Guides

How worker classification really works for a service crew: the IRS common-law control test, the DOL economic-reality test, Form SS-8, the real penalties for getting it wrong, and when 1099 versus W-2 each honestly fits.

Guía paso a paso, en español, para abrir un negocio de limpieza en EE. UU.: registrar el negocio y el EIN, conseguir seguro de responsabilidad, reunir equipo, fijar precios desde tus costos, conseguir tus primeros clientes y usar contratos. Incluye calculadora y plantilla de contrato.

Plantilla gratis de contrato de servicio de limpieza en español, con un modelo completo para copiar (las partes, alcance, frecuencia, precio, materiales, cancelación, responsabilidad y firmas) y una guía de las cláusulas que no pueden faltar.

How to buy a lawn care business: verify the recurring contracts, churn, customer concentration, and route density, read the books for SDE, weigh build-vs-buy, then structure the deal. No fabricated multiples.

How to buy a pest control business: diligence the recurring bond book, confirm the applicator certification lets you run it day one, price the termite-warranty liability you inherit, and value the route on SDE.

How to buy a pool service business: verify the earnings, autopay health, and churn from the records, drive the route, value the assets at cost, and price the transferable book, with a live route-valuation calculator.

The levers that shrink your days-to-pay: invoice at completion, deposit big jobs, put recurring accounts on autopay, set written net terms, and enforce a late fee. Includes a live invoice generator.

How a solo field-service operator hires their first technician: read the overflow signal, set a defensible wage from your own labor-burden and overhead numbers, write the job post, run a structured interview and a paid ride-along, and onboard week one — classification routed to the proper guide.

Why retention beats acquisition in a service business: how to measure churn, the CLV math, and the four levers — autopay, consistency, proactive contact, and win-back. Includes a live lifetime-value estimator.

How to sell a pest control business: clean the recurring bond book to an honest SDE, make the pesticide license and bond warranties transfer to the buyer, tighten the routes, and run the earnout and non-compete.

A migration playbook for leaving Housecall Pro: what exports cleanly versus what you rebuild, how to run both systems in parallel, when to cut over, and how to retrain the crew — every figure cited or omitted.

The migration playbook for leaving Jobber: what exports (your client list), what you rebuild by hand (recurring jobs, price book, automations), how to time the cutover, run parallel, and retrain the crew.

How seasonal operators smooth a feast-or-famine year: build a peak reserve, move one-off jobs onto year-round recurring plans, add an off-season line, and borrow deliberately.

Cómo fijar precios de limpieza de casas sin adivinar: los tres métodos (por hora, por trabajo y por pie cuadrado), cuándo usar cada uno, los costos que tu precio debe cubrir, recurrente vs. una sola vez y cómo cotizar con confianza. Con calculadora para sacar tu cifra.

The operations benchmarks a service business should track — utilization, effective hourly rate, average ticket, gross margin, first-time fix rate, CAC, and lifetime value against churn — with the formula for each, how to pull the inputs from your own jobs, and what the trend means.

Pest control in Texas is licensed two ways at the Department of Agriculture: the Structural Pest Control Service for structural work, and the commercial applicator program for outdoor spraying. Verify the current fees on the official TDA pages.

What insurance an auto detailing business needs: general liability, the garagekeepers (care, custody, and control) coverage GL excludes, commercial auto, and what drives premiums — with no fabricated premium numbers.

A plain guide to the Certified Pool/Spa Operator (CPO): who administers it (the Pool & Hot Tub Alliance), who legally needs one, the course and exam structure, the five-year renewal, and how the credential fits a pool route — with course fees deliberately not fabricated.

The insurance an electrical contractor carries — general liability, commercial auto, workers' comp, tools and equipment, and professional liability — what each covers, what drives the premium directionally (no fabricated numbers), and how to price it back into your jobs. Not insurance advice.

A buyer's guide to field service software for crews under ten: what FSM does, the features a small crew actually needs, whether free FSM exists, and what Jobber, Housecall Pro, Workiz, and ServiceTitan cost — each figure from its own pricing page, the hidden ones marked unpublished.

A working method for pricing HVAC service calls — loaded labor rate, trip and diagnostic fees, flat-rate versus time-and-materials, consistent parts markup, and when a discount helps versus when it just hides an unbilled cost. Includes a live HVAC job-pricing calculator.

How to sell a lawn care business: clean the books, make the recurring route transferable and documented, understand the seller's-discretionary-earnings multiple, and navigate deal structure and transition — with a working route-valuation calculator and every external figure cited or omitted.

How to sell a pool service business: get to an honest SDE number, put accounts on transferable autopay, tighten the route, read what each buyer type wants, and frame the multiple directionally — with a live pool-route valuation calculator and every figure cited or omitted.

How to start a lawn care business, grow past the one-mower wall, and value the route when you sell — with real startup, pricing, routing, and valuation calculators and a route-to-keep-or-sell framework.

How to start a pest control business, grow it into a recurring bond book past the one-truck wall, and value the route when you sell — with real pricing, recurring-plan, lifetime-value, and valuation calculators and a keep-or-sell framework.

How to start a pool service business, grow a profitable weekly route, and value it when you sell — with real pricing, chemical-margin, route-density, and pool-route valuation calculators, every external figure cited, and an honest keep-or-sell framework.

How to value a lawn care business honestly: why it sells on seller's discretionary earnings, not revenue; the add-backs; what raises or lowers the multiple; clean-books prep; and a route valuation calculator. No fabricated multiples.

How to value a pest control business: the SDE basis, why the recurring bond book sets the multiple, the warranty liability a buyer subtracts that no lawn or pool route carries, and how density and churn move the price — with a route valuation calculator. No fabricated multiples.

How to value a pool service business: the SDE basis, why route density is the multiple's main driver, how recurring billing and churn move the price, and what a buyer reads in diligence — with a live pool-route valuation calculator that turns MRR into a ranged estimate.

What insurance a junk removal business needs — general liability, commercial auto, workers' comp, and cargo/inland marine — what each covers, and what drives the cost. Specific premiums are linked through a sourced startup-cost calculator, not asserted. Not insurance advice.

What 'landscaping license' actually means: the three separate credentials (contractor license, pesticide applicator certification, local business license), why requirements vary by state, California's C-27 as the strict case, and how to find your own. No fabricated fees — cite-or-omit.

An index of Fieldwynn's free lawn and agronomy calculators, organized by the job they do — measure the area, size fertilizer and seed, correct pH, calibrate the spreader and sprayer, plan irrigation, and order bulk materials. Quantities and costs, not chemical advice.

A plain-English map of the pesticide applicator license: who must be certified, the EPA's ten federal categories and the competency exam states build on, recertification, and how to find your state's program. Cost drivers explained directionally — no per-state fees or insurance premiums invented.

A map of Fieldwynn's free pesticide dosing calculators — dilution and tank-mix, spray and granular coverage, mosquito, flea-and-tick, and termiticide tools — grouped by product. Each does the arithmetic from a rate you enter; what to apply and how stays with the product label and your license.

A map of Fieldwynn's free pool water chemistry calculators — volume, water balance, chlorination, shock and green-pool recovery, salt, and dilution — grouped by the job each one does and the order to use them, with the target numbers left to your test kit and the product label.

An honest teardown of the best field-service software — Jobber, Housecall Pro, ServiceTitan, and Workiz — organized by decision axis: field app, back-office power, pricing shape, and crew-size fit. Every figure is from a vendor's own dated page, every complaint cited, with a free all-in calculator.