Setting a minimum job size stops the calendar filling with losses

Aug 27
3 min read

Updated: 4 days ago

Introduction

Every small trade eventually notices the same thing: the busiest weeks are not the most profitable ones.

The usual cause is a schedule full of jobs too small to cover the cost of getting there. Without a stated minimum, the work that arrives is whatever the public happens to ask for, and the smallest jobs are the easiest to say yes to.

1. Setting a minimum job size begins with costing your arrival

Work out what it costs to turn up before any work happens: travel time at your labour rate, vehicle cost, fuel, and the time spent booking and invoicing the job.

Most owners are surprised, because the visible cost is fuel and the real cost is the paid hour surrounding it. That total is your floor. Anything below it means you are paying to attend.

2. Set the minimum above the floor, not at it

The floor covers your cost. The minimum should cover cost plus a margin.

A minimum set exactly at breakeven means every small job is charity with extra steps. Add the margin you would expect on any other hour of work, then round to a number that is easy to say on the phone.

3. Express it in the way that suits your trade

A minimum can be a currency amount, a minimum booking length, or a call-out fee plus work.

For handyman and repair work a minimum half-day or hourly block usually works best, because it naturally invites the customer to fill the time. For diagnostic trades a call-out fee plus itemised work is clearer. Pick one and apply it consistently.

4. State it when the appointment is booked

The minimum must be said out loud, unprompted, before anyone drives anywhere.

Discovered on the invoice it becomes a dispute in a hallway. Stated at booking it becomes a condition the customer accepted. This single change removes almost all of the friction people fear when they consider introducing a minimum.

5. Accept that some callers will decline

This is the mechanism working, not failing.

Owners hesitate because a declined call feels like lost revenue. It is avoided loss. Those jobs were going to consume a slot and return less than they cost, and the caller who declines has just saved you from that without you having to be the one to refuse.

6. Offer the alternative rather than just refusing

A no can still be useful to both sides.

Suggest they save up a few jobs and book a longer visit, or offer a specific date when you will already be in their area and can fit a small job around a larger one. Many small enquiries convert into properly sized ones when the customer is given the route.

7. Use it to sell the bundled visit

The minimum is the natural bridge to the more profitable arrangement.

"The minimum is a half day, and most people use that to work through several things they've been putting off" turns a constraint into an invitation. The customer usually has a list, and the minimum is what surfaces it.

8. Make exceptions deliberately, not under pressure

There are good reasons to waive: an existing account, a job on a street you are already working, a return visit, a job that will obviously lead to larger work.

Decide those cases in advance and write them down. Waiving because a caller pushed hard teaches everyone that pushing works, and staff should not be making that judgement alone on the phone.

9. Review it against your own numbers twice a year

Fuel, wages and travel times all move, and a minimum set two years ago is operating on margins nobody has checked.

Re-cost the arrival, look at the average value of the jobs you actually did, and adjust in one visible step rather than absorbing increases silently. Also check what proportion of callers decline — a very low figure usually means the minimum is set too low to be doing any work.

Conclusion

Cost what it takes simply to arrive, set the minimum above that rather than at it, and choose the form — amount, booking length, or call-out plus work — that suits your trade.

State it at booking every time so it is a condition rather than a surprise, treat declined callers as avoided losses, offer the bundled-visit alternative instead of a flat refusal, use the minimum to surface the customer's list, write down your waiver cases in advance, and re-cost it twice a year while watching what share of callers decline.