How to Close Out a Job and Turn It Into Your Next One

Most contractors breathe a sigh of relief when a job wraps up and move on. The ones who are actually growing? They treat the finish line like a launch pad.

In this episode of Contractor Cuts, Clark and James break down exactly how to close out a job the right way — and how to use it to fuel reviews, referrals, and future work.

They cover:

• Why the punch list ruins so many job closings — and how to lead it like a pro
• The simple trick that takes the negotiating power out of your client's final payment
• Why professional photos on every sizable job are worth every penny
• How to ask for Google reviews in a way that actually gets them
• The direct review link hack that removes all friction and gets more five stars
• Why a thoughtful gift beats a gift card every single time
• How to turn one renovation into a photo book that markets your company for years

If you're leaving money, reviews, and referrals on the table at the end of every job — this is the episode that fixes it.

If you're doing $350K–$2M a year in revenue, coaching pays for itself. A 5% efficiency gain alone covers the cost — and that's before we even talk about growth. 

We help contractors stop losing money on crews, change orders, and inefficient operations — and start scaling. 

Ready to have the conversation? Set up a free call at contractorcuts.com

Contractor Cuts is a weekly podcast for contractors who want to build a better business — covering sales, operations, hiring, finances, and everything in between.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to Contractor Cuts, where we cover the good, the bad, and the ugly of growing a successful contracting company.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Welcome to Contractor Cuts. My name is Clark Turner. And I'm James McConnell. Thanks for joining us. Yes, thank you. Again, again is the word. All right. So this week we are talking. Last week we talked about pre-construction, what happens before starting a job. Today we're talking about happy endings. We're talking about closing the job out well and using it uh to really launch into future work as well. Uh so this is kind of the bookends of construction. Um, between we're we're skipping the actual construction part of this. Uh so today we're gonna talk about kind of four phases of four things that you should do. Um CPRG, those are the four if you look at it. Nice. Thanks, thanks. Uh so number one that we're gonna discuss is closing out the job. That's kind of how we end it. A lot of times, closing out the job is where things start falling apart. And honestly, where the truth comes out from clients when they've been holding it in all of a sudden. Where did that come from?

SPEAKER_00 1:18

I've been trying to be nice about this, but that's construction 101. I wish you hadn't been trying to be nice about this because now I can't do anything.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

I had no clue that you were angry about the decision your husband made three months ago. Um, all right. So closing out a job. What do we do well? How do we get out of it? We've done a full podcast on closing out a job, so we're not gonna spend too much time on it. But before we can do anything else um beyond the job to really use it for um marketing purposes and to really help us grow, we've gotta end it well quickly, get out of there, save as much cash on our end from going back for an extra seven trips, as well as make the client happy. They don't want us in their house any longer, they want us out of there as well. So there's really one big thing that we use to close out a job, which is our final walk checklist. Um But James, what would you say if you were closing out a job, if if you were consulting with me on how to exit the job the best, the quickest, with with a really good client experience? Walk me through what that would look like. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

Uh I would tell you that you need to be ready to uh at what's the word? Reasonable completion. There's some industry word that um is escaping me now. When you are about like five to ten percent done, like you've got five to ten percent left of the project left, and it's not like full line items. We're talking about we've got to uh we've got to you know finish touching up this paint over here. We gotta finish putting on like the base trim for the cabinetry, the the fixtures haven't gone in yet. You're at reasonable completion. This is when you attempt a punch. Yeah. Like it doesn't, everything doesn't have to be 1,000% buttoned up, but you need to be in a place where you're not repainting walls. Yeah. We're two to three days away. Yes, you've got, yeah, two to three days of work left. Great. That's when you go in and do a punch list. If you try to set up the client to do a punch list before you are at this phase, you're gonna get crucified because you're gonna have another punch. And the frustration is already gonna start to build there because you're like, we're ready to do a punch walk, and they're looking around, they're like, Well, there's this and this and this ceiling terrible. Yeah. And this, like, you need to have gone through this project yourself, your project manager, whatever, whoever's doing that for you, needs to have gone through this, not taken their crew's word for it, walked through and said, This looks good. Yeah. Uh, I see a couple random things that I could point out, but I think I think we're ready for a punch. If six different crews have to come back in there to do odds and ends, you're not ready for punch. That is that is what most people end up doing is they're like, we're pretty much done. Uh let's let's do a punch walk. And then they have a bunch of other people come back through the house. And that's when floors get scratched, that's when walls get dinged, and that's when your the completion date just keeps escaping you and escaping you and escaping you. Yeah. And it is it's like the death sentence because you're you're like profitable, and then this punch job, this punch walk like eats a couple thousand dollars of your scope. Yeah. Because then you're paying guys to come back and fix stuff, and this guy's already on another job, so you're having crew B come in and finish what they were doing, you're losing money there.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

And the client's like, well, if I had to find all that myself, now I've got to keep a real keen eye on this. And yes. And then all of a sudden you walk in the house the third time and there's a hundred pieces of blue tape.

SPEAKER_00 5:17

And there it's and it's in a room that you guys didn't do anything in. And they're like, Yeah, there's just like, yeah, well, we didn't do anything here. Oh, that's right, that's right. Yeah, I feel like I saw the guys in here though.

Lead The Walk To Build Trust

SPEAKER_01 5:27

Yeah, I I I think one of the key, one of the tricks of this also is I if like what you're talking about, I would say to the client before doing the punch, I would say, listen, we're gonna punch everything. The floors, we got the final coat of poly coming on. And so we're not gonna even look at the floors right now, but I want to make sure we punch out everything before I put that final coat and we walk out of here. So we're not gonna punch that. We're gonna look at everything else. Um, if there's anything wrong with the colors of the floors, we'll look at because but the finish isn't done. I want to prep them for that. Number two, I'm letting them know anything that's not gonna be 100% and why and where it's at. But the most important thing, the the key, the trick, is that I'm going to lead that punch walk with them ideally. I'm gonna be there with them, and I'm gonna have my blue tape, and I am going to identify the first three to four things. I'm gonna pull the tape off. I don't like that. I don't want to retouch that wall. Uh oh, that trim over here needs some more caulk on that. Um, do you see anything on this wall or this room? Cool, let's keep going. And so if I'm leading that, they feel like they'll they'll interact and be like, uh, what about this over here? Yeah, yeah, that's that's good. That's good. We'll touch that up. Yeah, that's actually we didn't touch that. We weren't there. So don't let's not worry about that right now. Would you like us to handle that? Yes. That I mean a couple hundred bus, I can get my guys to fix that for you. No, it's okay. Let's leave. All right. And so if I'm leading that and I'm pointing out things, they don't feel like they have to catch everything. Um, and I'm not trying to get away with leaving a crappy job. I'm trying to have them catch things that are legitimate issues. Um, when I'm not leading it and I'm forcing them to find everything, all of a sudden they're leaned up against the wall, looking down and being like, if you look over here, there's kind of it looks a little two-tone next to the window. And it's like, yeah, that's that's not Did you guys use sheetrock on this? Is this sheetrock? Yeah, I think. Did y'all plaster this room and sheetrock the other ones? Feels like you did. No. So it's I'm leading that and I'm trying, it's again, it's counterintuitive. I'm trying to point out as many issues as I can find because I know we're gonna fix them. They're gonna for sure catch them. So if they see me catching them, they're trusting that we are uh we are actually not 100% and things are still in in work and we're not signing off on this. Um, so doing that final walk uh checklist with them where we walk through, do that check, uh, and then have a kind of secondary planned final walk. Um, hey, we're gonna come back. I'm gonna knock out all that stuff. We're gonna finish the poly on the floors. We're gonna come back next Friday, sit here. I'm gonna walk through it. Uh, I'll have my punch guy with me, most likely. Um, and we're gonna make sure everything's perfect. Right. And so we're gonna have an ending date. Um, and kind of the conversation during that punch walk is hey, listen, I want to catch everything and send it, send my guys out once because I want to get out of your hair and not keep coming back over and over again. So this is what the, you know, the the whole final walk checklist has an explanation on it, but this is what we do and this is why we do it. It costs me money after you sign off on the final to keep sending people back out. I will do that because I care about ending well and treating you well and giving you a good product, but help me not have to do that, help me get out of your hair and also help me not spend a ton of extra money on seven go backs to fix one thing. I'd like to just have to send one guy out, do all seven, get out of your hair, be done with your house, you know, and we're we're all on to the next thing. Clients love that. They're they're they're bought in for that. Yeah. Um, and that also sets the tone that we'll come back out, do one final, we check all the boxes. Cool. So everything we discuss is done. Cool. Sounds good, thank you. And they've kind of committed that they agree that everything's done. And so if they see something, if it's an issue that we missed, okay, cool, we'll come back out there. But if they look at it, it's gonna give them a second thought of it's a little drip in that upper corner of the closet. I already signed off on this. I'm I'm good. And so they're gonna leave it. Yeah. Um little self-audit. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

You've planted that seed, they have something to say, is this reasonable? Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

Along with doing that, the other thing I'd say about closing out, I want the smallest final invoice I can. If my client owes me$35,000 at the end of the job, for some reason the punch list gets longer and the negotiations start, right? And so I want them to owe me three grand for the final payment. That's why we invoice weekly, right? And so oftentimes clients aren't going to want to pay that final week right before we start and get it be 100% paid. And I'm alone's like, cool, keep that three grand, let us get finished, we'll walk it next Friday, we'll be good to go, make that final payment, then we're good. If we're not invoicing weekly like that, and we're doing large chunks, and they owe me 25% at the end, and it's a$200,000 job, that's a$50,000 check that they have for negotiation. And all of a sudden they become real picky, and I really just don't, I'm not happy with this. I mean, if if you want to cut two grand off, we could live with it, right? And all that those conversations start happening, and then all of a sudden that$50,000 check turns into$43,000. And that$7,000 loss was your profit. Was that 25% of my profit because you know it was a you know, it's it's a large chunk when you when you just start discounting. But we've all been in that situation. I I got bills I gotta freaking pay. I need some I need the money. So fine, just pay me$43,000, good, let's go. Um, I want to take the power of taking advantage of us away from the client. Um,$3,000 that they owe me for that last week of work, that should be fine.$5,000, okay, fine. But if they want to negotiate from there, I'm talking about$100 off, not$7,000 off. Uh, and so having a small final payment really evens the tables in terms of negotiating, walking away if it goes south. Um also on a$200,000 job, I can walk away from five grand and be like, all right, I I give, you win, just keep the rest of your money. Give me a good Google review, please. I'll give I'll I'll pay you$5,000 for a good review and we'll call it at this point. Um that's easier than taking them to court over$50,000 and taking six months to try to figure out how we're gonna we're gonna get this money from them, and I can't start the next jobs. Uh so close out small final payment, good final walk checklist.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

And a uh not an argument point, but the whole there's a lot of reasons that we do the pay as you go invoicing. Yeah. But there's people want money to feel safe from getting screwed themselves. So that's fine. Uh understandable. You know, we know what we're gonna do, but they don't, they don't, you know, they don't know us personally. At some point they're gonna get comfortable with us. But having something at the end that they can hold and say, yeah, we're gonna we're protected a little bit, that's fine. But what Clark's saying is uh people are used to holding a considerable chunk because that's how, well, we're gonna invoice you 50% at the start, and then we're gonna do larger invoice payments. And they've been behind the eight ball the whole time. And so having that 20% at the end or 15% at the end makes sense in that format.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

When we have been protecting their money the entire time by invoicing the way that we invoice, it doesn't make the same sense because they've been protected the whole time. That's why we set up this invoicing the way we do. So having 20% at the end makes zero sense because our whole thing is we're gonna use the money that you're giving us to pay the guys immediately as soon as they're done. Yeah. If you're holding$20,000 from me, I haven't paid these guys or I have, and I'm out the cash. Yeah, that's not that's not the deal. That's not what we set up in the beginning. That's not what we talked about. So that might be a conversation that you have up front about what you what that even looks like at the end. Don't let it, don't let it naturally happen. Have a plan for that. Yep. I mean, during the CEA, we'll let you hold that last final week. Or if it's, hey, we're gonna invoice everything to 98%. And so 2% of every line item that we invoice is going into a bank at the end that you hold, and you can figure out but you can look at what that money is gonna be. Is that$3,000? Is that$2,000, whatever that percentage is?

Use Pro Photos For Marketing

Ask For Google Reviews The Right Way

SPEAKER_01 15:06

And and I I have like real life with a client, when they're like, you know, I just I'm not comfortable paying anything else till we get done. I will say, uh, okay, let's let's look at what's left. Let's look at what we got to do. You've got touch up paint in this room, we've got to install the trim around two of those windows, we gotta put the door handles back on, um, and then we got to clean. You could pay someone$800 to$1,000 to do all that stuff. I'm gonna let you hold three grand just to show you like we're good, but I can't let you hold$15,000 because it doesn't take$15,000 to get this house to 100%. Yeah. Right. And that's logical, and you can negotiate that at the end with a client. It's the let's look at what is what's left. What else do you think is left? Well, no, I think that list is pretty accurate. You think it's gonna cost more than a thousand bucks to have those things done? No, that sounds about right. Okay, cool. I'll give you three grand to hold. Just be be careful. Let us let us punch it all out. We'll be out of here. We'll get our three thousand. Cool. So go ahead and pay me that 12 out of the 15. Where's the money? Yeah. And if if it's getting kind of contentious, contentious with the client, I am going to say, I'm going to have that conversation and I'm going to say, cool, I need that 12 before we show up. Well, we'll get it to you next week. No, I'm not, I'm not mobilizing or bringing another guy out here until we settle up to where we're at, and I'll give you a little bit extra. You're gonna hold three grand, but I need that check before we come back out here. I'm not gonna just keep working on promises because I'm never gonna get that money from them. All right. So we close out the job well. That's the C. We close it out, it's done. Walk, small final payment, things look good. The next thing that we do, the P is professional photos. Uh, we try now, obviously, if you are painting one bathroom, you don't need to pay for professional photos. But if you're doing any sizable job that you can that a professional photographer can really document for you, we are increasing our ability to do marketing now and in the future. We're being able to build our our our portfolio of work to show people. Um, you know, I always say if we've got a kitchen bathroom renovation or a whole house renovation, if you do a whole house reno, that's seven to ten different areas that you can take photos of and use separately. The client, people looking at your social or at your portfolio don't know that that kitchen is the same one as that last bathroom in the same house. They just look like two different jobs to them. So I we pay, I mean, how often do you pay a photographer to take photos for projects? End of every project. Every project. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:59

Um, how much do you pay on uh per I get I get a full slate of pictures and a video? Video does great. Yeah. Uh and it ends up being like five to six hundred bucks. Cool. Great spend. If you're in Austin and can do it for cheaper, let us know.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

Let us know. No, uh it it's worth every penny uh to spend on that because it looks so much.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

I don't care who how good your guy is with his iPhone. Yeah, it looks night and day different. World of difference.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

World of from being a professional builder, professional contractor, or the dude with an iPhone. Yeah. Uh so go get professional photos. Uh one thing that we've done on people that were like flipping a house is we say, hey, listen, I know you're gonna have professional photos. Can I throw in 200 bucks and get a copy of all those? They would love that. You know, they're spending the 500 anyways. Let's let's split it and both use those photos. Um, all right. So the next thing, review. I've got my photos, I've closed out the job. I need to get all involved to review me, not just the wife, not just the husband. I want both of them to give me a Google review. And I tell them that. Um, it's like, hey, just so you know, we live and die by Google reviews. If you guys have enjoyed this, the way you can give me a tip is if each of you review me on Google separately. Do your kids have Gmail accounts?

unknown 19:24

Yeah.

Thoughtful Gifts That Get Referrals

SPEAKER_01 19:25

I saw your mother come in town. Does she would she be willing? But let's double up our reviews on that, but let's ask for it and and get it and have that conversation openly and not be scared to ask for it. Obviously, if if they're not gonna give you a five star, I'm not asking for it.

SPEAKER_00 19:41

Yeah. Practice, practice that conversation though. Like have your have your company line, like practice it in the mirror so you're comfortable with it. Hey, this is the deal. This is what we what we really need. And like you will be surprised at how willing people are to do that for you. Even if there's been issues along the way, you talk about the project first, you get their understanding of how it went. If there's a more overwhelmingly positive vibe about the project, ask for the review. They'd be happy to give it to you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

And that is the Google re the Google review is the number one driver of SEO. I mean, you're starting to show up in Chat GPT searches once you start getting a lot of those going. You I mean, there's uh so many different aspects that if you can do one thing to increase your view, your reach, your SEO, it's getting Google reviews.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

And SEO stands for standardized entrepreneurial operations, as everyone knows.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

As everybody knows, that's it. Uh, the last thing that we're gonna do once we get that review, or right before we get the review, is a gift. We like to try and give gifts to those that deserve it.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

Uh because that's the that's what a gift means. It means you deserve this.

Make Reviews Easy With A Link

SPEAKER_01 21:04

So here's a gift. The clients that nickel and dime and take our money aren't getting gifts. Uh, I'll give you, I'll give you a gift of just cool, I'll knock 500 bucks off because you're being that way. Uh but one thing I I I want to task my PMs on is let's identify throughout the project something that they're into. She likes quilting. He's big into whiskies, right? Whatever, whatever it is. Oh, what a pair. Cat posters. Well, if we could identify something that they like, they collect, you know, they're big into wine. They're a wine collection. Well, let's look at pull out your phone, take a picture of their wine bottles that they got sitting out, and Chat GPT, I want a$200 bottle of something that's similar to these things. Well, whatever it is, get creative with it and show them that you pay attention and you care about it. Not, you know, a$100 gift card is fine, but if you can have a, you know, a gift card to an Italian restaurant because you heard them talking about how much they loved their trip to Italy. That's 10 times better than here's a$100 visa gift card. Yeah. It's still great. Thoughtful. It's it's I heard something, I thought about it, and I got this for you.

SPEAKER_00 22:12

I read your guys' journal. I kind of did some research. I called your friends.

SPEAKER_01 22:19

I noticed that your lingerie was from France. And so what I got you.

SPEAKER_00 22:24

Let's spice things up a little bit. You're welcome from me. Think about me.

SPEAKER_01 22:31

No, but no, notice them. Get, you know, that's something that's even uh a great kind of break when you're talking in your pound meetings with your PMs on a Friday. Like, hey, is there anything we've identified for a gift for these people? Yeah, he always talks about golf. Like all he does is golf, golf, golf. Cool. What if we try to figure out something with that, right? Like a gift card for a round of golf at a local. Oh, he's a member somewhere. Cool. Why don't we get him a sleeve of golf balls that are, you know, the pro view ones. Whatever it is, let's try and show them that we're thoughtful and we're per we're humans and we we can identify and wanna wanna get him something.

SPEAKER_00 23:07

I'd I'd recommend more than one sleeve of golf balls. 24 pack. Nice. Pro view ones. Nice. And here's three. Golf balls.

Wrap Up And How To Work With Us

SPEAKER_01 23:17

Remember me. Remember me. Can I get that review now? Have fun on the front, first two holes. If you're good, these will be enough for the year. So that's it. Closing out the job well. We want the final walk. We want small final payment. We're going to get photos. We're going to ask for reviews. One thing about the review I didn't mention, people I've seen this is an area that people do asking for reviews that I've seen. They go to their like Google review page and copy and paste the URL. You can go into your Google My Business, and there's a spot within the reviews area if you own the Google My Business to where there's a link directly to review. So you can text someone that you can copy and paste that into your uh standard in final invoice email template. And that will literally, when they click on it, if they're logged into Google, it pops up the review and they just hit five stars in answer. If you give them the other link, they're literally having to search around and find you and then finding where to write a review. And there's a lot more friction to get them to hit it. So that's, you know, go into Google My Business, check out how to get that review link from Google, uh, and then cut and paste that everywhere. Put that in your phone, text it to people. They can pop it up on their on their iPhone right in front of you and give you a review. Um, but make it as easy as possible for them for that review, and then finally figure out a good gift to give them. Try and really end well to where you're it's memorable. One other thing I think we've done before is the final photos of a full project. Let's make a photo book for them and put it on their little chat table. Put a little from you know our company to this family. Um, thanks for the memories. Write a little something on the front inside cover and get get them a nice little chat book that they can show off their their house and be a conversation piece.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

Put your QR code in there, links to your website, bing bang. People come over. Bing, bang, bong. Bing bing bong.

SPEAKER_01 25:14

That's it. If you guys want to talk about how to do all this stuff, want any of this paperwork that we've got, want to have a game plan and a partner in figuring out the growth of your company, we love to chat with you. Go to contractorcuts.com, set up a free 30-minute meeting. We'd love to talk to you. If you want some software, ProStruck360.com is a fantastic software uh sponsor, sponsor of the show. Uh but if you want to get if you want to get on a really good uh construction management software, start to end, it manages your QuickBooks for you and your emails and everything else. Uh go to ProStrick360.com. All right. Talk to you guys next week. Bye. Bye.