Field Notes

Practical lessons for the businesses that keep small towns running, free to read, all of them here. You can have new ones by email if you would rather read them that way. Adapted from the book Small Town Strategy: Simple Marketing for People with Real Work to Do.

• August 31, 2026

  Marketing an HVAC Business in a Town That Only Thinks About You Twice a Year

  Every HVAC marketing guide is written for a company with twenty trucks and a metro area to fill them. Here is the version for two trucks, a town of four thousand, and a phone that rings hard in July and January and barely at all in between.

• August 31, 2026

  Getting More Plumbing Customers in a Town Where Everyone Already Has a Plumber

  The plumbing marketing advice online is about buying leads and filling a funnel. In a town of four thousand there is no funnel. There are a few hundred households a year with a problem, and the question is only whether they think of you.

• August 31, 2026

  Marketing an Excavation Business When Six People Decide Who Gets the Work

  Search for excavation marketing and you get generic contractor advice. Search for rural marketing and you get advice for shops and restaurants. Nobody writes the one in the middle, which is what an excavation outfit in farm country actually needs.

• August 31, 2026

  Getting More Electrical Work in a Small Town Without Buying a Single Lead

  Almost every article about getting electrical work is written by a lead seller. This is the version for a one or two van shop in a county where the same builders, realtors and neighbors keep handing out the same work.

• August 28, 2026

  Where the Advertising Money Actually Goes in a Town of Four Thousand

  Almost everything written about advertising in a small town is about attracting visitors to the town. This is the other job, ranked by how well each option pays for a business that already exists here.

• August 28, 2026

  Marketing a Lawn and Landscaping Business Where Everyone Can See Your Work

  Every guide to landscaping marketing is written for a company with a sales funnel and a service area of two million people. Here is the version for the outfit with three mowers and a town of four thousand.

• August 28, 2026

  In a Town This Size, the Same Customer Has to Come Back

  The advice about winning repeat business assumes you can always find new customers. In a fixed population you cannot, which makes the second job from the same household the whole business rather than a bonus.

• August 28, 2026

  When the Regional Outfit Opens an Office in Your County

  The advice about competing with big companies is written for retailers facing a national chain. This is the version for a three-truck service business when a hundred-truck company starts advertising in your town.

• August 27, 2026

  Word of Mouth Is a System, Not Luck

  The four-part referral system behind every business that "gets all its work from word of mouth": the tellable detail, the ten-second ask, the easy handoff, and the thank-you.

• August 27, 2026

  The Ninety Seconds That Decide Who Gets the Job

  How local customers actually pick a service business (memory, a trusted ask, a quick check, a call) and the one test every marketing dollar has to pass.

• August 27, 2026

  Be the Business That Answers the Question

  Phones and AI assistants now answer the questions neighbors used to ask over the fence. How to become the local business the machines cite instead of the one they skip.

• August 27, 2026

  How to Win the Town Facebook Group Without Being That Guy

  The town Facebook group is a courtroom, not a billboard. The two rules for business owners, what actually earns recommendations, and the complaint reply to write before you need it.

• August 27, 2026

  Signs, Trucks, and Shirts: The Advertising You Already Paid For

  Your truck parks in front of your best prospects six times a day. The four things it has to say, why yard signs borrow trust, and the consistency rule that makes it all compound.

• August 27, 2026

  The Only Five Numbers Your Business Needs to Watch

  Impressions and follower counts are scenery. The five gauges that tell a service business what to fix, and the one question that unmasks any marketing dashboard.

• August 27, 2026

  The Friday Hour: A Marketing Routine That Actually Survives

  One visible thing, one thank you, one look at the book. The sixty-minute weekly routine that keeps a service business's marketing alive through busy season.

• August 27, 2026

  Growth in a Town That Isn't Getting Any Bigger

  The town's population is fixed, so growth has to come from somewhere else. The four levers available to a service business that already exists, in the order they pay.

• August 27, 2026

  The Slow Week: Where a Contractor's Next Job Actually Comes From

  What to do in the week the phone goes quiet, ranked by how fast it produces work. For contractors in small towns, where the lead-generation advice written for cities does not apply.

• August 27, 2026

  Marketing a Business In a Small Town, Not Marketing the Small Town

  Almost everything written about small town marketing is about attracting visitors to the town. This is the other job: getting the people who already live there to call you.

• August 27, 2026

  Raising Prices in a Town Where You'll See Them at the Hardware Store

  The generic advice about raising rates assumes an anonymous customer. In a small town you will run into them on Saturday. Here is how the increase is actually done.

• August 27, 2026

  Hiring When There Are Only Four of Them and Everybody Knows Which Four

  Recruiting advice is written for companies with an applicant pool. A small town service business has a known, finite list of capable people. That changes the whole method.

• August 25, 2026

  Your Website Has One Job: The Five-Second Test

  A contractor website is not an art gallery. The five-second test, the handful of elements that actually produce phone calls, and what to stop paying for.

• August 18, 2026

  How to Get More Google Reviews Without Begging

  The ten-second ask that fills a review page honestly, the reply habit that wins the readers, and the three lines you can never cross.

• August 11, 2026

  The Free Google Listing Worth More Than Your Website

  Why your Google Business Profile matters more than your homepage, how the local pack actually ranks contractors, and the fifteen-minute checklist that keeps it working.