Stop 8 of 9 · Later
The second location playbook
What actually carried the first location, read out of the data rather than remembered, turned into a checklist and a ninety-day plan with numbered gates.
Write the playbook from the rows, not the memory
Sam is opening in Santa Clarita. Sam also has a story about how the Valley took off, and the story is about word of mouth and one good review. The first year of exports is still there, and it usually tells a different story about the first hundred booked jobs.
[upload the first location's jobs export and marketing exports for its first twelve months] Answer four things with the rows behind each. One: which job types produced the first hundred booked jobs, in order. Two: where those jobs came from, by channel, month by month. Three: how many months until the booking rate reached the number we hold today. Four: what the callback rate did in the first two quarters while the techs were new. Where the data cannot answer, say so plainly rather than filling it in.
The answers become the plan. If drain and no-heat calls carried month one and installs only arrived in month seven, then Santa Clarita opens on drain and no-heat, with two trucks, and nobody stocks a warehouse of equipment in March.
The checklist
| Set up before the first truck goes north | Why it has to be separate |
|---|---|
| Its own Business Profile, address and hours | The channel table cannot split locations without it |
| Its own tracking number on every ad | Attribution, and Rosa hearing which market called |
| Its own Local Services Ads service area and budget | So a losing market cannot hide inside a winning one |
| A named local lead and the first three job types | Someone owns the day, and the truck is not a catalogue |
| Price book reviewed for the local labor cost | Same margin bands, possibly different numbers |
Using the first year answers above and my current price book, write the Santa Clarita ninety-day plan. Weeks one to four, five to eight, nine to twelve. For each block: which job types we sell, how many trucks, which channels are live and roughly what share of spend, and who owns what. Then set the gates: the booking rate, revenue per truck, callback rate and cost per booked job I should see at day 30, 60 and 90, stated as a range against the first location's baseline at the same age, not against today's numbers. Say which gate you are least confident about.
That last instruction is the one that keeps the plan honest. Comparing a four week old market to a mature one produces a panic in week five and a truck sold in week nine.
The gates
Day 30 is about whether the phone rings and the profile is live. Day 60 is about whether the calls book. Day 90 is about whether the jobs pay. Write the go, hold and stop numbers down before you open, because the number you set in September is a different number from the one you would set in December with a truck sitting idle.
[upload the Santa Clarita jobs export, the Business Profile insights and the ad exports for the first 30 days] Read the first 30 days against the day 30 gates in my plan. Show each gate, the actual, and whether it is go, hold or stop, with the rows. Then tell me the single thing most likely to be wrong with my read given how thin the data is. Recommend hold rather than stop where the sample is too small to call, and say what date it will be large enough.