Tripling leads in ninety days and planning the cash to serve them

The situation

A service company covering a wide area of British Columbia wanted a rapid increase in enquiries rather than a slow build. Fast growth stresses every part of a trades business at once, from the phones to the schedule to the supplier account, and the money for all of it goes out ahead of the invoices. The challenge was to deliver the growth quickly and to make sure the owner had a clear picture of what the next ninety days would cost and return.

What was done

• Concentrated spend on the channels that could produce enquiries fastest
• Set a ninety-day target and reported against it weekly
• Tracked cost per lead and cost per booked job as the volume climbed
• Flagged the point where lead flow would exceed scheduling capacity
• Reviewed the result as a return on the cash committed, not only as a lead count

What it means for value

A ninety-day growth push is a short-term cash flow forecast with a marketing plan attached. The spend is front-loaded, the revenue is back-loaded and the gap has to be funded from reserves or a facility arranged in advance. The finance lesson is to model that gap before the campaign starts, set the pricing so each new job covers its acquisition cost with margin to spare, and check the actual return against the plan every week. We run those forecasts for trades companies alongside your CPA.

Figures as published at https://hvac.agency/case-studies.