A trades owner who asks for money to grow is usually making a bet: buy the second service van, hire two technicians, lease a bigger shop, and the extra customers will come. Lenders and brokers see that bet before anyone else. When the customer side of it looks thin, you can refer the owner to us for marketing help, and keep your own work completely separate.
What this partnership is
It's a documented referral route between a lender, a broker or a lending advisor and a marketing service for trades. You suggest us; the owner calls if they wish. With the owner's permission, we can share a plain monthly summary of their marketing results.
We are not a lender, a mortgage broker or an equipment broker. We never discuss interest rates, approvals, terms or credit. If an owner asks us a financing question, we send them back to you. Mortgage brokering in Ontario falls under the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario, and any arrangement you join has to fit your licence and your firm's policies. The terms we offer are written down before the first referral so you can check them.
Who it suits
- business bankers and credit-union account managers with trades clients
- equipment and vehicle finance brokers who fund vans, trucks and tools
- mortgage brokers whose self-employed clients run trades businesses
- advisors who help trades owners prepare growth plans before they approach a lender
The demand question behind a growth plan
A growth plan for a trades company usually rests on a few assumptions about customers. These are the ones worth a second look:
- "We'll fill the second van." A van needs roughly as many booked jobs as the first one already gets. Where will they come from?
- "We're expanding into a new city." The business will start there with no reviews, no map ranking and no reputation.
- "We'll add a new service line." Heat pumps, EV chargers or basement waterproofing each need their own pages, listings and customers.
- "Referrals have always been enough." Word of mouth rarely scales at the pace a loan schedule does.
We help owners answer those questions with a marketing plan they can actually run. That plan is for the business. It isn't a forecast for you, and we never present it as one.
What's included for your client
A consultation, a review of where their work comes from today and a written plan with costs. If they go ahead, the work runs on a published Trades.Agency plan. For an expansion into a new area, the plan usually starts with a Google Business Profile, service-area pages and a review routine. Our area pages show how much Ontario markets differ.
Timeline
- Weeks 1–2: consultation and written plan.
- Month 1: listings, website changes and any paid campaigns go live.
- Months 2–4: paid search produces enquiries early; local search visibility builds more slowly.
- Ongoing: monthly reports in the advisor-ready format, shared with you only if the owner says so.
How results are measured
Enquiries, booked jobs and cost per booked job. A worked example: a second van needs about 40 extra booked jobs a month. If paid search converts about one enquiry in three into a booked job, the business needs roughly 120 extra genuine enquiries a month. That's the kind of arithmetic we put in front of the owner, so the plan rests on numbers rather than hope.
Mistakes to avoid
- Letting marketing look like part of the financing. Keep the two clearly separate in what you say to the client.
- Expecting a marketing plan to substitute for a business plan. It covers demand, not cash flow, costs or risk.
- Starting marketing after the van arrives. Demand takes months to build; the payments start on day one.
For customer-financing marketing specifically, our sister site Plumber.Finance explains how plumbers present offers from licensed lenders. To set up a referral route, call, text or email, or read the referral playbook first.
Frequently asked questions
Will your marketing plan help my client get approved?
We make no claims about approvals, and nothing we write is a credit document. A marketing plan explains how a business intends to win customers; whether that matters to a lending decision is entirely the lender's judgement.
Do you arrange financing for trades customers?
No. We are not a lender or broker. Some trades market customer-financing offers from licensed lenders, and we can help with how those offers are presented, but we never arrange, quote or approve credit.
Can you share a client's marketing results with me?
Only if the client asks us to, in writing, and only the parts they choose. Many owners like their lender or broker to see the monthly one-page summary; others prefer to share it themselves.
Are mortgage brokers allowed to take part?
Mortgage brokering in Ontario is regulated by FSRA, and your licence and your brokerage's policies decide what referral arrangements you may join. Our terms are written down first so you can check them.