How to do well as a CTW partner

1. How it works

You send us trades businesses that are buried in office work. When one becomes a client, you earn 25% of every dollar the client pays us, for as long as they stay a client. Joining is free and there are no quotas.

You don’t sell anything. Share your link, or introduce us by email, and we take it from there: the conversation, the free plan, the agreement and the work.

2. What you’re recommending

Three offers. Most partners point people to the first one, because it carries no risk for the client at all.

• The Keep-Half Deal. Nothing up front. We’re only paid out of the money we save the client: they keep half of the saving, we’re paid from the other half for twelve months, and then it’s all theirs. Cancel any time, no questions asked. Every number is agreed in writing first.
• The Free 7-Day Form Switch. For businesses paying for a form app: we cut that bill in half. We set up their own forms free in 7 days, and they don’t pay a dollar until they decide to use them.
• The Dig-Out. For a business that’s behind with a date coming: we take the backlog on and finish it by a date we guarantee. They don’t pay until it’s done.

Every client starts with a free written plan within 24 hours. If we can’t help, we say so straight away, and it costs them nothing.

3. Who to talk to

The best referrals come from businesses you already know well. Look for these signs:

• The owner does office work at night or on weekends.
• Paperwork is always late: invoices, permits, renewals, certificates, reports for their own clients.
• They keep saying they need to hire someone for the office, but haven’t.
• One person in the office holds everything, and everyone waits on them.
• They pay for a form app for their crews, every month, per person.
• They’re busy and growing, and the office hasn’t kept up.

Good fits are trades businesses with roughly 5 to 100 people: plumbing, heating and cooling, electrical, roofing, remodeling, general contracting, landscaping, pest control and similar.

4. What to say

Keep it short and true. The marketing kit has emails, texts, posts and scripts ready to go. If you’d rather use your own words, here is the whole idea in one line:

“There’s a company that takes office work off trades businesses, and they’re only paid out of the money they save you. The plan is free. Want me to send you the link?”

And say, near the start, that we pay you if they become a client: “Full disclosure: Custom Trade Workflows pays me if you become a client.” That’s the law, and it builds trust.

5. Where to find more people

Start with the people you already serve. Then:

• Add your link to your email signature, so every email you send carries it.
• Mention it in your newsletter once a month. The kit has an article you can paste.
• Post one image and one post a week where your clients see you.
• Put the card or the calculator on your website. They’re in the kit.
• Keep a stack of card inserts at your counter, or slip one into invoices.
• In groups you belong to, follow the group’s rules, and ask the admin first.

6. Your first 30 days

1. Day 1: add your link to your signature, and send the one-client email to the client who needs it most.
2. Week 1: introduce three businesses by email, copying us in, or send them your link.
3. Week 2: post once on the network your clients use, with an image from the kit.
4. Week 3: put the card or the calculator on your website, or the flyer at your counter.
5. Week 4: check your dashboard. Real people and forms tell you what’s working; do more of that.

7. How a referral counts

• Your link. If someone opens your link and becomes a client within 90 days, they’re yours. Your link works on any of our pages: pick one on your dashboard.
• An introduction. Email the business and copy us in (or forward us their details with their OK). They’re yours from that email.
• Already talking to us? If they were already a client, or already in talks with us before your link or introduction, they don’t count. Receiving one of our emails doesn’t count as being in talks.
• Two partners, one business. The most recent link or introduction before they came to us wins.
• Not yourself. Your own business, or one you own part of, never counts.

8. What happens after you send someone

1. They visit, or you introduce us. Your dashboard shows the visit within a minute or two.
2. They tell us what eats their week, by form or on a short call.
3. Within 24 hours they get a free written plan.
4. If they go ahead, every number goes in writing before we start.
5. When they pay us, your share shows on your dashboard, and you’re paid with the next monthly payout.

We tell you when someone you sent becomes a client. We keep the details of their business private unless they say it’s fine to share.

9. Getting paid

• You earn 25% of every dollar the client pays us, for as long as they stay a client. A share is earned when the client has paid us.
• We pay by the 15th of each month, for what clients paid us the month before, once you’re owed $50 or more. Under that, it rolls over.
• We pay by bank transfer or check. Before the first payment we need a W-9 tax form, and we’ll ask for it when you earn your first share.
• If we ever refund a client, the matching share comes off your next payment.
• You’re an independent partner, so you handle your own taxes. For payments made in 2026, we send you a 1099-NEC form if we pay you $2,000 or more in the year.

10. Your dashboard, explained

• Real people: visits where someone stayed and read for a few seconds and scrolled, tapped or moved. Email scanners can’t do that, so this is the number to watch.
• Link visits: every visit through your link. Some are email scanners and link previews checking the link, which is why real people is the better number.
• Forms sent: people who asked us for a plan.
• Clients, earned, owed: filled in as clients sign and pay.

Your dashboard link is private. Keep the email it came in, and use “Sign out of this device” on shared computers. Lost it? Ask for it again.

11. The rules

• Say that we pay you, near the start of every message, post or video, and again close to your link: “Full disclosure: Custom Trade Workflows pays me if you become a client.” Not only at the end, and not buried in hashtags. In a video, say it out loud.
• Only promise what we promise. No savings figures, prices or results. Point people to our pages.
• Email the right way. Email people you know, your clients, or people who asked to hear from you. Use the kit’s emails as they are: when you copy one, the lines the law needs are added at the bottom (that it’s a paid recommendation, our postal address and how to opt out); leave them in. Before you email more than one person, send us the list and we’ll tell you who to take off it. Pass any “stop” on to us within 2 business days. Never buy lists.
• Text the right way. Only one-to-one texts you type yourself, to people you know, between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. their time. No texting services or mass texts.
• Mind your own profession’s rules. Insurance and bond agents: never tie us to a policy. CPAs: no fee for audit or review clients, and disclose in writing. Tax preparers: get signed consent before using tax clients’ details.
• No ads on our name, no fake reviews, no paying people to click, and no pretending to be us.
• Follow each group’s rules, and each network’s. Tell us where you post about us; we’re expected to keep an eye on it.

The full version is in the partner terms.

12. Questions

Can I change my link?

Your code stays the same, but you can point your link at any of our pages from your dashboard.

Someone used my link on their phone and signed up on their laptop. Does it count?

Tell us. If they mention you, or you introduced them, it counts.

Who do I talk to?

Josh, at josh.thomas@customtradeworkflows.com. Introductions go to the same address.