Monthly local-market briefs
Know what's changing in your local market, and what to do about it this month.
A couple of pages each month on what changed in your market, and 3–5 things worth doing about it, each under an hour. I read and edit every brief myself before it goes out.
For owner-run trades and contractors in Camas · Washougal · Vancouver · Battle Ground (Clark County, WA)
Why
The things that cost you work are usually public, and easy to miss
- Lapsed registration. A lapsed bond or insurance policy gets your contractor registration suspended. The brief shows your renewal dates months ahead.
- Demand spikes. A hard freeze or a new utility rebate means a week of extra calls for whoever reaches customers first.
- New competitors. A new competitor licensed in your area shows up in the brief the month they register.
- Lost calls. A wrong phone number or old hours on Google, Apple Maps or Bing loses calls without you noticing.
All of it is public, but it's spread across Washington Labor & Industries (L&I) records, county permit data, several bid boards and utility rebate pages. Nobody running a crew has time to check them every month.
A single Google Local Services lead for a plumber or HVAC company often costs $50–60, and not every lead books. If one action brings in one extra job a month, the brief has paid for itself.
What you get
About two pages a month, after a full first report. Every fact has a source.
Sent by email as a PDF, with nothing to log into. Each fact is footnoted to its source, such as L&I records or Clark County permit data, with the date it was checked. What's in it depends on your trade, but usually (tap a section for more):
Demand
Permit trends, weather warnings and public bids.
Permit and new-home trends, freeze, heat and storm warnings, and public bids if you want them. In Camas, Washougal and Battle Ground, permit counts are electrical permits from L&I; the cities' other permit records aren't publicly downloadable.
Rebates live this month
What your customers can claim right now.
What your customers can claim right now, rechecked against Clark Public Utilities and state program pages the week the brief goes out.
Competitors
New licenses and posted offers in your trade.
New licenses in your trade and area, and competitors' posted offers, financing and pricing, checked each month.
Your presence
Listing and website mismatches that lose calls.
Mismatches between your Google, Apple Maps and Bing listings and your website, broken website links, and gaps compared with competitors.
Your watch-list
License, bond and insurance renewal dates.
License, bond and insurance renewal dates, so nothing lapses by surprise. For builders and remodelers: help setting up L&I's free tracking on your subcontractors, and a dated status table of your subs in each brief.
Actions, for example
Specific steps, each under an hour.
“Hard freeze forecast for Tuesday night: send last winter’s frozen-pipe customers the text below.” Or: “Your Bing listing still shows your old hours. Here’s the corrected entry.” Never “improve your SEO.”
See an example brief (PDF)A sample plumbing brief built on real Clark County numbers.
Plans
No contract. Cancel anytime.
Free Snapshot
Free for the first 10 businesses, one each: a one-page Snapshot of your business, delivered to your inbox as a PDF about 5 business days after a short intake chat. Three headline findings from your records, local demand and your listings or website, and one action prepared and ready to use. Includes an optional 15-minute phone or Zoom walkthrough. No obligation. After your Snapshot, continue with the Monthly Brief at $149 a month; your first paid month brings the full first report. Once the 10 free Snapshots are taken, new businesses start on the Monthly Brief.
Monthly Brief
Month one is your full first report: 4–6 pages on your license, bond and insurance records, what to fix on your website and listings, local demand with charts, what competitors are advertising, and a 90-day plan. After that, your brief arrives by the 15th of every month, by email: about two pages on what changed in your market and 3–5 actions worth doing, each under an hour, with every fact footnoted to its source. It tracks local permits and new homes, rebates your customers can claim, competitors' new licenses and posted offers, mismatches in your Google, Apple Maps and Bing listings, and your own license, bond and insurance renewal dates. Between briefs, a short alert only when something needs action: a hard freeze, a new rebate, a public bid, a new competitor licensed in your area. Plus an optional 30-minute monthly call by phone or Zoom, and a one-page scorecard every quarter.
Brief + Done For You
Everything in the Monthly Brief, plus up to 3 hours of work each month on the actions you choose from your brief. Unused hours don't carry over. Reply to your brief by the 25th with the actions you want done, and you'll have each one within 5 business days. Revisions count toward your 3 hours, and I'll tell you before starting anything that would go over. I take each one right up to the last click: listing fixes for Google, Apple Maps and Bing written field by field, website page text and customer emails ready to paste, a review-request message with your review link ready to send, and seasonal campaign drafts such as a pre-freeze reminder or a rebate offer. For example: a new rebate section for your water-heater page, written and ready to publish. You stay in control: I never need your logins; you (or your web designer, if you have one) publish everything, usually in a few minutes. Your full first report can be delivered in person, with a 15-minute review together to shape the next one.
Prices don't include Washington sales tax where it applies.
How it works
One chat to start, then a brief every month
- Intake chatYour services, your area, the competitors you watch, the work you want more of.
- Free Snapshot or full first report in about 5 business daysThe free one-page Snapshot arrives by email with one action ready to use, plus an optional 15-minute phone or Zoom walkthrough. Paid plans start with the full first report; on Brief + Done For You, it can be delivered in person.
- Monthly briefFrom the next month on, by the 15th of each month, by email: a PDF and a short summary.
- Optional 30-minute monthly callPhone or Zoom, skip it any month. What's worth doing, what you did, what to watch next. Your feedback shapes next month's brief.
- Quarterly scorecardOne page on the actions taken and what came of them.
Promises
What I promise
- No logins or system access. You never share a password or add me to your accounts. I prepare everything; you publish it.
- Not useful? Don't pay. If the first paid month doesn't give you at least one action worth doing, it's free.
- One business per trade in your ZIP codes. While you're a monthly client, I don't take on another business in your trade located in the ZIP codes your brief covers.
- The same person every month. I answer your calls and texts myself and reply within one business day, or tell you ahead of time when I'm away.
Limits
What this isn't
- Not a list of homeowners to cold-call, and not paid ads.
- No rank-tracking charts. The brief sticks to things you can act on, and I mention your reviews only when there's something to do about them.
- Not legal, tax or financial advice.
- Public information, plus whatever you choose to share. Your own numbers on the monthly call make the brief sharper.
Who's behind it
Michael Turner
My own software checks license, bond and insurance records, permit data, weather alerts, and rebate and bid pages every week, and flags what changed. AI helps draft the brief; I read and edit every one and spot-check its sources. The first 10 businesses get a free Snapshot.