Short, specific writing about the business side of a trade — getting leads, answering them fast, pricing without guessing, hiring in March, and staying on the right side of the texting rules. No growth hacks. No listicles.
We build software for home-service contractors. Each article here answers one practical question about the business side of a trade. Every article published since 20 October 2026 is written from named public sources (government agencies, the laws and codes themselves, published studies, cost guides and companies’ own price pages), listed at its foot, and its facts are checked against those sources. Every number we cite either names where it comes from (the publisher, the year and a link) or says plainly that it is our own example or assumption. Competitor prices also say the month we checked them (“checked October 2026”), link to the competitor’s own price page, and are re-checked every three months; a price we cannot re-check comes off. Nothing here requires you to buy anything.
Website accessibility lawsuits are real, and the law behind them is less settled than the demand letters suggest. What the Justice Department says, where courts split, WCAG 2.2 as the yardstick, the fixes that matter on a small site, and why an overlay widget is not the fix.
Busy all the time and still short of money? Track hours, materials and subs against the price on every job, work out gross profit per crew hour by job type, and you find out which work pays for the business and which quietly eats it.
A refrigerator, a TV, a mattress and a stack of tires each come with their own rules: federal refrigerant recovery, state landfill bans on electronics, state mattress programs and tire hauler registration. What each requires, and the household hazardous waste to refuse.
An OSHA compliance officer just pulled up. What the rules say about credentials, warrants, the opening conference, the walkaround and employee interviews, then the 15 working days after a citation and the penalty reductions small employers can earn.
A driveway or patio price is built from quantities you can measure before the pour: yards from area and thickness, the base, the tear-out, the finish, and the delivery extras that eat small jobs. The math, the published specs behind it, and a worked example.
A truckload price works when it is built from three costs: the crew's time, the truck, and the landfill's fee by the ton. Measure your box in cubic yards, weigh a load with EPA's conversion factors, add item and stairs surcharges, then check it against a published range.
Two trees of the same height can be a morning's work or two days of rigging. The factors that set a removal price, how to build the number from your own crew and equipment costs, stump grinding as its own line, and why the homeowner should hear a range first.
Answering is half of it. A one-minute structure for a new customer's call: who you are, who they are and how to reach them, what and where, how soon, then a price range or the next step and a booked time, plus the questions that save a wasted trip.
How the money reaches you depends on your business structure; how much should depend on your hours, not your bank balance. Price your own labor into jobs as a wage, keep profit as its own line, and see why the Schedule C number is not your profit.
Your web person stopped answering, or you want to leave an agency. How to find out who holds your domain, the ICANN transfer rules that protect you, getting your files and logins out, and the contract lines that stop it happening again.
Five lines answer what a tradesperson needs to know before applying: pay, hours, where, when it starts and how to apply. How to set the pay line from the government's wage data for your own area, the words to leave out, a sample ad, and the places to post it for free.
You may check a new hire's background before sending them into customers' homes, but the order matters: when your state lets you ask, the stand-alone disclosure and consent, the two notices before and after a no, and how to weigh a record fairly.
Six subjects, because those are the six places we watch contractors lose money.
Why traffic is not leads, and what has to be on the page before a homeowner will hand over a phone number.
The five-minute rule, missed calls, voicemail, and when a text beats a callback.
Getting the formula out of your head and onto paper so somebody — or something — else can run it.
Finding crew who are already employed, screening without resumes, and cutting interview no-shows.
TCPA and A2P 10DLC without the legalese, so you can text customers back without worrying.
Seasonality, margin by job type, and the winter decisions that decide how March goes.
If something on the business side of your trade is costing you money and nobody has written it down clearly, send it over. We would rather write the post you actually need than guess at a topic. No email capture required — just ask.
Or email support@tailgateoffice.com.
Step two takes about thirty minutes: instant quotes on your site, and every missed call logged and answered from one inbox. Free for 30 days, no card.
