What it costs
Four places the money actually is
Work it out yourself
What is this week costing you
Six numbers, all of them yours. We do not supply a single figure here, we only do the arithmetic, and it tells you plainly which parts of it you do not get back.
The ones that go unanswered while both hands are full.
Be hard on this one. Most owners say about one in three.
Before costs. Whatever the usual invoice looks like.
Everything that goes out with a price on it.
Not a no. Just nothing, and then it is three weeks later.
Work you have already done and not been paid for.
Calls that never became a conversation
$46,800
Quotes that went quiet
$27,000
Work already done, not yet paid
$4,000
On the table, a year
$77,800
Not all of that is recoverable, and we are not going to pretend it is. Some of those callers were never going to book and some of those quotes were always going to be a no. The number worth looking at is the size of the pile, not the last digit of it.
Take these to a callThey come with you. You will not have to type them again.
Work you never went back for
The cheapest job you will ever win is one you already won once
Every business has a list of people who paid it once and were never asked again. They know you, they already said yes, and nobody else is bidding for them. Most businesses never send that list a single message.
- Customers who are due again, asked before they go looking for somebody else
- Work that repeats, on a schedule instead of on one person's memory
- A review asked for at the moment the customer is happiest, not a week later
- A list you own outright, not one you rent from a platform
Due back
412 customers, 14 due this month, none forgotten
Due this month
14
9 asked, 4 booked
Came back
$38,050
Already said yes once
Reviews asked
22
18 left, 4.9
Money you have already earned
The most expensive money is the money you already did the work for
Quotes that went quiet. Invoices sitting past sixty days. Jobs finished on a Friday and never billed. None of that is a marketing problem, and no amount of new leads fixes it.
- Quotes chased on a schedule until there is an answer either way
- Invoices reminded on the day they age, not the day somebody notices
- Finished work that cannot go unbilled, because the system will not let it
- Deposits taken at the moment somebody says yes, not two weeks later
Owed to you
$38,200 across 6 invoices. 1 needs you.
Paid this month
$19,650
Average day paid
9
Reminded by the system
34
The hour you paid for twice
If somebody retypes it, you are paying for that hour twice
The job gets written on a quote, then again on a job sheet, then again on an invoice, then again for whoever does the books. Four people, one set of facts, and not one of those keystrokes earned the business a dollar.
- Entered once, where the work actually happens
- The quote becomes the job, and the job becomes the invoice
- What the accountant needs, without a week of spreadsheet archaeology first
- Nobody chasing a person for something a screen already knows
Bay 4 buildout
Hansen Properties. One job, typed once, on every screen after it.
Quote 4471
Typed once, at the job
- Customer
- Hansen Properties
- Job
- Bay 4 buildout
- Price
- $2,800
Job sheet
Already there
- Customer
- Hansen Properties
- Job
- Bay 4 buildout
- Crew
- Thu 8:00, Team A
Invoice 3190
Already there
- Customer
- Hansen Properties
- Job
- Bay 4 buildout
- Due
- $2,800
The books
Already there
- Customer
- Hansen Properties
- Job
- Bay 4 buildout
- Posted
- $2,800
Decisions made on a guess
You are not short of information, you are short of four lines
Most owners could find out anything if they had an afternoon. They do not have an afternoon. What they need is the handful of things that are actually wrong this morning, separated from the several hundred that are fine.
- The short list of things that need a decision today, and nothing else on it
- What is booked, what is out, what is owed, what is finished
- Alerts worth interrupting you for, and silence for everything else
- Numbers you can hand to an accountant or a bank without two weeks of work
This morning
412 things checked at 6:00. 408 fine. 4 need you.
Worth saying plainly
Plenty of businesses do not have a lead problem
They are busy. The phone rings plenty. What costs them is everything that happens after the yes: the same job typed in four places, work that finishes and quietly never gets billed, a Thursday nobody looked at until Wednesday night, and a question about last month that takes two days to answer.
That is a different build from a website, and it is the bigger one. It is also the one that pays for itself fastest, because none of it depends on finding a single new customer.
On the number
What people ask about the money
- How much does a website or system cost?
- You hear a rough number on the twenty minute call and a firm one in writing after, before anything is built. What moves it is how many of the four leaks you want stopped and how much has to connect to what you already run.
- Do I need a lead problem for this to be worth it?
- No. Three of the four places above have nothing to do with new customers. A business with a full calendar still has them, and they are the ones that pay back fastest.
- How do I find out what this is costing my business?
- Use the calculator on this page. It only does the arithmetic on your own numbers, and it says plainly which parts of it you do not get back.
Which of the four is costing you the most?
Usually an owner knows within about ten seconds. Pick a time and tell us which one, and we will tell you what we would build and what it would take.
Who you are talking to
Braxton Bogenschutz
Clearline is founder led. The person who scopes the work builds it, runs it, and answers the phone. Clovis and Fresno, California.
559-918-9067