Your trade business,
the next 30 days.

Most trade businesses don't lose work for lack of leads. They lose it after the marketing has done its job: to a phone that rings out, a quote nobody chased, or a listing with last year's number. Ads multiply whatever's already there, good or bad. So the first three weeks fix the leaks, and the money comes last.

Licence details come first because they're both a rule and a trust signal. NSW wants your name, licence number and category, and a business phone number on advertising, and Queensland names websites, social media pages and online directories. Customers are told to check the register before they hire. Get it right once and every later task builds on it.

Tick as you go. Use the filter when you've got five minutes between jobs, and save the desk tasks for a wet day.

Look yourself up the way a customer would: on the licence register, then on Google, then on your phone's maps app. In NSW, the register lets anyone search by name, licence number, ABN or location, and you must report a change of name or address within 7 days. If you've moved from the garage to a yard, or the business is now a company, start there.

Then the listings. Trade businesses pick up stray listings over the years: an old directory entry, a quote site profile, a Facebook page from your first van. Fix the ones showing a phone number first. Two free listings are worth claiming while you're at it: Bing Places, which can import your Google Business Profile details, and Apple Business Connect, which manages your card across Apple Maps, Siri and other Apple apps. The AI search page for tradies explains why these matter for AI answers too.

An automatic text when you miss a call, and a voicemail that gives a call-back time, keep a caller from ringing the next name. The missed calls page has a planner for the right set-up.

Then the quotes. One template, used every time, with your licence number, what's included and what isn't, and the total. If you show a price in parts, the ACCC says the single total price must be shown, at least as prominently. Chase every quote from the last month, once: the page on how customers choose a tradie explains why that one text wins work back.

If your texts show your business name instead of a mobile number, that's a branded sender ID. The ACMA warned that from 1 July 2026, unregistered ones show as 'Unverified' and get grouped with possible scams. Your text provider can register it.

Every job this week gets a before and an after photo, with the customer's OK. They feed your Google profile, your website and any Facebook ads later. Keep house numbers and number plates out of the shot.

Send your review link to every customer the day the job finishes. Everyone, not just the ones who seemed happy: Google's rules don't allow selectively asking for positive reviews. Then reply to the recent ones. In BrightLocal's 2026 US survey, 74% of people looked for reviews from the last three months, so recent replies count for more than old ones.

On a rain day, write up one real job for your website: the suburb, what was wrong, what you did, two photos. It's the kind of page the SEO page for tradies recommends, and it gives customers and AI tools something specific to repeat.

Count last month's enquiries by where they came from. Rough is fine: calls, website forms, texts, Facebook, quote sites, word of mouth. That's your starting line.

Set up tracking before you spend. Google Ads can count calls from ads and calls from your website after an ad click as conversions, with a minimum call length so hang-ups don't count. Set an ad schedule to the hours someone can answer.

Then one paid test, with an end date. Google search ads if you want urgent jobs; Facebook and Instagram ads if you want planned ones. Not both at once, or you won't know which worked. The trades budget calculator sets what an enquiry can cost before it stops paying.

Book 20 minutes on the same day each month and look at four numbers: enquiries, quotes sent, jobs won and new reviews. If enquiries went up but jobs didn't, the problem is answering or quoting, not marketing. If nothing moved, look at the offer and the area before blaming the channel.

Busy season changes the plan. If you're booked out, pause the ad test and keep the review requests and photos going. They cost nothing and they're what fills the quiet months.