Featured
How Do I Rank Higher on Google Maps?
Rank higher on Google Maps by fixing Profile eligibility and categories, strengthening website relevance, earning reviews and local authority, and measuring visibility by location.
Read guideShiftFlow
The Growth Playbook for Trades & Local Service Businesses
Practical, free guides for growing a local service business.
Start here
Featured guide
Explore the Playbook
Browse by topic
Local service businesses usually lose work in one of three places: nearby customers never find them, they find them but do not trust them yet, or the price loses the job. Start with the one costing you jobs.
Google Business Profile Set up the right profile, keep it accurate, and fix the problems that stop customers finding it. Pricing & Estimating Build profitable prices, write clear estimates, and hold the number when the job changes. Sales & Commercial Work Target suitable commercial accounts, qualify the opportunity, and move approved work into a clear operating handoff. Google Reviews Get more honest reviews, respond well, and stay on the right side of platform rules. Local SEO & Google Maps Strengthen the local signals that help nearby customers discover and trust your business. AI Search Help AI assistants understand, verify, and recommend your local business accurately. Contractor Websites Plan the right pages, write clearer copy, and turn website visits into qualified enquiries. All guides Every Playbook guide across all topics, newest first.
Recently published
Latest guides
Free resources
Tools & templates
See all free toolsFree calculators and templates for the pricing and estimating decisions these guides walk through.
Common questions
What is the Playbook?
Guides for the parts of a trades business that decide whether the phone rings and whether the work makes money: pricing and estimating, getting found on Google, earning reviews, and showing up when a customer asks an AI assistant for a recommendation. Every guide answers one question an owner has actually asked.
Is this written for my trade?
It is written for owner-operators: plumbing, electrical, HVAC, roofing, painting, landscaping, cleaning, pest control, and handyman work. Google does not treat a roofer differently from a plumber, so most of it applies whatever you do. Where the categories or the numbers change, there is a guide for your trade specifically.
Do I have to pay or sign up for anything?
No. The guides, the calculators, and the estimate templates are free, and nothing sits behind an email form. They are written to be done yourself, and they do not stop at the part where it gets useful.
I don’t have much time. Where should I start?
With whatever is costing you jobs. If customers cannot find you, your Google Business Profile is the highest-return hour you will spend. If they find you and the phone still does not ring, it is usually reviews. If you are busy and still short at the end of the month, the problem is pricing, not marketing.
Google Business Profile guides →Review guides →Pricing guides →
What does ShiftFlow do?
We build websites for trades businesses and run the online presence side of the work: setting up and cleaning up the Google Business Profile, fixing wrong listings across directories, getting review requests going, and working on Google Maps and AI search visibility. It is the same work these guides describe, done for you.
Rather have us handle it?
Use the Playbook to build the plan, or bring in ShiftFlow when you want your website, Google presence, and review process set up for you.
Get a free audit