List the five trades that always come just before you on a job. A kitchen fitter is on site weeks before the plumber is needed for the sink and the sparks for the hob, a plasterer follows the first fix, a tiler follows the shower tray. Those five people know about your job before the homeowner has even thought to search for you.

Get in with letting agents and property managers, not just estate agents. Sales agents want pre-sale snag fixes and a BER sorted, but letting agents ring somebody every week about a leaking rad, a dead immersion or a boiler that has locked out in a tenanted house. That is repeat work with an account, not a one off.

Talk to the trades who are booked out three months and turning work away. Every busy plumber, roofer or electrician has a pile of small jobs they will not travel for. Ask to be the name they give out instead of ‘sorry, we’re flat out’, and offer to hand back anything you cannot cover.

Chase the non-trade gatekeepers nobody else bothers with. Insurance loss assessors after a burst pipe or storm damage, chimney sweeps who spot cracked flashing, oil companies whose driver sees a rotten tank stand, and the local hardware shop who gets asked ‘do you know anyone who does this?’ ten times a week.

Decide whether it is cash, a swap or a favour, and say it plainly. A fellow trade usually wants work back, not a cheque. An estate agent or a kitchen showroom usually wants a fee or a discount for their client. Guessing wrong is how good relationships go cold.

Pay a percentage on the job value, not a flat tenner. A flat fee makes people send you the blocked toilet and keep the full rewire or the full re-roof for their cousin. A percentage of the invoice means they push the jobs you actually want, and cap it on very large contracts so it stays sane.

Keep the paperwork clean and above board. Referral fees are a business expense, so get an invoice from the partner, put it through the books properly and talk to your accountant about VAT before you start handing out cash in the van. Do not offer fees to anyone who is professionally barred from taking them.

Agree the standard you both hold, in writing, even if it is just a WhatsApp message. Turn up when you say, quote within a set number of days, clean up after yourself, and that any gas work is RGII registered and any electrical work goes out with a Safe Electric cert. Their name is on the recommendation and they need to know it is safe.

Give every partner a one line intro they can copy and paste. Something like ‘This is Dave, our sparks, Safe Electric registered, he covers Naas and Newbridge, he’ll ring you today.’ They should never have to compose a message about you from scratch on a busy Friday.

Set up a three way WhatsApp group the moment a name is passed. Partner, customer and you in one thread beats a phone number written on the back of a delivery docket. It also means the partner can see you answered, which is the whole reason they will send the next one.

Answer a partner referral faster than you answer anything else. A referral that sits until the evening makes your partner look bad in front of their own client. Ring back the same day, even if it is only to book a look for Thursday.

Leave them something physical for the counter or the van. A small stack of cards or a magnet works in a hardware shop, a builders providers trade counter or an estate agent’s reception. Put the specific jobs on it, ‘burst pipes, immersions, bathroom refits’, not just ‘plumbing services’.

Get listed as an approved installer with the manufacturers you already fit. Whether it is heat pumps, stoves, rooflights, garage doors or gutter systems, most makers have a find an installer map and they send the enquiries straight to the names on it. Ask your rep in Chadwicks or Heat Merchants how to get added.

Check whether the grant and registration schemes for your trade will feed you work. SEAI registered contractors, RGII, Safe Electric and the various installer registers all have public searches that homeowners use before they ring anyone. Make sure your listing shows the right counties and a number that rings in your pocket.

Set up a proper trade account and be useful at the counter. The lads behind the desk in your local providers hear ‘do you know a good roofer?’ constantly and they will name whoever they actually know. Buy your materials there, learn their names, and they become an unpaid sales team.

Ask every single caller who sent them and write it down the same day. One line in a notebook or a column in a spreadsheet, partner name, job type, quoted, won, value. Within three months you will see that two partners send everything and the other eight send nothing.

Give your biggest partners their own landing page and tracked number. A simple page on your site for the estate agent or the kitchen showroom, with their logo and a phone number that is only used there, means you never argue about who sent what. It also makes them feel like a proper partner rather than a name in your contacts.

Pay the referral fee the week the customer pays you, and tell them the job went well. Nothing kills a partnership faster than a fee that has to be chased twice. Send the money, send a photo of the finished bathroom or the new fascia, and you will be the first name they say for the next two years.