Where the jobs come from — and what they cost
If you have been paying for contractor leads in California — shared leads sold to four or five contractors at once, subscription lead services, pay-per-click — Nalren works differently. Nobody buys a lead, no request is resold, and there is nothing to pay for a job you win here and contract directly. A client reaches you by browsing your trade in their city, searching for a specific service you listed (panel upgrade, re-roof, drain clearing), or reading a Nalren guide that links to real contractors. Every path ends the same way: an estimate or booking request, with the job details you required, sent to you at no cost.
What decides how many requests you get is the profile: the cities in your service area, the specific services and skills you name, real before-and-after photos, and whether your calendar is open. The rest of this guide is that setup.
What a Nalren profile is for a contractor
Homeowners and property managers browse by trade and city, open your profile, and either book a free consultation (a site visit or a call) or book a fixed-scope service you priced. They can send you the job details you ask for — address, photos, description — before anything lands on your calendar, and pay through Nalren when the scope is fixed. Larger, estimate-first jobs can be quoted with a custom offer after you have seen the work, or handled entirely off-platform; Nalren is a marketplace and a booking tool, not a party to your contract.
Step 1 — The account type that matches your license
| Choose | When | What Nalren asks for |
|---|---|---|
| Licensed | You hold a CSLB license (B, C-10, C-36, C-20, C-39…) and do licensed work | Your license on the licenses step; electricians and plumbers are prompted for the trade license specifically; general contractors enter the CSLB number and classification |
| Individual | Handyman-scale work under California's small-job exemption (jobs under $1,000 for labor and materials combined, with no employees, and without advertising yourself as a contractor) | Titles, services, skills — no license required. Do not advertise licensed trades you cannot lawfully perform |
| Business | A company profile — crews, a business name, several trades | Industries instead of titles; the company name is what clients see; a real person still verifies identity |
The account type does not change the rules: a title that requires a license requires it under any account type (how the account types work).
Step 2 — Title, service area, and services that match how people search
- “What do you do?” — up to three titles. Use the trade people search for (Plumber, Electrician, Roofer, General Contractor, Handyman), not your company slogan. A GC who mostly does kitchens can add Kitchen Remodeler as a second title.
- “Where are you based?” — your base city, then every city you will actually drive to as a service area. Be honest about radius; a declined request because the job is too far is worse than never being shown.
- “What do you offer?” — list concrete services (water heater replacement, panel upgrades, re-roofs, drain clearing, bathroom remodel, fence repair) and the skills behind them (permits, Title 24, tankless, EV chargers, tile). Every specific line is a specific search you can match.
- Your intro — what you do, how long, what you are known for, whether you pull permits, whether you are bonded and insured. Two short paragraphs beat a wall of adjectives.
Step 3 — License, bond, insurance
On “Any licenses or certifications?” add your CSLB license: number, classification, state, status, expiration, and a photo or PDF. Add any certifications clients care about (EPA 608 for HVAC, backflow, OSHA). Nalren may ask for a certificate of insurance or other proof before or while in-home services are listed — keep a current COI handy. Photos of real, finished work go on “Make your profile recognizable”: before-and-after pairs, not stock images, not renderings.
Step 4 — “How do you like to charge?”: packages for fixed scope, quotes for everything else
- Hourly rate — turn it on if you bill service calls by the hour (many plumbers and electricians do); otherwise leave it off.
- Packages — only for work you can price sight-unseen: a diagnostic visit, a standard water-heater swap, a panel inspection, a one-room paint job by size. Give each package a plain name, the price, what is included, and what is not.
- Custom quotes — for everything that needs a site visit. After the free consultation, send the price from Bookings → Custom; the client accepts and pays from the message. This is how most remodel-scale work should flow if you want it on the platform at all.
- Payment terms — state them in the package or quote (deposit, progress, final) so they match your written contract.
What's free and what isn't
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Account, profile, search and directory listings | Free |
| Consultations, site visits, estimates | Free — for you and the client |
| Work you do off-platform after meeting a client here | Nothing to Nalren |
| A package or custom quote paid through Nalren | Client pays your price; Nalren's 10% service fee applies, and you choose whether the client pays it, you absorb it, or you split it. Payouts go to your connected Stripe account |
| Promotions (optional) | Paid placement; never required to be visible |
Step 5 — Your calendar: protected, and detail-collecting
Two of the styles in the booking-calendar guide stack perfectly for trades — the Detail collector and the Protected pro. In Bookings → Calendar:
- Working hours and an appointment length that matches a site visit (60 minutes) or a service call (as you bill it).
- Consultations & approval — consultations on for estimate-first work; if you also sell fixed packages, turn on Allow direct booking after consultation so a client you have already met can book the next job without another call. Keep Instant Booking off — approve each request after you have read the details.
- Required from guests — switch on service address, phone number, notes, and file uploads (photos of the problem), and add custom questions: gated community or parking, pets, are you the owner or a tenant, is there an HOA, permit history. A package can carry its own list that overrides the global one.
- Cancellation & deposits — set a deposit and a cancellation policy. For home-improvement work California caps the down payment at 10% of the contract price or $1,000, whichever is less; set your Nalren deposit at or under that for any package that is a home-improvement job.
- Notice needed — a day or two, so nobody books you for this afternoon.
- Require ID-verified clients (bottom of the Calendar tab) — an unverified client can still pay but must verify within 24 hours or the booking cancels and refunds itself; bookings of $1,000 and up require verification regardless.
- Pre-qualification questions — optional, but a “what is the job?” choice question with the work you do not do marked disqualifying saves everyone a wasted call.
In-home work: the rules you are agreeing to
The Nalren Service Agreement has a section for services performed in a client's home or on their property. In plain terms: only you and the people you have disclosed to the client may do the work; follow the client's reasonable instructions about access, keys, alarms, pets, and children; Nalren does not dispatch or supervise the job and is not a party to it, so injury, damage, loss, or delay is a matter between you, the client, and your insurer; and Nalren may ask for additional proof — license, permit, certificate of insurance — at any time while those services are listed.
Two things stay yours regardless of Nalren: the written contract California requires for home-improvement work (a Nalren booking is not that contract — sign yours as you normally would), and your permits. Identity verification confirms a real person owns an account; it is not a background check on you or the client.
Habits that keep a contractor profile working
- Answer within hours. Trade requests are time-sensitive; the first pro to respond usually gets the job.
- Mark no-shows and use the reschedule offer instead of cancelling — both are in the request's action sheet.
- Keep photos current. Last month's finished job beats a five-year-old gallery.
- Pause, don't disappear. Booked solid for six weeks? Pause all bookings keeps every setting and takes you offline until you flip it back.