How many hours your marketing really takes, and what they cost you

Why the hours matter more than the price

The real cost of doing your own marketing is not money; it is the hours and the gaps. When an owner runs marketing in spare time, it happens in bursts: a flurry of posts in a slow month, then nothing for a season. Search platforms and customers both reward consistency, so the bursts work less well than the same hours spread evenly.

There is a second cost. Hours spent on marketing are hours not spent quoting, supervising, or resting. For an owner who is also the lead hand, an evening at the laptop often means a slower, more tired morning on site.

So the honest question is not "can I afford to outsource?" but "what are my hours worth, and how consistently will I really do this?"

The task list, with typical times

Here is what steady marketing for a small trade actually involves, with typical weekly times for an owner doing it alone. Your numbers may differ; adjust them.

Add the ranges and you get roughly 5 to 8 hours a week, or 20 to 35 hours a month. Most owners who try the exercise are surprised, because the tasks are spread out and none feels large on its own.

The tasks owners skip first

When time runs short, three tasks usually disappear: quote follow-up, tracking, and website updates. Unfortunately, those are often the ones with the biggest effect on revenue. A quote never followed up is a job handed to a competitor. A month without tracking means guessing where money goes.

Putting a price on your hour

Value your hour by what it earns the business, not by your wage. Here is a simple way to do it.

1. Billable rate: what your business charges for an hour of your work. Say $95.
2. Margin on that hour: after materials, overheads and tax, perhaps 45%, or about $43.
3. Supervision value: if your hour on site keeps two crew members productive, the business earns their margin too. Say another $40.
4. Total: roughly $80–$85 of margin per owner hour.

Now multiply by the marketing hours. At 25 hours a month and $83 an hour, the owner is spending around $2,075 a month of their own earning power on marketing. That is before counting the evenings and weekends.

Compare that with the cost of handing it off. Our plans, set out on the pricing page, start at $1,999 a month on month-to-month terms, or $1,499 a month billed annually, plus GST. In this example, the plan costs about the same as the owner's hours, and the work happens every week rather than in bursts.

If your margin per hour is much lower, or your marketing hours are fewer, the sum may not favour outsourcing. That is a perfectly good answer.

Which tasks to keep, and which to hand off

You do not have to choose all or nothing. Sort each task by two questions: does it need my judgement, and do I do it consistently?

Usually worth keeping

• Answering calls and texts. Customers want you or your office, not an agency.
• Prices, offers and promises to customers. Only you can commit the business.
• Approving anything new that speaks for your business.
• Replying to a difficult review, or at least approving the reply.

Usually worth handing off

• profile posts and photo sorting
• routine review requests and reminders
• quote follow-up templates and schedules
• website updates and project pages
• ad checks and weekly trimming
• tracking and the monthly summary

The second list is where most of the hours are. It is also what our services cover: job proof publishing, lead tracking and quote follow-up and profile and ads upkeep, or all of it through the marketing desk.

A self-test in five questions

Answer yes or no honestly.

1. Did you post to your Google profile at least twice last month?
2. Did every customer from last month get a review request?
3. Did every quote from last month get at least one follow-up?
4. Do you know which source brought your last ten jobs?
5. Has your website changed in the last three months?

Four or five yeses: you are doing it. Outsourcing would mainly buy back your time.

Two or three: marketing is happening, but unevenly. Consider handing off the tasks you skip.

Zero or one: marketing is not really happening. Either commit a fixed weekly slot, or hand it off.

Worked example: an electrician working mostly in towers

Picture a sole-proprietor electrician with one apprentice, doing mostly in-suite work around Burquitlam and Lougheed. Average job: $550. The owner bills $110 an hour and estimates margin of about $50 per owner hour, plus $30 for keeping the apprentice productive.

The owner times one month of marketing honestly: 22 hours, mostly late evenings. At $80 an hour, that is $1,760 of earning power. The self-test scores two out of five: no quote follow-up and no tracking.

There are two sensible options. One: keep doing it, but block a fixed two-hour slot every Monday and Thursday, and use a template for quote follow-ups. Two: hand off the tasks that keep getting skipped and keep only review replies and prices.

Neither is wrong. The point is to choose on purpose, with numbers, rather than letting marketing happen when there is time, which in a busy tower market is almost never.

Common mistakes when counting marketing time

• Counting only the obvious tasks. Photo sorting and follow-ups are where hidden hours sit.
• Valuing your hour at your wage. Your hour on site earns more than your wage.
• Ignoring consistency. Ten hours in one week and none for a month is worth less than two hours every week.
• Outsourcing judgement. Keep prices, offers and customer conversations.

If you decide to hand off some or all of the work, our handover checklist shows how to do it safely, and the contact page explains how to reach us. We are a marketing service, not a contractor; we take the marketing hours, never the trade work.