Chris Paulus
trade
cabinet and interior painting
years
twenty
trucks
two

Small tools for the money side of the job.

I ran a cabinet and interior painting shop for twenty years, two trucks, no office staff. The work was never the hard part. Getting paid was.

So I build the small things that fix it. One job each, one price, no platform to move your shop into. Behind every one of them, the guides that give you the words.

job
amount
kitchen cabinets, sprayedDana R. — 14 days
$1,840
deck stain, quote sentAlvarez — 21 days
$2,300
two closet doors, extraRuiz — never billed
$460
an example — the marked row is the one I chased today. the other two are still sitting there
01the tools

The shelf, so far.

One job each. Tap a name and you land on its own site, with the same face behind it. Nothing is sold on this page.

JobRescue
JobRescue$49 for 90 days

You BCC one address on every quote and invoice. When one goes quiet, it hands you the follow-up, already written.

for one to three trucksguides: getting paid, quotes that go quiet
SwiftBill
SwiftBillfree, or $99 a year

Type the line items, send a clean invoice or quote by email in about a minute. No account to make first.

for anyone still billing from a Word docguides: invoices and quotes
Nearby
Nearby$59 for 6 months, prepaid

A plain page for your shop, with a quote form on it, so the people around you can find you and ask.

for shops with no marketing budgetguides: getting found

Three tools today. More when they are ready.

02the guides

Behind every tool, the words.

A guide answers one question the way I would answer it for a guy who called me on a Tuesday. Then it points at the tool that does that job for you.

getting paidthe day-14 email, deposits, the invoice a neighbor owes
quotes that go quietthe follow-up that actually gets an answer
invoices and quoteswhat to put on it so it gets paid the first time
change ordersbilling the work you did as a favor
getting foundwhat to say on your page when someone searches your trade

The first guides go up soon, one topic at a time.

a guide
One question a contractor would actually type, answered whole. The words, the day to send them, and what to do when they don't work.
a handoff
Every guide ends at the one tool of mine that does that job for you. One price, no platform to move your shop into.
the desk
Agents research and draft. Nothing goes live until I have read it line by line. That is why my name can sit on the page.
03the words to use

Here is a piece of one, whole.

Day 14, one invoice, one neighbor. Nothing held back for an email address, because that is the whole promise.

subject
Invoice 1042 — kitchen cabinets — $1,840

Hi Dana,

Quick one. Invoice 1042 for the kitchen came to $1,840, and it hit 14 days today.

If it's already paid or in the mail, ignore me.

If it slipped, the payment link is at the bottom of the invoice. Two minutes and it's done.

Anything on it looks wrong, tell me and I'll fix it today.

— Chris

This is the one I sent for twenty years. Send it on day 14, in the morning.

04the byline
Chris Paulus
twenty years, cabinet and interior painting, two trucks

A competitor can copy the words on this site. He cannot copy the twenty years.

I am not a software company with a blog. There is no marketing team here, no five pillars, no framework. One name on every page, and it is mine.

Copy the email above in the meantime — it works on its own.