Journey 17 · Running a businessgrindingbuildingrecovering
Run the Job Right
“I'm busy every day and there's still never any money in the account.”
You become: Someone who gets paid on time, every time
The loop every service business lives inside: quote, schedule, do, invoice, get paid, get reviewed. Most trade businesses don't fail on the work — they fail on the four steps that come after it.
Understand
Where cash actually gets stuck between finishing and being paid.
Practice
Deposits, same-day invoices, and following up without apologising.
Create
A repeatable job process with terms that protect you.
Evidence
A shrinking gap between the day you finish and the day you're paid.
Before the work
Almost every payment fight is decided before anyone picks up a tool.
- Practice30m
Qualify on the phone before you drive
Five questions before you agree to look at anything: what's the problem, how long has it been happening, is it your property, what's your timeline, and have you had other quotes. Free driveway quotes are the biggest uncosted expense in this trade — an hour of driving and looking, unpaid, for a job that was never going to be yours.
You’ll have:A written five-question script by the phone.
- Practice45m
Quote it the same day
Fill the template while you're still in the van, before the next job blurs the details. The first quote in wins a disproportionate share of service work — not because it's cheapest, but because it's the one that arrived while they still cared. Slow quoting loses more jobs than high prices.
You’ll have:A quote sent the same day as the visit.
- Create1h
Write terms that decide the arguments in advance
One page attached to every estimate: deposit amount, payment schedule, what happens if scope changes, who supplies materials, how long the quote is valid, what you're not responsible for, and the late fee. You are writing the answer to every argument you've ever had, before it happens. Have a lawyer read it once — an hour of their time is cheaper than one dispute.
You’ll have:A one-page terms document attached to your estimates.
9 more actions · 4h 15m of work
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- Practice20m
Take a deposit before you start
During the work
Scope creep and silence are the two things that turn a good job into a bad one.
- Practice30m
Price every change before you do it
- Practice15m
Send one update a day on multi-day jobs
- Practice20m
Walk it with them before you leave
Getting paid
The job is not finished when the work is finished.
- Practice20m
Invoice before you leave the driveway
- Create45m
Build the three-step follow-up and use it without flinching
- Understand1h
Learn your lien rights before you need them
- Practice15m
Ask for the review while they're still pleased
- Evidence30m
Measure the gap and watch it close
Tools this journey uses
Several actions above run straight through these. All free, no signup.
Need a finished document today instead?
A playbook is the short version — a handful of steps ending in an artifact, rather than a change in what you can do.