Setting up Yesoma for a construction business

If you run a general contracting or construction business, Yesoma's construction playbook is built for the specific rhythms of your work: long lead times, large deposits, permits, subcontractors, and customers who have heard every contractor horror story in the book. This article walks through how to get the most out of your setup.

1. Applying the construction playbook

During onboarding, select General contractor / construction as your industry. Yesoma will pre-populate your workspace with eight services, seven policies, eight FAQs, and eight reply templates written for GC work — not adapted from a generic service template.

What gets written in:

• Services for every major project type, from the free initial site visit through bathroom and kitchen remodels, decks, basement finishing, home additions, interior renovations, and custom commercial or restoration work
• Policies covering licensing, insurance, milestone payment structure, permit responsibility, the change order process, lien waivers, warranty, and site cleanup
• FAQs written around the questions construction customers actually ask before they hire a contractor
• Reply templates for every stage of the customer journey, from the first inquiry to the post-project review request
• A follow-up cadence tuned to construction's decision pace — not the same-day urgency of a plumber or the weekly cycle of a salon

Review everything after onboarding and edit it to match your exact license number, insurance coverage, and the specific services you offer. The playbook gives you a strong starting point; your edits make it yours.

2. The consult-then-quote workflow — pre-qualifying customers before you bid

Construction bids take real time to prepare. A detailed proposal for a kitchen remodel can take several hours. The playbook is built around a consult-first model that lets you qualify projects before you invest that time.

How the workflow runs in Yesoma:

1. A customer sends an inquiry. Yesoma fires the First reply — new project inquiry template, which asks for project type, address, rough scope, budget range, timeline, and who the decision-makers are.
2. You review the answers. If the project is a fit, you use the Free consult scheduling template to book the site visit.
3. After the site visit, you send the Scope document + initial estimate — a written summary with a rough range, not a binding bid. This gets the customer oriented on price before you spend time on a formal proposal.
4. Once scope and finish selections are finalized, you send the Formal proposal sent template with the full contract price, milestone payment schedule, and project calendar.

Asking for budget range in the first message matters. A customer with a $15,000 budget for a kitchen remodel and a customer with a $75,000 budget are both serious — but they need different conversations. Getting that number early saves both of you time.

The first reply template also asks specifically about decision-makers. Couples who own a home together both need to sign the contract. If one partner sees the proposal for the first time at signing, the deal often stalls. Getting both people to the site visit prevents that.

3. Milestone payment schedule and lien waiver pattern

Construction customers who have been burned before are wary of large upfront deposits. The playbook frames your payment structure around progress, not trust — you pay as work is completed, not before.

The standard milestone structure used across the playbook's services:

• 10–20% deposit on signed contract — covers permit application fees, subcontractor scheduling, and material procurement (for long-lead items like cabinets)
• Progress payments tied to specific completed phases: demolition, framing, rough-in inspection, finish work staged, cabinets installed, tile complete — whichever milestones are relevant to the project
• 5–10% retainer held until the punch list is complete and the customer signs off on the final walkthrough

Every payment milestone is written into the contract before work begins. The Progress payment reminder template prompts you to send a message at each milestone with a description of what was completed before you issue the invoice. Customers who understand what they are paying for are customers who pay promptly.

The lien waiver policy is included in the playbook because it matters to sophisticated customers and buyers' agents. At each payment milestone, you provide a conditional lien waiver for the completed work. At final payment, you provide a full unconditional lien waiver plus lien waivers from major subcontractors. This prevents any supplier or sub from placing a mechanics lien against the homeowner's title for work that has already been paid. Lenders and title companies ask for this documentation — having a policy that names it builds confidence with customers who know what to look for.

4. The change order process — baked into your templates

The change order is the single most important template in this playbook. Scope creep is the most common source of contractor-customer disputes, and it destroys margins and relationships in equal measure.

The playbook's approach:

The Change order — scope change mid-project template documents every change before work on that change begins: what is changing, why, the adjusted contract price, and any schedule impact. Both parties sign before work continues.

The Change order process policy explains this to customers in plain language before a dispute ever arises. Customers who understand why the process exists accept it. Customers who encounter a change order for the first time mid-project, without context, sometimes push back.

Pair the policy with the template: include the change order policy language in every proposal so customers know the process before they sign. When a change order comes up during construction, it feels routine rather than confrontational.

A few scenarios the change order template covers:

• Customer requests an upgrade (standard tile to custom tile, basic countertop to quartz)
• Customer adds scope not in the original contract (adding a bathroom to the basement, extending the deck)
• Unforeseen conditions discovered during demolition (rotted subfloor, asbestos tile, improperly installed prior work)
• Material substitution because the specified product is unavailable

All of these are normal on construction projects. The change order process makes them normal in writing.

5. License, insurance, and warranty messaging

Customers hiring a general contractor are making a decision involving tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars and months of disruption to their home. The primary fear — beyond budget and timeline — is hiring a contractor who is not licensed, not insured, or who disappears after taking a deposit.

Your playbook addresses this directly in three places:

Policy: Licensed, insured, and bonded. Written to be specific rather than generic. It names license type, general liability, workers' compensation, and the requirement that subcontractors carry their own insurance. Make sure you fill in your actual license number in your Business Brain profile.

FAQ: Are you licensed and insured? Customers ask this question before they hire. Having it pre-answered in your FAQ means it shows up in your Business Brain responses and is easy to point to.

First reply template. The opening message closes with a one-line credential statement: "We are a licensed and insured general contracting business." This is the first thing a new customer reads. That placement is intentional.

The 1-year workmanship warranty policy is included because warranty language matters at the proposal stage. Customers comparing bids from multiple contractors notice when one contractor offers a written warranty and another does not. The playbook's policy includes what is covered, what is not, and how a warranty claim works — so there are no surprises.

6. The post-completion review request — why the 7-day delay matters for construction

Yesoma's review request for construction fires 7 days after project completion, not the day after. This is intentional.

Construction customers need time to actually live in the finished space. A homeowner who walks into their new kitchen for the first time every morning for a week experiences something fundamentally different from one asked for a review on the last day of demolition cleanup. The punch list stress fades. The new space becomes normal. That is when the genuine satisfaction surfaces, and that is the review worth having.

There is also a practical reason: the first few days after project completion often surface minor punch list items. If you ask for a review while a customer is waiting on touch-up paint or a cabinet adjustment, the review reflects that. Wait a week and the review reflects the finished space.

The Post-project thank-you + review request template sends 7 days after the completion trigger. It references the 1-year warranty, directs the customer to Google and Houzz (where construction reviews carry the most weight), and does not ask them to do it immediately — it is a request, not a demand.

Houzz is specifically surfaced in this playbook because construction and remodeling reviews on Houzz influence homeowners who are actively planning projects. A strong Houzz presence reaches customers earlier in the decision process than Google reviews alone.

7. What your reply templates look like in action

Here is a quick example of how the templates sequence on a typical kitchen remodel inquiry:

Day 0 — Inquiry received. Customer messages asking about a kitchen remodel. Yesoma fires the First reply template automatically, asking for project type, address, scope, budget range, timeline, and who the decision-makers are.

Day 1 — Pre-qualification complete. You review the customer's answers. Budget is in range, both homeowners can attend a site visit. You send the Free consult scheduling template with three available dates.

Site visit — Day 7. You walk the kitchen, discuss scope and finish level. Within 48 hours you send the Scope document + initial estimate with a rough range of $65,000–$85,000 depending on final selections.

Day 14 — Finish selections finalized. Customer picks cabinets, countertop, and tile. You finalize the bid and send the Formal proposal with the full contract price, milestone payment schedule, and project calendar.

Day 19 — Proposal follow-up. If no response, Yesoma fires the quote follow-up reminder. The proposal is valid for 30 days.

During construction — Milestone payment reminders. As each phase completes, you send the Progress payment reminder template before invoicing.

Day 82 (approx.) — Substantial completion. You send the Substantial completion + punch list template to schedule the final walkthrough.

Day 89 — Review request. Seven days after the punch list is signed off, Yesoma fires the Post-project thank-you + review request template.

Every stage has a template. None of them require you to write from scratch under time pressure at the end of a long construction day. That is the point.