It's time to remind us all of the "80/20 rule" In this case, 80% of your work will come from 20% of your customers.
This means it is critical to identify the customers before you do anything else. You can't hit a target you can't see. That handful of regular, repeat customers will make or break a business. Period.
The second thing you need to do is make sure the customers know what sets you apart from everyone else. You should never let anyone consider you a 'commodity', interchangeable with a host of other contractors.
This is what a "business plan" is all about. Just for the sake of discussion, let me invent one:
A town has lots of old homes, the type with fuse boxes. To make thing worse, the ground tends to be very rocky, and it is a real chore to drive a ground rod.
Along comes "Drivin' Dan." He's a clever sort, and has cobbled together a rig that lets him drive a rod anywhere, in less than an hour.
Dan lables his truck "Drivin' Dan, the Ground Rod Man." Besides doing service changes himself, he subs out to other contractors, agreeing to drive rods for them for, say, $200. He's got a ready made base of both customers, and referrals.
Now, time goes by, the town grows, and Dan sees that sooner or later, every house will have one of his ground rods. So, he looks around for another "niche" to fill. Maybe his rig can be modified to hang transformers....
