Just started your trades business? Start here.

The three problems almost every new trades business has

Nearly every new trades owner we talk to has the same three gaps: not enough first customers, no proper Google listing, and no clear plan for the little marketing time they have. Fix them in that order.

1. No pipeline beyond friends and family. Your first jobs usually come from people who already trust you. That runs out, often around month three or four. Our first-customer launch plan and the free guide on landing your first 20 customers show how to widen that circle without cold-calling.
2. Invisible on Google. When a neighbour types your trade and your town into their phone, the map results come first. If you have no verified Google Business Profile, you are not in that list at all. Our Google Business Profile setup guide takes you from zero to a complete, verified profile.
3. Random acts of marketing. A post here, a flyer there, a cheap ad someone sold you over the phone. None of it adds up because nothing is measured. The DIY marketing plan for your first year gives you a weekly routine that fits in about two hours.

How much does a first year of marketing really cost?

For most solo trades owners the honest answer is: less than you fear, as long as you spend time before money. A sensible first-year setup can look like this.

Here is a worked example you can check. Say your average job is worth $600 and roughly one in three people who call you ends up booking. Ten extra calls a month means about three extra jobs, or $1,800 in revenue. If a $40 box of door hangers in the right street brings two of those calls, it paid for itself several times over. If a $300 ad brings none, stop it. Counting calls is the whole trick.

What Trades.Help is, and what it is not

We are a marketing and business advisory service. We explain, plan and, if you want, set up the parts of marketing that bring calls and texts to a small trades business. We are not a contractor: we do not install, fix or service anything, and we never send anyone to a job site.

We are also not a licensing office. Questions like "do I need a contractor licence to advertise?" or "can I sign off my own permit?" belong with the provincial bodies. Our areas pages link to the right organisations for every province and territory so you can ask them directly.

Trades.Help is part of the Sedighi.ca and SAZ.ca group of companies. We are Canadian, headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, and led by Ali Sedighi, MBA, who has spent 17+ years in digital marketing and built 150+ live HVAC websites. You can read more on the about page.

Proof that the basics work

The method behind this help centre comes from our HVAC work, and the most useful example for new owners is a brand launched from scratch. GasBoilers.ca was a gas-boiler division built for CANRO Heat; today its service area covers 26+ BC communities, and customers have given it 5.0★ from 76+ Google reviews. That did not happen through clever advertising. It came from a properly built profile, a clear service area and asking every happy customer for a review.

Another example, BCWide.ca, reached 3× leads in 90 days. These are results from our HVAC work, not from other trades, and every business is different. What transfers is the order of operations: get found, get trusted, get called, then measure. See the results page for what each case shows.

When to do it yourself, and when to ask for help

Do it yourself while your calendar has gaps and your budget is thin. Ask for help when the steps are done but the calls are still not coming, or when you are so busy on the tools that marketing never happens.

Signs you can keep going alone:

• You can set aside about two hours a week
• Your Google profile is verified and you have a handful of reviews
• You know roughly where each job came from

Signs it is time to talk to someone:

• You followed the guides and nothing changed after six to eight weeks
• Your Google profile was suspended or will not verify
• You are booked solid this month but have nothing lined up for next season

When you are ready, see how our services work, check pricing so there are no surprises, or read the FAQ. If you would rather just talk it through, the contact page explains what to send so the first conversation is useful.

A short checklist to start this week

If you only do five things this week, do these. Each one takes less than an evening.

1. Register or confirm your business name with your province (the areas pages link to each registry).
2. Get a phone number you will keep for years, and make sure it can receive texts.
3. Create your Google Business Profile and request verification.
4. Write down your service area as a list of towns or neighbourhoods you can reach in about 30 minutes.
5. Text five past customers or contacts, thank them, and ask if they know anyone who needs your trade.

That last step feels awkward. Do it anyway. For most new owners it is the cheapest marketing they will ever do.