From Zero to Ten: How We Booked Our First In-Home Appointments Without Big Budgets

How We Booked Our First 10 Appointments in 2 Weeks (Without a Big Ad Budget)

Subscribe for weekly tips on marketing, operations, and scaling your home services business:    / @theblueprinttobusiness  

Launching a new home services business in a city where you don’t know many people can feel impossible. When we opened our window treatment franchise in Boulder, CO, we needed our first 10 appointments fast—and we didn’t have time (or budget) to waste.

In this episode of The Blueprint to Business by The FS Agency, Amber Hoffman pulls back the curtain on exactly how we landed those first 10 appointments—what worked, what flopped, and what we learned along the way. Spoiler: It wasn’t a fancy funnel or massive marketing spend.

You’ll hear the real numbers from:
✅ Friends & personal referrals
✅ Local networking events
✅ Print ads & direct mail (and why they didn’t pay off)
✅ Franchise neighbor leads
✅ A simple “always answer the phone” strategy that landed \$3K in revenue

If you’re a first-time home services business owner, you’ll walk away knowing:

Why diversifying early is key, but measuring results is everything
The hidden cost of certain marketing channels
How relationships and responsiveness can beat paid ads
Why tracking granular referral data saves you money

💬 Question for you: What’s the most surprising way you’ve landed a first client? Drop it in the comments—we might feature it in a future episode.

📌 The Blueprint to Business is where we share in-the-trenches lessons from building and scaling a home services business, so you can grow faster with fewer mistakes.

✍️ Want more tips on how to drive more leads and scale your local business? Subscribe to our free newsletter: https://franchise-solutions.beehiiv.com/

Subscribe for weekly tips on marketing, operations, and scaling your home services business:    / @theblueprinttobusiness  

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Want to know how to get your first 10 appointments for your new home service business? This video shares real-world strategies for small business owners, without a ton of marketing spend! Learn some great marketing training tips for franchising and see real business growth.