because you stop discounting expertise by being fast.

    Quoting gets faster, because you are selecting from known prices rather than estimating hours.

    Price your three most common jobs as fixed prices this week, using your real costs including drive time and non-billable hours. That single calculation usually reveals you have been underpricing by more than you would like to know.

    Need a pro to model it? [BOOK A CALL]

  • Performance-Based Pricing Frameworks

    Performance-Based Pricing Frameworks

    Tying your fee to results sounds fair to everyone until you try to agree what a result is.

    TL;DR Only viable when the metric is measurable, attributable to you, and inside your control. Always keep a base retainer that covers your costs. Pure performance pricing transfers the client’s business risk onto you.

    The three tests

    Before agreeing to any performance-based deal, all three must pass.

    Test Question Fails when
    Measurable Can we both see the number, from the same source? Metrics live in their system and you cannot verify
    Attributable Can we isolate your contribution? Six things changed at once
    Controllable Do you control the levers? Their sales team, pricing or product decides the outcome

    Fail any one and do not do it. The most common failure is attribution: you generate leads, their team does not follow up, the metric misses, and you are arguing about whose fault it is.

    The structures, from safest to riskiest

    1. Base plus bonus (recommended)

    $3,000/month base, plus $500 for every month exceeding [defined metric].

    Base covers your costs and effort. Bonus shares the upside. Your downside is capped.

    2. Reduced base plus larger bonus

    $2,000/month, plus 10% of measured incremental revenue.

    More upside, more risk. Only with a client whose data you trust and whose operation you have seen.

    3. Milestone-based

    $5,000 on delivery, $5,000 when [defined outcome] is achieved.

    Works for projects with a clear finish line.

    4. Pure performance

    15% of incremental revenue, no base.

    Rarely advisable. You are financing their growth, carrying full delivery cost, and depending entirely on their execution. Only consider it with a proven client, a long track record together, and a floor.

    Never work without a floor

    Your base must cover your delivery costs, at minimum.

    Without it, a bad quarter for reasons outside your control means you worked for nothing while still paying wages and overhead.

    Frame it plainly.

    The base covers our cost to deliver. The bonus is where we both win if it works. We are happy to share upside. We cannot absorb your downside.

    That sentence closes the conversation in most cases, because it is obviously fair.

    Defining the metric

    Ambiguity here is what turns a good relationship into a dispute.

    Write down

    • The exact metric. Not “more leads.” “Qualified leads, defined as X, recorded in Y system.”
    • The source of truth. One system, agreed, that both parties can see.
    • The baseline. What it was before you started, measured over a defined period.
    • The measurement window. Monthly, quarterly.
    • The attribution rule. What counts as yours.
    • Exclusions. Seasonal spikes, one-off events, existing customers.

    Baseline is the one that gets skipped and causes the worst arguments. Measure it before you start, in writing, signed.

    Attribution, realistically

    Perfect attribution does not exist. Agree a workable convention rather than pretending otherwise.

    Practical approaches

    • Source-tagged only. Only leads that arrived through channels you control.
    • Incremental over baseline. Everything above the agreed pre-existing level.
    • Defined window. Conversions within X days of a tracked touch.
    • Agreed split where multiple channels contribute.

    Write the convention into the contract, including its imperfections. “We both accept this is an approximation and neither party will relitigate it” is a clause worth having.

    Protective clauses

    • Client obligations. If they must respond to leads within X hours or provide access to Y, state it. Their failure to hold up their end cannot reduce your fee.
    • Cap on the bonus, or not, decided deliberately. An uncapped bonus can produce a number the client refuses to pay, which is a worse outcome than a cap.
    • Minimum term. Results take time. Three to six months minimum.
    • Data access. Written right to the reporting you need. Losing access mid-term is a real risk.
    • Termination. What happens to accrued bonus if either side exits.
    • Review point. A scheduled renegotiation, so a structure that stops working can be fixed rather than endured.

    Where this works and where it does not

    Works

    • Lead generation with clean tracking.
    • Recovery work, where you are collecting or reclaiming a measurable amount.
    • Efficiency work, where you are reducing a cost that is already measured.
    • Sales support where you control the whole funnel.

    Does not work

    • Anything depending on the client’s sales team.
    • Brand and awareness work.
    • Long sales cycles where the window exceeds the engagement.
    • Clients with poor data hygiene, which is most small businesses.

    That last one is the practical blocker. If they cannot tell you their current numbers accurately, there is no baseline, and without a baseline the whole structure is guesswork.

    The conversation when they ask for it

    Clients often propose pure performance pricing because it sounds risk-free to them.

    Happy to share risk. Here is how it works: a base that covers our cost to deliver, and a bonus tied to [metric] above the baseline. What we cannot do is carry the full cost of delivery on an outcome that depends partly on things we do not control, like how fast your team follows up. If we do this, we will also need [their obligations] written in, because those affect the result.

    Reasonable clients accept this immediately. Clients who insist on pure performance with no base and no obligations are usually telling you something about how the relationship would go.

    Before agreeing to any performance deal, write down the baseline number and get it signed. If you cannot establish one, you do not have a deal, you have an argument scheduled for month four.

    Need a pro to structure it? [BOOK A CALL]

  • 3-Tier Service Package Architecture

    3-Tier Service Package Architecture

    One price is a yes or no question. Three prices changes it to “which one,” and that is a much better question to be asked.

    TL;DR Build three genuine tiers, mark the middle as recommended, and make the top tier real rather than a decoy. Every tier must be defensible work you would happily deliver.

    Why three

    One option forces a binary decision, and the default answer to a binary decision from a stranger is no.

    Two options frames it as cheap versus expensive, which invites price focus.

    Three options shifts attention to comparing features, which is where your expertise shows.

    Four or more produces paralysis and people postpone the decision entirely.

    The structure

    Tier Name it after the outcome Purpose
    1. Essential “The Fix” Solves the immediate problem. Sets the floor
    2. Recommended “The Right Way” Where most people land. Your target
    3. Complete “Done and Protected” Anchors the top. Some genuinely take it

    Name tiers after what they achieve, not Bronze, Silver, Gold. “Bronze” tells the customer they are buying the cheap one, which nobody enjoys.

    Build the middle tier first

    This is the one you want most people to choose, so design it first and build the others around it.

    The middle tier should be what you would recommend to a friend. The proper fix, done well, without the extras that only some people need.

    Then build down. Essential is the middle minus the things that are genuinely optional. Not a crippled version, a narrower one.

    Then build up. Complete is the middle plus preventative work, extended warranty, or maintenance. It must be real value, not padding.

    Anchor pricing, honestly

    The top tier being visible makes the middle look reasonable. That is a real effect and it is fine to use, with one condition.

    The top tier has to be genuine. If it is obviously padded to make the middle look good, people notice and it damages trust in all three prices.

    A good top tier solves the problem plus prevents the next one. It should be the option you would actually recommend to somebody who plans to stay in the house for twenty years.

    The spacing. Roughly, if the middle is your target, essential sits around 60 to 70% of it and complete around 150 to 180%. Tighter than that and the tiers do not feel distinct. Wider and the top looks absurd.

    The decoy effect, and why to be careful with it

    The classic decoy is a third option that exists only to make another look better. It works in experiments.

    In a service business it is risky. Your customer may ask about it, and you have to either sell something you do not believe in or visibly discourage the thing you just offered. Both are worse than not having it.

    Use genuine differentiation instead. Three real options, priced honestly, with a recommendation. That produces the same shift toward the middle without requiring you to be dishonest about one third of your own proposal.

    Feature splitting that makes sense

    The differences between tiers must be obvious in one glance.

    Good splits

    • Scope. Fix the failure versus fix the underlying cause.
    • Materials. Standard versus premium, with the difference explained.
    • Warranty length. One year, two years, five years.
    • Response priority. Standard scheduling versus front of queue.
    • Preventative work included.
    • Follow-up service included or not.

    Bad splits

    • Artificial removal of things that cost you nothing.
    • Withholding cleanup or basic professionalism from the bottom tier.
    • Anything that makes the essential tier feel like a punishment.

    The essential tier must be something you are happy to deliver. If it is not, do not offer it.

    Presenting it

    Show all three side by side, in one view, on the tablet or the page.

    • Middle tier visually emphasised. Slightly larger, a border, a “Recommended” label.
    • A comparison table, so differences are scannable rather than read.
    • One sentence per tier on who it suits. “Best if you plan to sell within two years.”
    • Your recommendation stated out loud. “For your situation I would take the middle one, because [reason].”

    That last one matters most. People take a recommendation from somebody they just watched work. Withholding it to seem neutral wastes your authority.

    Track which tier gets chosen

    This is your pricing feedback loop and almost nobody looks at it.

    Pattern What it means
    Most choose the middle Working as designed
    Most choose the bottom Middle is priced too high, or the gap is not justified
    Most choose the top You are underpriced. Raise all three
    Even split across three Tiers are not differentiated clearly enough
    People ask for a fourth option Your scoping is missing something common

    Review it quarterly and adjust.

    Take your most common job and split it into three real tiers this week. Then watch which one people pick for a month. That data will tell you more about your pricing than any competitor research.

    Need a pro to build the packages? [BOOK A CALL]

  • Handling Price Objections on High-Ticket Quotes

    Handling Price Objections on High-Ticket Quotes

    “That’s more than I expected” is almost never about the number. It is about not understanding what the number buys.

    TL;DR Do not discount first. Ask what they are comparing it to. Isolate whether it is price, budget or value. Then either explain, restructure, or downsell to a smaller scope. Never cut the price and keep the scope.

    The four things “too expensive” actually means

    What they say What they mean What to do
    “That’s more than I expected” I had no reference point Explain what drives it
    “I got a cheaper quote” I am comparing two things I think are the same Compare scope, not price
    “I can’t afford that” Budget constraint is real Restructure or downsell
    “I need to think about it” Something unresolved, often not price Ask what specifically

    Diagnose before responding. Discounting a value objection is wasteful. Explaining value to a genuine budget constraint is tone-deaf.

    The first move is always a question

    Never respond to a price objection with a number.

    Sure. Can I ask what you were expecting, or what you are comparing it against?

    Then be quiet. The answer tells you which of the four you are dealing with, and most people volunteer far more than you asked for.

    When they have a cheaper quote

    The other quote is almost never the same job.

    Do you have it there? I would genuinely like to see what is in it, because it might be a better fit and I would rather tell you that than talk you into ours.

    That is disarming and it is also true. Then compare scope line by line.

    What is usually different

    • Materials grade.
    • Whether removal and disposal is included.
    • Warranty length.
    • Whether they are licensed and insured.
    • Permits.
    • Cleanup and making good.
    • Whether the price is fixed or an estimate that will move.

    Theirs is $2,100 and ours is $3,400. Looking at theirs, it does not include disposal, the warranty is 90 days against our two years, and it says “estimate” rather than fixed price. Those might not matter to you, and that is a fair choice. I just want you comparing the same thing.

    Never criticise the competitor. Compare the documents and let the customer conclude.

    When the budget is genuinely constrained

    This deserves respect, not persuasion.

    Options, in order

    1. Reduce scope. “We could do the essential repair now at $1,400 and leave the rest until spring.”
    2. Phase it. Split across two budget periods.
    3. Financing, if you offer it, presented as an option and never as pressure.
    4. Refer them on, honestly, if you genuinely cannot serve their budget.

    What not to do. Cut the price and keep the scope. That tells them your first number was invented, and every future quote will be negotiated.

    Isolating the objection

    Sometimes price is a proxy for an unspoken concern.

    If the price were not an issue, would you want us to do the work?

    “Yes” means it is genuinely price. Move to restructuring.

    “Well, I’d want to know about…” means you have just found the real objection, which is usually timeline, disruption, trust, or a specific technical worry. Handle that instead.

    This one question saves an enormous amount of wasted discounting.

    Reframing cost against the alternative

    Only useful once you understand the objection. Do not lead with it.

    • The cost of not doing it. “The leak is currently going into the joist. That repair in a year is a different order of job.”
    • Cost per year of life. “$3,400 over fifteen years is about $19 a month.”
    • The comparison they already accept. What did they last spend on the house, and what did it return?

    Do not oversell this. Overstating consequences to close a job is the behaviour that gives the trades a bad name and it produces the reviews that follow you.

    The downsell, done well

    A smaller job you can do properly beats a big job at a margin you resent.

    Understood. Here is what I would do in your position. The urgent part is the valve and the section of pipe, that is $980 and it stops the immediate problem. The rest is not going to fail this year. We can look at it again in spring.

    This wins you the customer, the relationship, and usually the bigger job later. It also demonstrates that you were not padding the original quote, which makes your next number more credible.

    When to walk away

    Some jobs should not be won.

    • The margin after discounting is below your cost.
    • They are negotiating hard before you have even started, which predicts the rest of the relationship.
    • They want the scope of the expensive quote at the price of the cheap one.
    • You would resent the job.

    I do not think we are the right fit on price for this one, and I would rather say that than cut corners to get there. If the other quote works out, that is genuinely fine. If it does not, call us.

    Walking away politely preserves the relationship and a meaningful number of those people come back.

    Practise the question “what were you comparing it to” until it is automatic. It is the single highest-value sentence in any pricing conversation, and most people discount instead of asking it.

    Need a pro to build your quote scripts? [BOOK A CALL]