Whether you install fences, prune trees, haul junk, clean houses, run HVAC, paint, landscape, or work any other trade — this is the digital stack that turns the trade you already know into a business that's yours.
Buy the playbook — $79
"Every day you install, repair, install again — and the owner cashes the check. The hard part isn't the trade; you've got that. The hard part is the website, the Google Business Profile, the lead gen, the LLC."
A look inside — the foreword, a chapter opener, and the appendix that catalogs the templates pack.
This isn't a course, a coaching program, or a get-rich-quick scheme. It's the exact playbook that built three real local service businesses — written for people who do real work. Every technical term you don't know yet (Map Pack, AI search, SaaS, all of it) gets explained in plain English the moment it comes up.
Every chapter is sequenced, gotcha-aware, and assumes you'll be using Claude as your daily operating tool.
Why now, the consolidation gap, the AI moat thesis. Honest answers to "can I really learn the trade?" and "do I need a license?" The discovery questions that save months of rebuild work.
Brand identity, the website template, Cloudflare deployment, Google Search Console, analytics, professional email with 10/10 deliverability, the press-1 phone strategy that filters spam.
The heart of the book. Google Business Profile, citations, backlinks, monthly reporting, blog content, AI search optimization (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews), grid rank tracking.
Print and signage, lead generation, LLC + EIN + insurance, the hiring framework, the first 90 days sequenced week by week, what to do when things break.
Gotchas catalog, honest cost summary, account & service reference, troubleshooting table, templates pack contents, two-paths quick reference, and the 30-minute monthly DIY SEO audit using only free tools.
41 files. Website template with schema markup, brand-color CSS palettes, all 35+ Claude prompts, discovery worksheet, monthly review template, 90-day calendar, LLC operating agreement, 1099 contractor agreement, top-50 directories.
Most launch guides either pretend everything is free or quietly assume you'll spend thousands. Here's the real number — small enough to fund out of a paycheck without explaining it to anyone.
Here's what the four common paths cost in year one — the full digital stack, the brand, the SEO setup, the legal and email infrastructure, all in.
Every tool in the playbook with its job and what it costs. You'll set up each one in a dedicated chapter, in order.
Plug-and-play assets that compress weeks of setup into hours. Included free with the book.
You already know the work — fence installation, junk hauling, tree care, cleaning, HVAC. You're good at the actual trade. What you're missing is the business side: the website, the SEO, the Google Business Profile, the email infrastructure, the lead generation, the legal stack.
This book hands you that missing half. The trade you know stays the same; what changes is the apparatus around it that turns the trade into a business.
You're in knowledge work — maybe one you don't love, maybe one you've watched shrink, maybe one that's already gone. You can build a spreadsheet, run a project, write an email that doesn't make people roll their eyes. What you don't have is the trade itself.
Chapter 2 covers what you can actually learn online (more than you'd think), and Chapter 5 helps you pick a trade. Many of the highest-margin local services require less specialized knowledge than you'd assume.
Three different shapes: Warren Bros Fencing (cedar fence specialist I founded in 2021 in Wichita, KS, where my brother Alex partners with me on installations); Baker Tree Service (20-year Wichita tree-service operator Andy Baker runs — I built the modern website and run the digital growth side); and Cowtown Cleanup Crew (junk removal in the Wichita metro, my solo build).
Three different trades, three different ownership shapes, the same digital playbook underneath. Every digital step in this book has been personally executed across all three — and I did it on nights, weekends, and stolen lunch hours while still showing up for the day job.
I'm not a tradesperson who's been doing this for thirty years. I'm not a finance professor who's modeled local-service-business economics in the abstract. I'm an operator who has spent the last several years actually building local service businesses while holding a corporate job, in the AI era, using AI as a daily tool, and writing down what worked.
Trade Up Playbook is a 554-page digital book by Grant Warren that teaches first-time business owners how to launch a real local service business — covering branding, website, SEO, Google Business Profile, citations, lead generation, LLC and EIN filing, insurance, and the first 90 days of operations. It's a one-time $79 digital download, not a course, coaching program, or trading strategy.
No. Trade Up Playbook is about launching a local service business (trades like fencing, junk removal, tree service, HVAC, painting, cleaning, landscaping, and similar). It has nothing to do with stock trading, day trading, cryptocurrency, or asset-flipping strategies. The name "Trade Up" refers to trading up to owning the business you already do the work for.
PDF — 554 pages at 6×9 trim, optimized for both desktop reading and print. Clickable table of contents and cross-references throughout.
Yes. Every buyer gets free access to all future revisions, including the three currently-deferred chapters (Paid Acquisition, Pricing & Invoicing, Bookkeeping & Taxes) once those are completed.
No. The 90-day calendar in the templates pack is sequenced for ~8–12 hours per week, so you can build the business on evenings and weekends while still showing up for work. Most operators wait until the new business has a few jobs booked before making the jump.
The book is significantly more effective if you do — Chapter 8 sets up the AI workflow that compounds through the rest of the book. But every chapter still works without it. The honest cost ladder covers your options.
Yes. The playbook is trade-agnostic — the same digital stack works for fence companies, junk haulers, cleaners, tree services, HVAC, plumbing, painting, landscaping, handyman, and so on. Chapter 5 helps you pick a trade if you haven't yet.
14-day no-questions-asked refund. Email grant@tradeupplaybook.com with your order number.
$79 one-time. Instant download. The complete playbook plus the 41-file templates pack. 14-day refund if it's not for you.
Buy Trade Up — $79