The Leak Finder

Ten questions. Two minutes. Every leak you didn't know you had.

Most small businesses don't lose money in one obvious place. They lose it in a dozen small ones, none big enough to notice on its own. Answer honestly and you'll know which ones are yours.

Nothing to sign up for. Nothing is sent anywhere, and your answers stay in this browser.

01 Could you name which ad, listing or post produced your last ten customers?

Yes No

Marketing you can't measure

Ask every person who contacts you how they found you, and write it down. A notepad in the van is enough. After twenty jobs the pattern is obvious, and it's usually not the one you expected.

Read leak 01 in the guide

02 Do you book jobs by area, so you're not crossing town twice in one day?

Yes No

Scheduling that costs you hours

Keep one day, or one half day, for one part of town. You don't need software. You need to stop booking Tuesday morning forty minutes away from Tuesday afternoon.

Read leak 02 in the guide

03 Do you know what one hour costs you to run, before you've earned anything?

Yes No

Undercharging without realizing

Add up a year of overhead, then divide by the hours you genuinely billed. That number is your floor. Most people have never worked it out, and are surprised by it.

Read leak 03 in the guide

04 Have you sent yourself a message through your own contact form in the last month and watched it arrive?

Yes No

Leads you never saw

Send yourself a message through your own form right now, and check the spam folder of wherever it lands. Then set two fixed times a day to return calls, instead of trying to answer while you're working.

Read leak 04 in the guide

05 Is every phone number, price and service on your website correct today?

Yes No

A website that's quietly out of date

Open your own site on your own phone. Try to call yourself from it. Read the services list as though you'd never met you. That's a ten minute job and it costs nothing.

Read leak 05 in the guide

06 Do you have a set schedule for chasing an unpaid invoice?

Yes No

Invoices nobody chased

A friendly nudge the day after it's due, a phone call a week later, a proper letter two weeks after that, a final notice at thirty days. Put the terms in writing before you start, so chasing is following an agreement rather than asking a favor. The full schedule, with the wording.

Read leak 06 in the guide

07 Could you list every recurring charge on your bank and card statements right now?

Yes No

Subscriptions you forgot you had

Open your bank and card statements and write down every recurring charge. Cancel whatever you haven't opened in sixty days. Check whether anything monthly is cheaper paid yearly.

Read leak 07 in the guide

08 Do you follow up every quote that hasn't been answered?

Yes No

Quotes you never followed up

One short follow-up after three days, one more after two weeks, each a single sentence. It's the cheapest work you will ever win, because the quoting is already done.

Read leak 08 in the guide

09 When someone asks for a small extra on site, do you say what it costs before you start?

Yes No

Work you did and never billed for

Say yes, and say what it costs, before you do it. Most people are fine with it, because they asked without knowing. Write extras on the job sheet as they happen, not from memory that night.

Read leak 09 in the guide

10 Do you know roughly how many hours a week go on quoting, invoicing, chasing and driving to the merchant?

Yes No

Admin hours nobody charges for

Tally them for two weeks. Then you have a real choice: price them into the work, or cut them down. You can't do either while you don't know the number.

Read leak 10 in the guide

Want the long version?

Each of these ten is a section in the full guide, with what to do about it. I'll email you that — and the Toolkit with it, which is six templates for the messages that keep coming up: the quote, the follow-up, the price rise, chasing an invoice, turning work down.

Both free, and only sent by email. Over the next couple of weeks I'll send two short emails, then only new guides. Every email has an unsubscribe link.

Question 05 was about your website. Have me check yours for free.

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