Tools · free calculator
What is one customer actually worth?
It is the number that decides whether any ad spend makes sense, and almost nobody has it worked out. Without it, paying $100 to get a customer looks expensive or cheap depending on the day.
What a customer leaves you
Referrals are the part everyone forgets and the part that moves the number most. If you are not sure, put zero and keep the low figure.
The first job is rarely the business
When someone looks at what it costs to get a customer, they compare it against what that customer pays the first time. That is where every bad advertising decision comes from.
If the customer comes back, or brings others, the thing to compare against is the total, and the total is usually several times the first job.
What to do with the number
The rule of thumb in service businesses is not to spend more than a third of the total value acquiring the customer. On a $1,500 customer that is up to $500 and it still clears.
With that number in hand you can decide whether an ad, a website or buying leads makes sense, instead of deciding by what sounds expensive.
Referrals are the part you get for free
A customer who brings another doubles their value without you spending another dollar. And what makes them refer is remembering you when somebody asks, which rarely has anything to do with a discount.
That is why asking for the review at the end of the job pays so well, and it goes well past Google: the customer puts in writing that they were happy, and people defend what they already said out loud.
If after running the numbers you want the page built, it is a five minute phone call.