Marketing sends people to your business. If it is not ready, the money goes out and nothing comes back. Here is the short list of what has to exist first.
Module 1 of the Castells Media academy for contractors: Starting the business.
Marketing does not fix a business that is not set up
The legal form you register under
The license, and why customers check it
Insurance
A phone number and an email that belong to the business
A place for the money to be counted
What one missed call costs. Put your own three numbers in. Whatever comes out is what you are paying, every year, for a phone nobody answers — before you have spent a dollar on advertising.
Do this next: Before you budget a dollar for ads, check the six things above. If any is missing, fix that first. It will make every dollar after it work harder.
Written by Castells Media, a marketing agency at 1298 Antelope Creek Drive, Roseville, California, working with home service businesses across the US.
Castells Media Inc, 1298 Antelope Creek Drive, Roseville, California