Your first 90 days are about landing a handful of good jobs, doing them properly, and getting paid, without wrecking your prices or your reputation to do it. The trap is desperation: saying yes to every job, cutting your price to win work, and skipping the deposit because you need the money now. Do that and you buy yourself three months of being busy, broke, and stuck with the kind of customers who chose you because you were the cheapest. The goal in the first 90 days is not to be busy. It is to build a small base of fair-priced, paid, satisfied customers who send you the next job and leave you a review. That base, not a full calendar, is what turns into a real business.
Where the first jobs actually come from
Your first customers do not come from luck, they come from people who already know your work: former employers who can sub work to you, other trades who need a reliable hand to refer, past customers from your employed days, and friends who have been waiting for you to go out on your own. Then, close behind, the people who find you online through a Google Business Profile and a few early reviews.
That is a whole subject on its own, and it is covered in Getting work without paying for leads. This guide assumes the phone is starting to ring and focuses on the harder question: what you do with those first jobs so they build you up instead of digging you in.
Do not buy the work with a low price
The strongest pull in your first 90 days is to drop your price to win the job, because a cheap job feels better than no job. Resist it. A low price does three kinds of damage at once. It trains you to work for less than you can live on. It attracts customers who care only that you are cheap, who are the first to haggle, the slowest to pay, and the quickest to complain. And it sets an anchor you will fight to climb off, because the customer who hired you cheap tells their friends what you cost, and expects the same next time.
Winning fewer jobs at a fair price beats winning every job at a loss. You are not competing to be the cheapest quote in the driveway, you are competing to be the one they trust to show up and do it right. Price the job to make a profit, using the method in How to price your work, and hold that number. If a customer only wants the lowest bid, that is information: they are not your customer, and letting them go is a decision, not a failure.
Say no to the wrong jobs
The other desperation reflex is to take everything. Every job, every customer, every scope, because turning work away when you are new feels insane. But the wrong jobs cost more than they pay. The customer who argued about the quote will argue about the invoice. The job outside your trade that you "can probably figure out" is where you lose money and earn a bad review. The one that would drain every dollar of your cash on materials is the one that can sink you if it goes wrong.
Learning to say no early is a survival skill, not arrogance. A clear, polite "that one's not a fit for me" keeps you free for the jobs that build you. The specific failure patterns to watch for, so you can spot a bad job before you are in it, are named in The mistakes that sink new contractors.
Get the deposit and the terms in writing, even from friends
New contractors skip the paperwork most exactly when they can least afford to: on the first jobs, for people they know. The friend, the neighbor, the referral from your old boss. It feels awkward to hand your buddy a written quote and ask for a deposit. Do it anyway. The jobs for people you know are the ones most likely to go informal, drift in scope, and end in a bruised relationship over money nobody wrote down.
Every first job gets the same treatment as every job after it: a written quote with a clear scope, a deposit where your state allows it, and a line saying extra work needs a signed change order. A deposit on smaller residential jobs is commonly somewhere between a quarter and a half of the price, but several states cap how much you can legally collect, so check yours in Deposits and progress billing and Working in Your State before you ask. Doing this from job one sets the tone that you are a professional running a business, which is exactly the reputation you are trying to build.
Do the work like your reputation depends on it
In the first 90 days you have no track record, so every job is your track record. There is no cushion of a hundred happy customers to absorb one bad review. That cuts both ways: it means one great job, photographed and reviewed, is worth a lot, and one sloppy job can define you before you have anything to balance it.
This is not a call to gold-plate every job and lose money doing it. It is a call to do exactly what you quoted, cleanly, on time, and to communicate when something changes. Turn up when you said. Leave the site clean. Tell the customer before they have to ask. In a trade where plenty of people do not do those basic things, doing them reliably is most of what a good reputation is made of.
Ask for the review while you are standing there
Reviews are how a brand-new contractor becomes findable, and the best time to get one is the moment the customer is happiest, which is when you have just finished and they are thrilled with the result. Not next week by email, when the feeling has faded and your message is buried. Ask in person, then and there, and make it effortless by sending the direct link to your Google Business Profile while you are still on site.
A handful of genuine, recent, five-star reviews on your profile does more for your first 90 days than almost anything else you can do, because it is the proof a stranger needs to call you instead of the next guy. Every satisfied first customer is a chance at one, so ask every time. Never buy or fake them, because that is both against the platforms' rules and easy to spot, and the reputation you are building is the whole point.
Watch your cash, not just your calendar
A busy calendar in month one can hide an empty bank account in month three, because the work you are doing now pays later, and sometimes much later. Keep an eye on the money as closely as the schedule. Invoice the day you finish each job or milestone, do not let unpaid invoices pile up unchased, and never take a job so big it drains the cash you need to keep operating.
The early-months cash trap, and the buffer that gets you through it, are covered in The mistakes that sink new contractors and, once you are running, in Managing cash flow in a feast-or-famine trade. In the first 90 days the rule is simple: money in the bank beats jobs on the calendar, so protect the first and do not be fooled by the second.
Common questions
How do I get my first customers with no reviews or reputation?
Start with the people who already know your work: former employers who can sub to you, other trades who refer, past customers, and friends, then back that up with a Google Business Profile and your first few reviews. You do not need a marketing budget to land early jobs, you need to tell the people already in your orbit that you are open for business and to make it easy for strangers to find and trust you online. Getting work without paying for leads covers the whole approach in detail.
Should I work cheap to get my first jobs and reviews?
No. Cutting your price to win early work trains you to lose money, attracts 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 fair-priced job counts just as much as one from a job you lost money on, and it comes from a better customer. Win fewer jobs at a profitable price and do them well. How to price your work shows how to set a number that pays you, and holding it is the discipline.
Is it OK to take a deposit from a friend or family member?
Yes, and you should treat their job exactly like any other: written quote, a deposit where your state allows it, and a change order for extras. The jobs for people you know are the ones most likely to go informal and end in a strained relationship over money nobody wrote down, so the paperwork protects the friendship as much as the finances. Deposit limits vary by state, so check Deposits and progress billing and Working in Your State before you set the amount.
How many jobs do I need in my first 90 days?
There is no magic number, because a few well-priced, well-paid, well-reviewed jobs build a stronger base than a calendar crammed with cheap ones you lost money on. The measure that matters is not how busy you were, it is whether each job paid a profit, got paid on time, and produced a happy customer who would use you again or refer you. Aim for a small run of jobs you are proud of and that pay, not for a full schedule at any price.
How do I get reviews when I'm just starting out?
Ask every satisfied customer in person the moment you finish, when they are happiest, and make it effortless by sending them the direct link to your Google Business Profile while you are still on site. A handful of genuine, recent reviews is what makes a brand-new contractor findable and trustable to strangers, so treat every early job as a chance to earn one. Never buy or fake reviews, because it breaks the platforms' rules, is easy to spot, and destroys the exact reputation you are trying to build.
The honest bit
- Deposit limits, whether a written contract is legally required over a certain amount, and late-fee rules all vary by state. Get yours from Working in Your State before you rely on any of it.
- Nothing here is a pricing figure. What to actually charge is a separate question owned by How to price your work, and this guide deliberately routes you there rather than naming rates.
- This is general guidance, not legal or business advice. If an early job goes sideways into a dispute or a chunk of unpaid money, get proper advice rather than eating the loss to keep the peace.
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Templates you might need
Need help pricing your work? Read Section 14: Pricing Your Work - day rates, job prices and how to stop underselling yourself.
Finished your apprenticeship? Read our guide: After Your Apprenticeship - the stuff nobody teaches you in college.
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