Free tool

What is one customer actually worth to you?

Most people badly underestimate this, then refuse to spend the money it would take to win one. Profit, not revenue — and the most you can sensibly pay.

Your numbers

What one transaction is worth, before costs.
Use decimals for infrequent work — a roof every 20 years is 0.05. Once every two years is 0.5.
Be honest rather than hopeful. If you don't know, look at your longest-standing customers and halve it.
What's left after the cost of doing the work — materials, labour, subcontractors. Not your net profit after rent and admin.
How many new paying customers an average one sends you — not how many people they mention you to. 0.3 means roughly one in three brings someone. Set it to 0 if you don't track it; the answer stays valid, just smaller.
One customer is worth—in profit, over their whole time with you
  • Revenue per customer, lifetime—
  • Profit from their own purchases—
  • Profit from who they refer—
  • Most you can pay to win one—
  • Point where you break even—
  • Value of 10 more customers—

Read this before you spend against the number

  • The headline is profit, not revenue. Plenty of calculators show you revenue and let you feel rich. You can only spend margin, so that's what's on the card.
  • "Most you can pay" is a third of lifetime profit, not all of it. The break-even figure below it is the real ceiling, but spending to break even means you did the work for free and waited years to find out. A third leaves room for the customers who leave early, the jobs that go wrong, and actually being paid.
  • Cash timing is not in here. A customer worth $3,000 over four years does not pay your bills like $3,000 today. If money is tight, judge spending against the first year alone — that's roughly the lifetime figure divided by your years number.
  • Referrals are counted once. Referred customers refer people too, which technically compounds. This tool deliberately stops at one generation, because the compounded version produces numbers nobody should plan against.
  • Then take it next door. Once you know what a customer is worth, thead budget calculator will tell you whether paid advertising can reach one for less than that.

Know the number? The next question is how to get more of them.

Tell us what a customer is worth to you and we'll tell you honestly which channel is likely to reach one for less.

Talk it through

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