How to write a one-page marketing plan in one evening

Step 1: Work out your three numbers (20 minutes)

Every decision in the plan depends on three numbers, so find them first.

• Typical job value. Add up the invoices from your last 20 jobs and divide by 20. Ignore the one huge job and the tiny call-out that skew the average.
• Profit per job. Take off materials, fuel, parking and anything else you spend because of that job. What is left is the money that pays you and your overheads.
• Weekly capacity. How many jobs of that size can you really fit in a week, with travel and quoting? Be honest, not heroic.

Write them at the top of the page. For example: "Typical job $620. I keep about $370. I can fit 9 a week."

Step 2: Write down where your last 10 customers came from (15 minutes)

Look at your last ten paying customers and write next to each one how they found you. If you don't know, put a question mark and promise yourself to start asking.

Most solo owners find a pattern straight away. A typical list might read: four from word of mouth, three from Google, two repeat customers, one from a neighbourhood social media group. That pattern tells you where your effort is already paying off and where it isn't.

Circle the top two sources. Your plan will usually protect and strengthen those before adding anything new.

Step 3: Set three goals you can check (20 minutes)

Goals are only useful if, in 12 months, you can say yes or no to each one. Write three.

Good goals for a solo owner usually fall into one of these types:

Notice that only one of those types is about getting more. For many solo owners, better work and less waste make more money than volume, because the calendar is already near its limit.

Step 4: Choose two or three activities (20 minutes)

Now pick the few things you will do to reach those goals. Choose two or three, never six.

For most one-person trades and home-service businesses, the shortlist looks like this:

1. A complete Google Business Profile, kept current. Often the single biggest source of new local enquiries.
2. One clear web page per service you want more of, with a price range and your number at the top.
3. Asking every finished customer for a review, in person, on the day.
4. Following up on every open quote, two or three times over two weeks.
5. Staying in touch with past customers, such as a yearly reminder for a seasonal job, sent only to people who have agreed to hear from you.

Match the activities to your goals. If your goal is better work, a page about the bigger jobs you want matters more than a review drive. If your goal is filling quiet days, the profile and reviews probably come first. If a term on this list is unfamiliar, our plain-English glossary explains it.

Step 5: Turn activities into a weekly routine (15 minutes)

A plan without a schedule is a wish. Give each activity a day and a time limit, and keep the total to about two hours a week.

A realistic routine might look like this:

• Monday, 20 minutes: check last week's enquiries and write down where each came from.
• Wednesday, 30 minutes: follow up on open quotes; reply to any new reviews.
• Friday, 20 minutes: add two photos from this week's jobs to your Google profile.
• Every job, 1 minute: ask the customer for a review before you leave.
• First Monday of the month, 30 minutes: update the three numbers and compare them with your goals.

Put these in your phone calendar as repeating events. The routine is what actually produces results; the plan only decides what goes in it.

Step 6: Set a budget with a break-even line (15 minutes)

Decide how much money, if any, you will spend each month, and then work out how many extra jobs that spend must produce to pay for itself.

The sum is simple: monthly spend ÷ profit per job = jobs needed to break even. With the earlier example, $300 a month on marketing ÷ $370 profit per job means one extra job a month covers it. If you win about half your quotes, that is roughly two extra enquiries a month.

Then check it against capacity. If you are already near your weekly limit, spend less and focus on better work instead. Our budget guide for one-person businesses has more worked examples.

Step 7: Write your stop-doing list (15 minutes)

This is the step most owners skip, and often the one that saves the most money.

Go through everything you currently spend money or time on for marketing: directory listings, paid apps, platforms you post on, printed flyers, sponsorships. For each one, ask: "Did this bring me a paying customer in the last six months?" If the answer is no, or "I don't know", put it on the stop list or give it a three-month trial with a way to measure it.

Common entries on a solo owner's stop list:

• A paid directory listing that has never produced a call you can trace.
• Posting daily on a platform none of your customers mention.
• Quoting jobs you don't want, far away, out of politeness.
• Discounting for customers who were going to hire you anyway.

What the finished page looks like

When you're done, your page should have six short blocks, in this order:

1. Three numbers: job value, profit per job, weekly capacity.
2. Where customers come from now (top two sources circled).
3. Three checkable goals.
4. Two or three activities.
5. A weekly routine with days and times.
6. A monthly budget, the break-even line, and the stop-doing list.

Take a photo of it and keep it on your phone. Look at it on the first Monday of every month.

Common mistakes when writing your own plan

• Planning for the business you wish you had, not the one with one person and one vehicle.
• Leaving out capacity, then marketing for jobs you can't fit in.
• Choosing activities because they are fashionable rather than because your customers use them.
• No measurement. If you don't write down where enquiries come from, you can't improve anything.
• Never revisiting it. A plan written in January and forgotten by March is just a nice piece of paper.

If you want a second pair of eyes on your numbers, our one-page marketing plan service does exactly this with you. Or keep reading the other guides, and get in touch whenever a question comes up.