Contractor Operating Systems

Your First 90 Days as a Licensed Contractor

The license makes you legal. It does not make you operational. This is the checklist for the gap between "I have a registration number" and "I can run a job from first call to collected payment without improvising."

Days 1 to 15: Make yourself findable and reachable

• Registration number on contracts, estimates, ads, and vehicle.
• One phone number that always gets answered or returned the same day. Speed to first contact is the single biggest controllable factor in whether a lead converts.
• One place every lead gets written down: name, source, phone, address, scope, next action. A spreadsheet beats memory. A CRM beats a spreadsheet, but only if you actually open it.
• Google Business Profile created with your real service area and category.

Days 15 to 45: Build the job pipeline before you need it

• Write down your first-contact questions. Minimum set: name, address, what work, when, decision-maker present, how they found you, and the permit trigger questions (structural changes, new or resized openings, electrical, plumbing, HVAC).
• Never tell a customer "no permit needed" on the phone. Decide permit questions during estimating, in writing, after you have seen the job.
• Create a site visit worksheet so every walkthrough captures the same data: measurements, photos, access issues, unknowns.
• Structure every estimate in phases: protection and demo, rough work, primary install, finish and punch. Phased estimates make change orders explainable instead of adversarial.

Days 45 to 90: Protect the money

• Use a written change order for every scope change, priced before the work happens. Verbal change orders are how five-figure losses start.
• If you use subs: written agreement, proof of their insurance, and a signed lien waiver before final payment. Every time, even friends.
• Define your closeout: punch list walked with the customer, final payment terms in the contract, and a review ask when the customer is happiest, which is the day the job finishes.
• Track one number weekly: leads in, by source. You cannot fix a pipeline you do not measure.