Your five-star reviews from last summer are not selling you today. Most customers will not even look at them — and the customer who finds only old praise does not think “great business.” She thinks “are they still in business?”

Your phone rings. You're on a job, under a sink, on a ladder, or sitting with another customer. It rings out. No message gets left. And that caller does not wait around hoping you'll call back — they simply call the next business on the list.

Every owner I meet is spending money somewhere. Some of it's working. Most of it isn't — and nobody ever told them which is which. So here it is, free: the honest rundown of what actually brings customers, and what just burns money. Take it and use it whether we ever speak or not.

Every business owner I talk to asks me the same question: how do I get more customers? They expect a complicated answer. It isn't complicated. It's work — but it's simple work. Here's the advice I give every one of them, free.