we suck at a lot of things, but have somehow done $4M in organic revenue since Feb ‘22 (zero paid customer acquisition) If I was smarter, I’d figure out paid channels, but had zero startup capital and like pain, so here are some of the “hustle marketing” things we’ve done 👇🏻

First, you HAVE to have good branding. Branding evokes emotion, builds trust, and does selling for you before you arrive to pitch a customer. It doesn’t have to be expensive, keep it simple. My recipe: (Where you are) + (what you do) Eg San Diego Paint x.com/jamesonhaslam/…

After the brand is dialed, here are some hustle marketing tactics that have worked for me: 1. Get to know your suppliers: when I first started, I knew every lumberyard employee by name, and would bring them swag and buy pizza on Fridays (we still do this) They get a ton of foot traffic, you want those leads. It doesn’t happen by accident - you want to be top of mind for the referral

2. Knock doors and flyer the neighborhood AROUND your projects We have a little card with a QR code that says “we are working in your neighborhood” and let’s ppl know they can follow the progress on our Instagram stories … I have the team blanket houses around each project

3. Post on IG/TT/FB. Your goal is not discovery (all are generally bad discovery engines), and we don’t care about followers. We just want to show the world A) we are damn good at what we do B) who the team is (there are real humans here that are fun and cool) IG and short form video are fabulous at AFFINITY marketing (getting to know you) More on how to monetize this next …

4. Here’s the cheat code for IG: follow every adjacent trade, professional, supplier etc in your market and interact w them regularly Not only will they be great friends and helpful on many dimensions, they are highly qualified to judge your skill as a craftsman/service provider - and will refer you to clients By connecting with them, you’re increasing your surface area of connection to potential customers - if my friend the patio door installer is already doing a project for someone, it is very common for the homeowner to ask them if they “know a deck guy” I get those calls I’ve done over $1m just from this “channel”

5. Get tight with bldg material reps from your suppliers. They are typically spending big money on ads etc and want to give that business to good installers. Get to know the area rep 1:1 and buy them food/beer/etc (or make them buy it on the company Amex) They might even take you fishing Have done over $1m via these leads

6. Become a “review whiz” (Google and Yelp). Don’t use software (you can’t afford it), even after you grow the most effective way to get a review is to ask the owner 1:1 to do it (in person or on the phone) and explain how important it is. Tell them you’ll send a text with the links to make it really easy on them I have a saved note on my phone that I copy/paste AFTER they’ve told me they are willing to do it

7. Have cool SWAG and wear it everywhere! Can’t tell you how often people come up to me to talk about a project You need easy to understand branding for this to work (instantly communicates what you do)

8. Join local FB groups and scan for your key words - you’ll see people asking for referrals all the time. DONT respond and say you’ll do the project (too direct) But, 1. Look for opportunities to plug your friends/fellow tradespeople (if it isn’t your project type) 2. if/when you see someone asking for your trade (I need a deck), comment with a funny video or picture (you need to stand out from a million generalists who will be posting their name and contact). I use this video - gets a laugh and also makes it clear that we don’t mess around

Your favorite ThreadBOI is done (there are probably more things but I’ve run out of steam and have been on the toilet for too long) If you have anything to add, please hmu would love to steal your ideas 😈 I will buy you pizza 🙏🏻🤝🏻

@jamesonhaslam was this a search fund move? well done

@matei_olaru Started from zero Too dumb to do a search fund