Booked Solid but Broke? How to grow your ‘Unsexy’ Business.
- waggledanceltd
- May 6
- 9 min read
Updated: May 7
Introduction: The Hidden Power of the UK's "Boring" Businesses.
When Jamie Waller's book Unsexy Business landed on my desk, I was curious. It promised success stories from industries most overlook—plumbing, logistics, cleaning, pest control, construction, waste management. All essential, but rarely glamorous.
While the stories were uplifting, I and others who reviewed the book left feeling a little robbed. It just didn’t give me the kind of advice I was craving. I was looking for something concrete I could actually use. So I decided to put something together for business owners who are in the same boat—people who want proper, actionable advice they can take away and apply to their business today.
What Exactly are "Unsexy" Businesses?
These are the hard-working backbone of the UK economy. Not flashy, but vital.
Plumbing and Heating (£17B annually, 40,000+ plumbers)
Electrical Contracting (30,000+ sparkies)
Drainage & Sewage 💩
Cleaning Services (£5.6B, 66,000+ cleaners)
Pest Control (£500M+, 2,000 businesses)
Waste Management (£13B)
Logistics & Haulage (£124B, 2.5M jobs)
Warehousing (£20B GDP contribution)
Mechanics (£25B)
Construction from your local builder to the high rise experts (£110B+, 2M jobs)
You’ll also find businesses in areas like security, recruitment, landscaping, HVAC, laundry services, printing, courier delivery, and wholesale. All playing vital roles in the economy without ever being considered glamorous.
Big numbers. Big impact. But most are under-optimised in sales, marketing, and operations.
Is Grafting Seven Days a Week enough to grow a business?
“Stay resilient” is the kind of advice you hear everywhere, especially in books like Unsexy Business. While the stories might lift your spirits, they don’t help much when you're already grafting seven days a week, dashing from a job to look at another, and sitting down to do your quotes and invoices in the evenings. All to find our your dinners gone cold and you've missed that special time with your family.
Truth is, you probably don’t even have time to read the book in the first place. You’re not lacking grit—you’re lacking time and headspace.
The reality is, you're a great builder, plumber, cleaner, or spark. You're damn good at your trade, but you never signed up for all the other stuff! Marketing, sales, managing people. That wasn’t why got you into this game.
We worked with an electrician in the South West who was in exactly that spot. Six months of work lined up, turning down jobs daily, and no time left to breathe. Sounded successful on the surface, but he was run ragged. Like many others who’ve read that book, he didn’t need another motivational story—he needed some good advice and a system that actually worked.
Maybe that rings true for you:
You're stretched too thin
You can’t grow your team or trust they’ll stick around
Jobs are slipping through the cracks because you're too busy to follow up
So let’s leave the fluffy motivational speak behind and give you some solid, no-nonsense Marketing, Sales, and People strategy that you can implement to get things on the right track.
🔥 Marketing That Will Help You Grow your business (Even on a Budget)
Most small "boring" businesses seem to rely on word of mouth or someone tagging them on Facebook. They find marketing difficult, everyone tells them they should post more to facebook, or run ads, but again you're already busy, so why do you need to have a plan and a marketing strategy?
For us it's not about just using social media to get more sales, in fact we are dead against that, there is way more to a good marketing strategy than social media, here's some of our top tips.
1. Be the Local Expert on social media.
Post:
Before/after photos
“How we did this” breakdowns
Team shout-outs
Even if you're B2C, this builds authority and trust.
And if you can, get onto video, we know it's not for everyone, but it really does get more traction.
2. Get on Nextdoor to grow your business locally
While this is a fairly new platform, it's really good for those businesses who work locally.
Set up a verified listing. Engage in local conversations. Answer questions. No hard sells—just be helpful.
3. Facebook Groups: Don’t Be That Spammer
Join local groups like:
Bath Community Hub
Bristol Services & Trades people
Share useful tips. Answer questions. Show off your work—subtly.
4. You can't grow your business with a @gmail.com email address
Use a professional email that has the same domain as your website
(e.g., info@waggledance.ltd). It’s a £5/month decision that builds instant trust.
5. if your going to grow your business you need a Proper Website
A Facebook page isn’t a website. You need:
List of services
A space for advice such as this blog. (It's what helps your website rank on google)
Testimonials and photos
Lead form & click-to-call button
Fast loading, mobile friendly
Pair it with a Google Business profile and you’re off.
6. Google Maps & Local SEO
Complete your Google Business Profile
Use phrases like "emergency electrician in Leeds"
Post updates and reply to reviews
Pro tip: Ask happy clients to use the service name in their reviews. Google loves it.
7. Educational Social & Blog Content
Create:
FAQs
Behind-the-scenes clips
Tool explainers
Short-form video works best—humanise your brand.
8. Run Ads That Convert
Meta (Facebook & Insta): Target homeowners by postcode. Google Ads: Bid on high-intent search terms.
Track every click.
Don’t boost posts. Build campaigns with clear calls to action.
Now the key here is you need some cash to invest, don't think you'll get away with £5 here and there, you need to put money in regularly and you need to test different types of ads before you find what works.
Once you do know what works, you need to know what your CAC is (Your cost of acquiring a customer), you'll then know if you put £1 you'll get £x out.
9. Referral Schemes can help you grow locally
Give happy customers a reason to share:
Discounts
Gift cards
Future service credits
10. Email Marketing Isn’t Dead
Use it to:
Send seasonal service reminders
Educate on upsell opportunities ("Did you know we also offer…")
💰 Sales: Turning Attention into enough Revenue that you can grow your business!
Oh no, that dirty word, sales! It shouldn't be, we are just helping a potential customer or client make a decision, we have their attention we just need to turn the attention into a YES!
1. Build a Clear Sales Process
Map the journey:
Enquiry → Qualification → Quote → Follow-up → Job Done → Review
Everyone should follow the same path.
2. Speed Matters
Respond to leads within 15 minutes if you can. Use WhatsApp Business or instant quote forms.
3. Follow Up More Than Once
Most businesses stop after one follow-up. Follow up 3–5 times. Use CRM reminders or automation.
4. Train Your Team to Sell (Or learn more about Sales yourself)
Scripts. Objection handling. Qualifying questions.
Sales isn’t just something for the men/woman in pin striped suits. It's a skill every business owner needs to learn.
5. Track Performance Like a Pro
Know your:
Enquiry-to-quote rate
Quote-to-job rate
Average deal size
If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.
🧠 People: The Power Behind the Business
You never wanted to be a manager! I hear that, but for most ''unsexy businesses'' you can't grow without them. People are expensive, bring you problems, and throw you even more curve balls, but if you have the correct model, they'll also make you more money, save you time and in time they may even run your business for you.
1. Build Ownership Culture
Involve the team in goals. Share wins. Reward effort.
2. Hire for Attitude
Skills can be trained. Enthusiasm and values? Non-negotiable. Focusing on recruiting from the bottom up i.e. apprenticeships can be a great start.
3. Structure Onboarding & Get good HR in place.
First impressions count. Give new hires a proper intro to how you work. If they don't even get a contract from you, how do you think they will act?
4. Train Continuously
Mix hands-on training with short video lessons. Keep it ongoing.
5. Customer Service is Everyone’s Job
Everyone should know how to WOW a customer. Reward great service.
6. Keep Your Good Staff
Celebrate birthdays. Offer growth paths. Care about well-being.
📈 Case Study: From Booked Solid to Scaling Fast
A solo electrician in the South West came to us with a brilliant problem—he was too busy.
He had six months of domestic work booked in advance and was regularly turning down new jobs. It sounds great, but it was stalling his growth.
He had just taken on his first apprentice but didn’t know how to move beyond "one man and a van."
We helped him:
Recruit two fully qualified electricians and two additional apprentices
Add second and third vans to the business
Bring scheduled work forward to reduce lead times and free up capacity
Win his first two commercial contracts
Implement a scalable lead-handling process to win jobs consistently
Stop working 7 days a week so he could spend more time with his family and focus on property development
Put proper HR foundations in place for a growing team
Replace his inactive website and Gmail address with a professional online presence
Build a basic but consistent social media strategy
Implement our CRM system to manage clients and generate predictable, recurring revenue
Now, he’s gearing up for vans four and five, and we’re working with him on team development, leadership, and expanding into recurring maintenance contracts.
From "just getting by" to running a growing team with work-life balance—this is what scaling smart really looks like.
🛠️ Why You Need a CRM
A what?
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. It's a software system that companies use to manage and organise their interactions with customers. CRMs help businesses improve customer relationships, streamline sales processes, and boost marketing efforts by centralising customer data and providing insights.
Spreadsheets? Paper diaries? Random WhatsApp messages?
It’s costing you money.
A good CRM system helps you:
Track every lead
Automate follow-ups
Send reminders
See what’s working (and what’s not)
Centralise customer info
Our CRM: Built for Trades
We provide Waggle Dance CRM—a powerful, scalable platform designed specifically for UK service businesses that want to grow without the chaos.
It includes:
Lead capture forms
Automation (texts, emails, review requests, follow-ups)
Job scheduling & calendar management
Sales pipeline tracking & forecasting
Full marketing suite (landing pages, email campaigns, social content)
Two-way SMS & WhatsApp integration
Payment links and invoicing
Review generation tools
Client portal access
It’s not just a tool—it’s a growth system. Designed to scale with you as you move from one van to five, from domestic to commercial contracts, from reactive to proactive business operations.
We don’t just give you the CRM—we build it around your business, train your team, and continuously optimise it for performance. No more tech overwhelm. No more missed opportunities.
Other CRM Options (And Their Limits)
Jobber: Great for scheduling, weak on marketing
ServiceM8: Easy to use, lacks nurture tools
HubSpot: Overkill for most small businesses
Even if you’ve “got a CRM”—are you using it properly? Most only use 10–20% of its power.
Feature | Waggle Dance CRM | Jobber | HubSpot |
Built for UK Trades | ✅ Yes – tailored for UK service businesses | ❌ Primarily North American market | ❌ General-purpose CRM |
Lead Capture Forms | ✅ Customisable and integrated | ✅ Basic forms | ✅ Advanced forms |
Automation (SMS/Email) | ✅ Included with templates and workflows | ❌ Limited automation | ✅ Advanced automation (with higher tiers) |
Job Scheduling | ✅ Integrated with calendar and team management | ✅ Strong scheduling features | ❌ Not a core feature |
Sales Pipeline Tracking | ✅ Visual pipeline with forecasting | ❌ Limited sales tracking | ✅ Robust pipeline management |
Marketing Tools | ✅ Built-in email campaigns, landing pages, and social content | ❌ Minimal marketing tools | ✅ Comprehensive marketing suite |
WhatsApp Integration | ✅ Two-way messaging built-in | ❌ Not available | ❌ Not available |
Invoicing & Payments | ✅ Integrated with payment links and invoicing | ✅ Invoicing available | ✅ Invoicing (with integrations) |
Review Generation | ✅ Automated review requests post-service | ❌ Not available | ❌ Not available |
Client Portal Access | ✅ Clients can view jobs, invoices, and communications | ✅ Client hub available | ✅ Client portal (with higher tiers) |
Scalability | ✅ Designed to grow with your business | ✅ Suitable for small to medium businesses | ✅ Highly scalable (may require add-ons) |
Pricing | 💷 We include it in our services! | 💷 Tiered pricing based on features | 💷 Free tier available; advanced features cost extra |
🧭 Our Approach at Waggle Dance
We help traditional UK businesses grow through:
Diagnostics – We audit your marketing, sales, and team setup.
Strategy – We build a custom growth plan, no fluff.
Implementation & Coaching – We hold you accountable and help you deliver.
We focus on:
Marketing: Get attention
Sales: Convert it
People: Keep customers & staff happy
📨 Subscribe for Real-World Growth Tips
No empty platitudes. Just practical strategies you can use today to:
Win more jobs
Attract better clients
Build a team that actually cares
🎯 Ready to scale your unsexy business? Subscribe for weekly, proven advice from experts who’ve walked the walk.
Your business isn’t boring—it’s a hidden goldmine. Let’s dig in.
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