How much should a one-person business spend on marketing?

The four numbers you need

You can set a sensible budget with four numbers, all of which you can find in your own records.

1. Profit per job (P). The typical job value minus materials, fuel and other direct costs.
2. Close rate (C). Out of every 10 quotes or enquiries, how many become paid jobs? Write it as a decimal: 4 in 10 is 0.4.
3. Spare capacity (S). How many more jobs a month you could take on without working weekends or letting quality slip.
4. Cost per enquiry (E). What a typical enquiry costs you from a paid channel. If you don't know yet, use a guess and correct it later.

From those, two simple sums tell you almost everything.

• Marketing cost per won job = E ÷ C. If an enquiry costs $40 and you win 4 in 10, each job costs $100 in marketing.
• Most you can usefully spend in a month = S × (E ÷ C). Spending beyond this produces enquiries you can't serve.

Then compare the marketing cost per job with P. If it is under about a quarter of your profit per job, most owners are comfortable. Over half, and something needs fixing first.

Worked example 1: a solo house cleaner

Short, repeatable jobs with a modest profit each, where repeat customers matter more than anything.

• Typical visit: $180. Direct costs (supplies, travel): $30. P = $150.
• Close rate on enquiries: about 6 in 10. C = 0.6.
• Spare capacity: 6 more visits a month. S = 6.
• Cost per enquiry from paid search in a mid-sized city: say $25. E = $25.

Marketing cost per won visit: $25 ÷ 0.6 ≈ $42. That is about 28% of the profit on one visit, which looks borderline. But a cleaning customer who books every two weeks may be worth 20 or more visits a year. Spread over a year, the cost of winning that customer is tiny.

Lesson: for repeat-visit businesses, judge marketing on the value of a customer, not a single job. Most monthly spend should go on keeping existing customers happy and asking them for referrals and reviews. The ceiling on paid spend is low: about $252 a month ($42 × 6 spare visits). Anything above that buys enquiries you have no time to serve.

Worked example 2: a solo handyperson

Mid-sized jobs, lots of variety, and a calendar that fills in some months and empties in others.

• Typical job: $420. Direct costs: $90. P = $330.
• Close rate: about 5 in 10. C = 0.5.
• Spare capacity: 8 more jobs a month in the quiet season, 2 in the busy one. S = 8 or 2.
• Cost per enquiry: say $35. E = $35.

Marketing cost per won job: $35 ÷ 0.5 = $70, about 21% of profit per job. Comfortable.

Most useful spend: in quiet months, 8 × $70 = $560. In busy months, 2 × $70 = $140. A flat $500 every month would waste money in summer and run short in the quiet weeks.

Lesson: match spend to spare capacity, month by month. Many handypeople do better by raising prices in the busy months and spending more on marketing just before the quiet ones.

Worked example 3: a small renovator working alone

Large, infrequent jobs with a long decision time, where one won job can carry a whole month.

• Typical project: $9,000. Direct costs (materials, subtrades, disposal): $5,400. P = $3,600.
• Close rate on quotes: about 2 in 10. C = 0.2.
• Spare capacity: 1 extra project a month. S = 1.
• Cost per enquiry: say $90. E = $90.

Marketing cost per won project: $90 ÷ 0.2 = $450, about 13% of profit per project. Easy to justify.

Most useful spend: 1 × $450 = $450 a month. Here the money is rarely the problem. The problem is the close rate: winning 2 in 10 quotes means eight unpaid site visits for every job. Lifting it to 3 in 10, with faster follow-up and clearer quotes, cuts the cost per project to $300 and frees up days.

Lesson: for big-ticket solo work, improving the close rate is usually worth more than buying more enquiries. Our review and follow-up routine exists for exactly this.

Side by side

All figures are illustrations. Replace them with your own numbers; the method is what matters.

Where to spend first

When the budget is small, order matters more than amount. For most solo owners, this order works:

1. Free, time-only work. Review requests, quote follow-up, a complete Google profile.
2. A small website with one page per main service, if you don't have one. A one-off cost that keeps working.
3. Paid enquiries, such as search ads, only once the first two are in place, and only up to your capacity line.
4. Everything else: sponsorships, printed material, extra platforms. Only with a way to measure them.

What about paying an agency?

The same sum applies to agency fees. Add the monthly fee, including GST/HST, to your spend, then divide by profit per job to see how many extra jobs it has to produce.

As a reference, our own plans start at $1,499 per month on annual billing ($1,999 month to month), plus GST/HST by province, as shown on our pricing page. For the renovator above, that is under one extra project a month. For the cleaner, it would take about 11 extra visits a month just to cover the fee, which is more than the spare capacity. That is why we tell many solo owners to start with the free material, such as the one-page plan guide, and revisit paid help later.

Common budgeting mistakes

• Using a percentage from a big-company article instead of your own profit per job.
• Spending the same every month regardless of how full your calendar is.
• Buying more enquiries to fix a close-rate problem.
• Not counting your own time. Two hours a week is about 100 hours a year. It has a value.
• Never cutting anything. A budget that only grows is not a budget.

If you would like help running these numbers for your business, contact us by call, text or email. An eligible trades business pays nothing for that first half-hour. For more reading, see the other guides.