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Guides

Practical answers to the situations that cost small trade businesses money. No jargon, no funnel.

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  Quoting

  Saying Your Price Out Loud Without Flinching

  Most tradespeople lose money in the two seconds between working out a price and saying it.

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  Getting Paid

  What to Charge When You Turn Up and Nobody Is In

  A practical guide for UK trades on setting, warning about and actually collecting a no-access charge — including the exact texts, voicemail and invoice wording to use when you turn up and the customer isn't there.

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  Calls

  When a Job Overruns and Someone Is Waiting for You

  Every trade has days where an hour job turns into four and the next customer is sat waiting.

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  Being Found

  Verifying Your Google Listing When the Postcard Never Arrives

  Why Google's verification postcard goes missing, what to check before you request another one, and how to get verified by video instead — with the exact wording to use on the call and to send to whoever gets your post.

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  Calls

  Double Booked: Ringing the Customer You Have to Move

  Practical guide for UK trades on handling a double-booked diary: how to choose which job moves, exact phone and text wording to use, a before-you-hang-up checklist, and when the situation needs proper advice instead.

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  Being Found

  Picking the Right Google Category So the Right Jobs Find You

  Your Google Business Profile category decides which searches you show up in.

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  Quoting

  The Quote They Never Replied To: When and How to Chase

  A simple follow-up routine for quotes that go quiet — a four-step timeline from the day you send it to a clean close-off, with the exact texts, phone lines and voicemails to use, plus how to write the quote so you have to chase less.

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  Quoting

  Keeping Track of Every Quote You Have Sent Out

  A simple seven-column quote log any trade can keep on paper, plus the exact chase messages to send at three days, ten days and a month — so quotes stop disappearing into your sent folder.

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  Quoting

  Can You Give Me a Rough Price? What to Say Back

  "Hard to say without seeing it" is the answer that loses the job.

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  Calls

  When Your Voicemail Box Has Been Full for Weeks

  A full mailbox silently turns callers away and leaves you no message to chase.

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  Getting Paid

  When the Tenant Rings but the Landlord Pays

  The tenant has the problem, but the landlord or letting agent owes you the money — and if you turn up on the tenant's say-so, nobody with a chequebook ever agreed to anything.

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  Quoting

  When a Phone Quote Turns Out to Be a Much Bigger Job

  You priced the job over the phone from what the customer described, then turned up and found something twice the size.