Free guides & tools

Thirteen guides on keeping more of what you earn.

I spend a lot of time looking at how small businesses win and lose customers. This is the useful part, written down. All of it is free, none of it needs an account, and nothing in it is trying to sell you software.

Straight to the guides ↓

The Toolkit · free

Never start a quote from a blank page again.

Six templates for the messages every service business ends up writing. The blanks are marked. Fill them in and send it.

A quote built to win without being the cheapest
The follow-up that gets you a yes or a no
The price rise that doesn't invite an argument
Four for chasing an unpaid invoice, from the first nudge to the final notice
The polite no, for the job you shouldn't take
What you actually earn an hour — a worksheet, not a template, and most people don't enjoy the answer

Six pages, and it only goes out by email — it isn't published anywhere on the site. Over the next couple of weeks I'll send two short emails, then only new guides. Every email has an unsubscribe link.

Free tool · no signup

The Leak Finder

Ten yes-or-no questions about your own business. Answer them and you get the short list of which leaks are actually yours, with what to do about each one. Two minutes, and you can print the result.

Find my leaks →

Getting the call

Guide

The 60 seconds before someone calls

Why three businesses get the call and the rest never hear a thing. What a customer actually does on their phone, and the free Google listing that decides it.

8-minute read · 6 steps Read it → Guide

The first five minutes

Getting found takes months. Whether it turns into a job is decided in the next five minutes, and mostly by who answers first.

6-minute read · 5 habits Read it → Guide

Do you need a website if you have a Google profile?

Google profile or website? An honest answer from somebody who builds them.

7-minute read · 6 questions Read it → Guide

When a bad review lands

A one-star review just arrived and you want to answer it, or get rid of it. What to write back in three calm sentences, which reviews Google's own rules let you report, and what to leave alone.

10-minute read · 6 steps Read it →

Winning the job

Guide

What goes in a quote that wins

Your quote is the only piece of your work most customers see before they decide. Six things that belong in it, and one that doesn't.

7-minute read · 6 parts Read it → Guide

“You're too expensive”

Five different objections wearing the same three words, and only one of them is about money. What each really means, and why the answer rarely involves your price.

6-minute read · 5 objections Read it → Guide

When to raise your prices

Winning nine quotes out of ten isn't good news. How to work the new number out instead of guessing, and what to send your regulars.

7-minute read · 6 steps Read it →

Getting paid, and protecting your time

Guide

The job isn't done when the work is done

Deposits, what to put on the invoice so it gets paid, and exactly what to send, and when, from the day after it's due to day thirty.

8-minute read · 6 steps Read it → Guide

The customers you should have said no to

Everyone has one job they wish they'd walked away from. Six signals you can spot at the enquiry, and how to decline without burning anything.

8-minute read · 6 signals Read it →

Keeping what you earn

Guide

Is your business leaking money?

Small businesses don't lose money in one obvious place. They lose it in a dozen small ones. Ten of them, and what to do about each this week.

7-minute read · 10 fixes Read it → Guide

The slow season playbook

The quiet months are the one part of the year you can see coming, and the one most people do nothing about until they're in it. Five moves, and one to avoid.

7-minute read · 6 moves Read it → Guide

Paying for leads: is it worth it for you?

A lead price tells you almost nothing until you know how many of those leads became jobs. Here's a one-page worksheet you can fill in from last month's statements, and what to check in the terms before you renew.

9-minute read · 6 parts Read it → Guide

Google isn't calling to charge you

The calls, letters, emails and texts that pretend to be Google or your domain company, how to tell them from the real thing, and what to do if one already got you.

9-minute read · 6 parts Read it →

The Toolkit · free

Don't write all this from scratch.

Six templates for the messages in these guides, with the blanks marked — the quote, the follow-up, the price rise, the four that chase an invoice, the polite no. Plus the worksheet that works out what you really earn an hour.

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

Rather have me look at your actual website? Get a free audit.