How Writing Things Down Increased My Revenue as a Glazier

As a tradie, leads slip through your fingers more than you realise. You’re on the tools, your phone rings, you have a quick chat, and then you’re back to work. Next thing you know it’s 4pm and you’re scratching your head thinking — what am I doing tomorrow? Little do you know you’ve got five jobs sitting right there on your phone that you never got back to. That has happened to me countless times.

Over time I figured out three things that genuinely increased my revenue. Not theory — actual things that worked.

First — be energetic on the phone. Customers can feel your attitude through the phone. If you sound flat or distracted, they’ll call the next glazier on the list. Pick up with energy, sound like you want the job, because honestly — you do.

Second — get back to people quickly. Speed wins. Most tradies are slow to respond and customers just want someone to show up. Be that person. Call back fast and you’ll win jobs before your competitors even return the message.

But the third thing — and honestly the most important — is writing it down straight away.

The first two things get you the lead. But if you don’t write it down the second you hang up, it’s gone. You’re moving, you’re busy, your mind is already on the next thing. That customer who called about a broken window? They needed someone today. By the time you remember to call back, they’ve already booked someone else.

I started writing everything down the moment a call ended. Name, number, job, suburb — right then, no delays. And my revenue went up. Simple as that. Not because I suddenly became a better glazier, but because I stopped letting good leads disappear.

This isn’t a complicated system. It’s not an app or a CRM or some business course. It’s just writing things down. But for a tradie running around all day, it’s the difference between a full week and wondering where all the work went.

If you take one thing from this — next time a customer calls, write it down before you do anything else.