The TradeGOAT Blog
Pricing, proposals, getting paid, and running the office, written by a contractor who's been doing it for twenty years, not a software company.
Every maintenance agreement turns into the same phone call from the field. Put your coverage on the equipment itself, in your own words, and the ticket already knows the answer before the tech has to ask.
Service WorkThe quirks of every machine you service live in one or two people’s heads, and they leave when those people do. Give the equipment its own record, and let the tech standing in front of it at 3 a.m. read what the last guy learned.
Service WorkThe exact same ticket your company already uses, in digital form, with pictures attached and no pile in the truck, and the repairs your tech finds turn into proposals without digging for old paper.
Running the OfficeThe follow-up you never sent. The delay you never explained. How to get the hard emails written, without one ever going out wrong under your name.
Your DocumentsMost trade software makes you throw out the proposal you’ve spent years getting right and start over. Here’s why you shouldn’t have to.
PricingWinging it on service-call pricing quietly bleeds your margin. How to set a number you can charge every time, and actually make money on it.
Getting PaidEvery job changes mid-stream. The clean way to price the change, get it signed, and get paid, without reopening the whole deal or eating the work.
Our storyA 20-year elevator contractor and his wife, who runs the books at night after a full-time job and her own online boutique, built the trade tool they wished existed.
PricingAfter 20 years pricing jobs by gut, the repeatable, teachable method that finally showed me whether I was actually making money.
Job costingA bid is a prediction. Here's how to check it against reality, and catch a job bleeding money while there's still time to fix it.
Winning workYou don't always lose the job on price. Here's what actually goes in a contractor proposal that wins: clarity, trust, real options, and getting it in first.
Running the officeMost contractors quit new software within a month. Why the right tool runs on the documents you already use.
Running the officeFive questions to ask any vendor before you sign up, from a contractor who asked them too late.