The HiVis standard
Six commitments, printed on every proposal.
Each one is the exact opposite of what Trades complain about when they talk about marketers. Each one is written into the one-page agreement you sign, so you can hold me to it.
I wrote these six myself. They are the things Trades told me went wrong with marketers, turned around and put in writing.
In practice
What each one means, and how to check it.
A commitment you can’t check is a slogan. For each one: what I do, the complaint it answers in the words Trades use, and where it is written down.
1
Month to month
Answers: contracts and post-cancel billing
There is no minimum term. Either side can end it with 30 days’ written notice, and an email counts. No cancellation fee, and no auto-renewal clause that rolls you into another year because you missed a date.
You pay for the notice period and for work already done, and nothing after that. The build, the HiVis Launch, is one invoice. It is not a subscription and it is not spread across a contract to keep you in.
How to check it Clause 5 of the one-page agreement
2
You own everything
Answers: hostage sites and profiles
Your domain, hosting, the WordPress site, Google Business Profile, ad accounts and call-tracking numbers are opened in your name on day one. I am added as a manager, never as the primary owner.
If you leave, I hand over any login I hold and remove my own access. The site stays up, the reviews stay on your profile and the phone numbers stay yours. Leave and nothing breaks.
How to check it Clause 7 of the agreement · The accounts, by name
The complaint, in their words
“Make sure you own your domain and you own your hosting”
A contractor on r/Contractor
3
Prices on the website
Answers: bait pricing and upsells
One page, every number: the build, the plan, three monthly tiers and four add-ons. I don’t charge GST, so the price you see is the price you pay. No “by application”, no “custom quote”.
The same prices anywhere in Canada, and the proposal you sign uses the same numbers. Each price is also shown in hours of your own labour, so you can work out what it costs you before you call.
How to check it The prices page · Clause 3 of the agreement
The complaint, in their words
“$3k per month is $36k a year, that’s an insane amount of money for a company that size.”
A contractor on r/Contractor
4
Reported in phone calls and booked jobs
Answers: vanity metrics
Once a month you get one page: how many people called, where each call came from, what it cost and which ones booked. Tracked calls are recorded, so you can listen to the calls behind the numbers.
Not clicks, not “brand awareness”, not a 40-page PDF. If a number is bad, the report says so.
How to check it The sample report · Clause 8 of the agreement
5
One person who answers
Answers: ghosting and juniors
I answer every enquiry myself, the same business day, Monday to Friday, 8 to 5 Pacific. If I’m on a site, I call back the same afternoon.
No account manager, no handoff, nobody learning your trade on your money. A hard cap of 15 retainer clients keeps it that way.
How to check it Clause 9 of the agreement · Who answers the phone
The complaint, in their words
“Basically, you’re paying them to learn how to do the marketing.”
A contractor on r/Contractor
6
One client per trade per town
Answers: the same lead sold six times
While you are a client, I will not take on your competitor in your town. Your agreement names your trade and your town, so there is no argument later about what counts.
It also means I turn work away. If I already work with someone in your trade in your town, I tell you in my first reply, before you spend anything.
How to check it Clause 10 of the agreement · Why it works for a one-person shop
The complaint, in their words
“The biggest frustration isn’t paying for leads. It’s paying for the same lead as everyone else.”
An HVAC owner on r/hvacadvice
What you own
Every account in your name, from day one.
“You own your website” is easy to say. Here is the list, account by account. Whichever of these your work needs is opened in your name on day one.
Domain
Your web address, registered to your business at a registrar you can log into.
Hosting
Where the site lives. The account is in your name, so the site stays up whoever you work with.
The WordPress site
Native WordPress, no page builder. You hold the admin login, and any WordPress developer can pick it up.
Google Business Profile
Your listing on the map, with its reviews and photos. You are the primary owner.
Google Ads account
Billed to your card by Google. The campaigns and their history stay in your account.
Meta business account
Your Facebook and Instagram pages and ad account, billed to your card by Meta.
Call-tracking numbers
The tracked numbers on your site, profile and ads, and the call recordings, in an account in your name.
Analytics and Search Console
Google’s records of how people find and use your site, in your name, with me added as a user.
If you leave
I am a manager on them, never the primary owner. Leave and nothing breaks.
Written into clause 7 of the one-page agreement.
- You email me 30 days’ notice. No fee.
- I hand over any login I hold and remove my own access.
- Everything keeps working, because it was in your name all along.
The two limits
15 clients. One per trade per town.
Two limits, set on purpose. Without them, “one person who answers” and “one client per trade per town” would be slogans.
Why a hard cap of 15
Fifteen retainer clients is the number I can run myself and still answer every one of them the same day. Past that, somebody else would be answering your calls, and commitment 5 would stop being true.
When the 15 places are taken, I say so in my first reply instead of taking you on anyway.
Why one client per trade per town
The loudest complaint Trades have about lead platforms is paying for the same customer as everyone else. My answer is to not work for your competitor in your town at all.
Exclusivity costs a one-person shop almost nothing. For a firm with a payroll, or a lead platform, it costs a lot.
A one-person shop
Saying no costs me one enquiry.
With 15 places and Trades across Canada, I never need two plumbers in the same town. Turn down your competitor and the place goes to a roofer in Vanderhoof instead.
A marketing firm with staff
Saying no costs them a sale they need.
Payroll and sales targets need volume. Every plumber in town is a sale they have already hired people to make, so the pressure is to sell to all of them.
A lead platform
Saying no ends the business model.
Selling the same customer request to several Trades is how it makes money. Exclusivity would take that away.
In practice: your agreement names your trade and your town, and the rule holds while your Launch is being built or your retainer is running. Clause 10 of the one-page agreement.
Claims I don’t make
What you won’t hear from me.
Trades have heard every one of these before, usually right before they got burned. Here is what I leave out, and what I say instead.
No rankings promises
Google decides who shows on the map and on page one, and it changes the rules without notice. A promise of the top spot is a promise about something the person making it doesn’t control.
Instead: the map, the phone number and a call log you can audit.
No results promise
And no “no results, no payment” either. Results depend on things outside my control: your market, your prices, the season and how fast you pick up.
Instead: month to month. If it isn’t paying for itself, you leave on 30 days’ notice with everything in your name.
No “free audit”
A free audit is how a sales call gets booked. You get a pitch dressed up as advice.
Instead: send me your Google profile link and I’ll tell you in two lines whether I can help. Or buy the HiVis Blueprint, a written plan for $297, credited in full against a Launch within 90 days.
No new-tech buzzwords
Trades don’t buy them, and they don’t book jobs. “Near me” searches still show the Maps pack 100% of the time (Search Engine Journal, 2025).
Instead: your Google profile, your site and your phone, done properly.
No numbers you can’t check
No “hundreds of happy clients”, no counters, no made-up results. A number on this site is a price, a named client’s result or a fact with its source linked, and sample figures are labelled as samples.
Instead: a named client in the owner’s own words, in the Epic Pavement case study.
No “I know the Trades”
Plenty of marketing sites say it. It costs nothing to type and proves nothing.
Instead: proof of work. Recent projects with the client named, the towns I cover and a WorkSafeBC clearance question on my intake form.
Proof documents
Every commitment, on paper.
You shouldn’t have to take my word for any of this. Three documents, published so you can read them before you ever talk to me.
Signed by every client
The one-page agreement
Every commitment on this page, written as a clause you sign. Month to month, in your name, one client per trade per town.
Sent every month
The one-page report
Calls, where each came from, what it cost and which ones booked, with the recordings. Shown as a sample with example numbers.
Every number
The prices
The build, the plan, three monthly tiers and four add-ons. I don’t charge GST, so the price you see is the price you pay.
Start here
Send me your Google profile link.
I’ll tell you in two lines whether I can help. Same day, from me. If it’s a fit, you get these six commitments in writing, on one page. I build it. I run it. You own it.