You are unknown, the bills do not care, and everyone selling marketing wants your card number. The first work comes from people who already know what you can do. The work that keeps coming is built on three things you own outright, none of which cost a dollar. Paid leads have a place, but only once you can say what a won job costs you, not what a lead costs. That is the order, and it matters more than any single channel. Here is each rung, what it really costs, and the rule that turns a lead platform from a tenancy into a tool.
Start with the people who already know your work
Nobody has seen your reviews because you do not have any. Plenty of people have seen your work, and that is where the first jobs live.
- Your last employer. Good outfits turn down small jobs every week. Ask whether they will sub the overflow to you, or pass on the ones that are too small for them. You will price it and sign for it, so it is your job, not theirs. One caution from What does it really take to start out on your own?: do not solicit your old employer's customers, and check there is no clause in what you signed that bars side work before you have left.
- The other trades you worked alongside. The plumber wants an electrician he trusts on the remodel. The GC wants a drywall sub who shows up. Those relationships are already made. Tell them you are out on your own, then be the reliable name that makes them look good for referring you. How to build a referral network that keeps work coming is the long version.
- Suppliers, realtors and property managers. The counter at the supply house gets asked "who do you use" every day. So do realtors handing over keys and property managers with a list of repairs. They refer the trades they trust not to embarrass them.
- Friends and family. Real work, and the jobs most likely to go wrong, because nobody writes anything down. Treat them exactly like any other customer: a written quote, a deposit where your state allows it, a change order for extras. Your first jobs and your first 90 days on your own explains why the informal job is the one that ends a friendship over money.
The three things you own
Everything below is free to claim and free to run, and it keeps working after you stop paying attention to it. That is the whole difference from a bought lead.
1. A Google Business Profile. When someone searches your trade plus "near me", the map results come before the websites, and a complete, verified profile is what puts you in them. Most of your competitors have one that is half finished. Claim it, verify it, pick the most specific primary category you can ("Plumbing contractor", not "Contractor"), set it up as a service-area business so your home address stays hidden, fill in every field, and add real photos of real jobs. Keep your business name, address and phone number identical everywhere they appear online, because inconsistency is the most common reason a profile does not show. The step-by-step is How to set up Google Business Profile to get found locally.
2. Reviews. The biggest reason good tradespeople have few reviews is that they never ask. Ask every customer at the moment the job lands well, in person, and send the direct link while you are still standing there so it is one tap. Respond to every review, good and bad. Build the ask into your closeout so it happens on every job instead of when you remember; the Review Request Message template is the wording. The one thing you never do is fake, buy or rig them. The FTC's rule on reviews carries civil penalties of up to $53,088 per violation for a knowing violator in 2026, and it bans paying for positive reviews, undisclosed reviews from staff or family, and "review gating", which is screening customers and steering only the happy ones to the public site. You can offer a small thank-you for any honest review, whatever the rating, as long as you disclose it. Can I offer a discount for a review, or ask only my happy customers? has the lines, and How to get more reviews the honest way has the system.
3. Referrals. Cheapest, highest-closing work you will ever get, because it arrives pre-trusted. Earn them two ways at once: from happy customers who pass your name on, and from other businesses that meet your customers first. Then ask, plainly, and make it easy. Referral fees between ordinary trade businesses are often fine, but anything tied to real estate settlement or insurance is governed by its own law, so confirm before you pay one.
Put those three together and you have the plan in Getting work without paying for leads. It is slower than buying leads in month one. It is the only plan that is still working in year three.
Paid lead platforms: the number nobody calculates
Lead platforms sell speed. When the calendar is empty, that is worth something, and it is honest to say so. What they do not sell you is the arithmetic, so here it is.
Work out your cost per won job, not your cost per lead. Divide the lead price by the share of leads you actually quote, then by the share of quotes you win. Most leads are sold to several contractors at once, so an average win rate of 20 to 30 percent is structural, not a verdict on you: four contractors quoting one job means a 25 percent average before anyone looks at your work. Speed of response usually decides it more than quality does.
| Lead price | You quote | You win | Cost per won job |
|---|---|---|---|
| $30 | 50% | 40% | $150 |
| $60 | 40% | 25% | $600 |
| $60 | 30% | 20% | $1,000 |
| $100 | 60% | 33% | $505 |
Now put that against the job. On a $2,000 job at a 25 percent gross margin you have $500 of margin, so a $505 cost per won job means you worked for nothing. On a $20,000 job the same $505 is noise. That is why the answer is never "are lead platforms worth it" but "worth it for which jobs". The full working, including the three costs that never appear on the platform's invoice, is in What paid lead platforms actually cost you, and what you own at the end.
When buying leads is the right call: the calendar is genuinely empty, you are testing a new area, or the work is high-margin and clears your floor job size. Set a hard monthly cap before you start, track cost per won job from the first week, and stop the moment the number does not clear the margin on the jobs it brings.
The tenancy question. When you stop paying, it stops completely. Your reviews and your ranking on that platform stay on that platform. Your Google Business Profile, your past customers and your referral partners keep producing after the money stops. Spend on the second kind first.
One more thing: any outfit promising "guaranteed work" for an upfront fee belongs in Scams that target contractors, not in your marketing budget.
Neighborhood groups, and the trap next to them
For residential work, the local Facebook and Nextdoor groups produce real jobs, if you are not spammy. "Can anyone recommend a reliable roofer?" gets posted in most towns every week, and the trades who keep getting tagged are usually the busy ones. Join the groups your customers actually use, comment helpfully on relevant posts, ask past customers to tag you when someone asks, and once in a while post a before-and-after with a low-key line about what you do. People start recognizing the name, and the name starts arriving pre-trusted.
The trap sits right beside it. Somebody will offer to sell you a list of homeowners, or a "lead" that is just a phone number, and suggest you text them. Do not. Marketing texts to a cell phone need the recipient's prior express written consent, the national Do Not Call list now covers texts as well as calls, calling hours are 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the customer's time zone, and the damages run $500 to $1,500 per message with no cap. A bought list almost never carries consent, and a few hundred texts to it is six figures of exposure before a lawyer is involved. Service messages to a customer who is already yours, like "on my way", have a lower bar. The rest is in Can I text and call my customers for marketing without getting sued?
A simple website you own
"I just use Facebook" is not enough, because a platform can change the rules, bury you or take the page down, and increasingly it is your own site that Google and AI search read to decide whether you are real. It does not need to be big. Three or four pages that say what you do, where you work, prove you exist (real photos, real reviews, your license number), answer the questions customers actually ask, and make it dead easy to call you. Pair it with the Google Business Profile; you want both. Do I need a website, and what should it actually do? has the page list.
What a first customer actually costs
Nobody publishes a cost-per-first-customer table for the trades, and any figure you see quoted is one platform's best day. What you can do is think in cost per job won, channel by channel:
- Paid leads: $150 to $1,000 per won job on the arithmetic above, before your time on quotes.
- Google Business Profile: no cash cost. The spend is an evening setting it up properly and the habit of asking for reviews.
- Referrals and word of mouth: no cash cost. Over time this is your cheapest channel per job, because a referred customer rarely needs selling.
- Reviews: free, and they compound, because each one makes the next stranger more likely to call.
Paid channels buy speed while you are unknown. The free ones are where your cheapest, best-quality work comes from if you keep at them.
Do not buy the work with a low price
The strongest pull in the first months is to drop your price to win the job, because a cheap job feels better than no job. Resist it. A low price trains you to work for less than you can live on, attracts the customers who only care that you are cheap, and sets a rate you will fight to climb back off. A five-star review from a fairly priced job counts exactly the same as one from a job you lost money on. The mistakes that sink new contractors is the list; the next-but-one guide in this section, on your first quote, is the fix.
And when a quote goes quiet, it is usually silence rather than price. The Quote Follow-Up Sequence is three short messages for exactly that, and the Quote Health Check catches the gaps in the quote itself before the customer does.
The reality check on marketing hype
Do not let it fry your head. Ignore the "fully booked for six months" screenshots; you are seeing the best day that person ever had, not the cancellations, the slow payers and the quiet weeks. Followers, likes and views are nice, and they do not pay the supply house. A half-empty Instagram with a full calendar beats a polished account with no real jobs.
There are whole businesses built on selling you the dream: paid ads, branding, courses, lead hacks. Most of it only works if you are already decent at the trade and look after customers. Keep the priority list simple. Do good work. Show up when you said you would. Do not ignore people. Then let marketing support that, never replace it.
Where to go next in this section
- The money reality: what you will actually take home (15.6), because the rate you quote a first customer has to survive this.
- Your first quote: how not to undersell yourself on day one (15.9), the number behind every conversation above.
- Building a reputation from zero (15.13), the longer game the three free assets feed.
- Your first year on your own: what actually happens (15.4), for how the first customers turn into a first year.
- The slow season: what to do when the phone stops (15.10), which is when the tenancy question comes due.
- If a "lead" turns out to be one outfit wanting you on their schedule with their tools, that is a job, not a customer: run it through 1099 or W-2? Worker Status Checker.
Common questions
How do I get customers when I have no reviews and nobody knows me?
Start with the people who already know your work: your last employer, who can sub you overflow, the trades you worked alongside, suppliers, and friends and family treated as real customers with a written quote and a deposit. At the same time claim and complete your Google Business Profile, ask every early customer for a review at the moment the job lands, and tell the businesses that meet your customers first that you are available. You do not need a marketing budget for the first jobs; you need the profile, the ask, and the people who have seen you work.
Are paid lead platforms worth it when you are just starting?
Only for the jobs where the cost per won job clears the margin, and you have to do that arithmetic yourself: lead price divided by the share of leads you quote, divided by the share you win. At $60 a lead, quoting 30 percent and winning 20 percent, one won job costs you $1,000, which wipes out the margin on a $2,000 job and is noise on a $20,000 one. Use them when the calendar is empty or for high-margin work, with a hard monthly cap, and put the free assets you own ahead of them, because a platform stops the day you stop paying.
Can I offer a discount in exchange for a review?
Yes, but only if the reward is for any honest review regardless of the star rating, and you disclose that you offered it. The moment the discount is tied to a positive review, it becomes a purchased review under the FTC rule, which carries civil penalties of up to $53,088 per violation for a knowing violator in 2026. Asking only your happy customers, or screening people first and sending only the pleased ones to the public site, is review gating and is banned too. Ask everyone, let them say what they say, and respond to all of it.
Can I text people who asked me for a quote?
Replying to someone who contacted you about their own job is a service conversation and is fine. Marketing texts are different: to text a cell phone with an offer you generally need that person's prior express written consent, the national Do Not Call list covers texts, and you can only contact people between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. their local time. Damages run $500 to $1,500 per message with no cap, which is why a purchased list of numbers is the most dangerous thing a new contractor can buy. Honor any opt-out within 10 business days.
Do I need a website in my first year?
A simple one you own, yes, because it is the only part of your online presence no platform can change, bury or remove, and it is increasingly how both Google and AI search decide you are real. It needs to say what you do, where you work, show proof, answer the questions customers ask, and make it easy to contact you. Three or four clear pages do that. Run it alongside your Google Business Profile, not instead of it.
The honest bit
- The FTC review-rule penalty ($53,088 per violation) and the TCPA damages ($500 to $1,500 per message) are 2026 federal figures. Verify them at ftc.gov and fcc.gov before you rely on either.
- The cost-per-won-job table is arithmetic, not a survey. Lead prices and win rates move by trade, by area and by month; the method does not. Put your own numbers in it.
- There are no channel statistics in this guide on purpose. Any "45 percent more visibility" figure you read elsewhere is one vendor measuring itself.
- This is general guidance, not legal or marketing advice.
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