Vent: my old boss told me to stop offering free estimates and I should have listened sooner

I spent 6 months offering free estimates for every call, wasted maybe 20 hours a month driving to look at subfloors for folks who ghosted after the quote. Finally started charging $50 for estimates that goes toward the job if they hire me, and my close rate jumped from 1 in 10 to 1 in 3. Anyone else find that adding a small fee actually filtered out the time wasters?

2 comments

2 Comments

sarahh481mo ago

My buddy runs a painting company and told me the same thing happened to him. He was giving out free quotes left and right and getting ghosted like crazy. Then he started charging a small fee and said it was like magic how the serious people actually showed up. I read somewhere that it's called a "commitment fee" in some business books, basically filters out people who aren't serious. You're not just wasting gas time you're also wasting mental energy on folks who never intended to pay anyway. Charging something small shows you value your time and they value yours too. It's funny how much more respectful people get when there's a few bucks on the line.

stone.jesse1mo ago

Used to think free quotes were just part of doing business... but after reading this I'm starting to see it's really just paying for people's time to waste yours.