How to Build a Maintenance Plan That Generates Reliable Income

10 min read · Updated November 2025

Most trades and service businesses rely on a simple pattern: do a job, get paid, wait for the next one. It works — but it doesn’t create stability.

A maintenance plan changes that. It gives you predictable recurring income, steadier months, fewer slow periods and a pipeline of loyal customers who naturally come back to you for bigger jobs later.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to build a maintenance plan that’s both profitable for your business and genuinely valuable for your customers — without overwhelming your schedule.

Why maintenance plans work

A maintenance plan solves three major problems for service businesses:

• Income swings between busy and quiet months
• Customers forgetting to book annual or seasonal work
• One-off jobs that never become repeat customers

When customers join an ongoing plan, you become their “go-to” before they even think of Googling alternatives.

Step 1: Define the purpose of your plan

Ask one question first: what problem does the plan solve?

For example, if you’re a heating engineer, the goal might be: keep boilers running safely all year and prevent breakdowns. If you’re an electrician, it might be: ensure safety checks are done on time. For gardeners: regular upkeep that stops gardens getting out of control.

The clearer the purpose, the easier it is to design something customers understand and want.

Step 2: Choose what’s included (and what isn’t)

Great maintenance plans are simple. They include predictable, repeatable services that don’t take huge amounts of variable labour.

Common inclusions:

• Annual or seasonal servicing
• Basic safety checks
• Priority callouts
• Discounted repair rates
• Free small adjustments or tune-ups

Common exclusions:

• Major repairs
• Parts over a certain value
• Non-routine callouts
• Emergency work beyond X hours

Keep it lean. A plan full of “unlimited” benefits will either lose you money or overwhelm your calendar.

Step 3: Decide on your pricing

Most trades price plans between £9–£25 per month or £99–£249 per year.

Three things affect pricing:

• The number of included visits
• The time required for each service
• The value of the perks (e.g. priority support)

Keep in mind: your plan isn’t only about the visit itself — customers pay for peace of mind, faster response times, and knowing their home or equipment is looked after.

Step 4: Create a simple plan structure

Most businesses use a single, simple plan to start with. Something like:

• 1 annual service visit
• Priority scheduling
• 10% discount on repairs
• Free minor adjustments
• Emergency callouts at reduced rates

As you grow, you can introduce tiers such as Basic / Standard / Premium.

Step 5: Decide how customers will pay

You have three options:

• Monthly subscription
• Yearly one-off payment
• Add-on fees at the time of service

Monthly payments create the most stable recurring revenue, while annual payments help cashflow quickly. Many trades offer both.

Step 6: Plan your workload so visits don’t overload you

If you sign up 50 customers to annual servicing but schedule everyone in the same month, you’ll burn out.

The solution is load balancing. Spread visits across the year or season.

With GoTaskhub you can:

• Create recurring tasks for each customer
• Assign annual servicing automatically
• Track overdue or upcoming visits
• Balance appointments month by month

This ensures steady work instead of a single chaotic spike each year.

Step 7: Promote the plan during and after every job

Maintenance plans sell best when they’re mentioned naturally — not like a hard pitch.

For example:

• After a repair: “To prevent this happening again, I recommend our annual service plan…”
• During a quote: “You’ll also get a service included if you choose the maintenance plan…”
• On invoices: “Join our maintenance plan for priority callouts and discounts.”

You can also promote it via email campaigns, reminders, and links inside your customer portal.

Step 8: Track renewals, due dates and reminders automatically

This is where many businesses fail: they sell a plan once and forget to manage it.

Without a system, you risk:

• Missing annual services
• Forgetting renewals
• Losing customers silently over time

With GoTaskhub, you can:

• Create recurring tasks for servicing
• Tag maintenance customers in your CRM
• Use automated reminders for due dates
• Track plan renewal dates and follow up easily

As your plan grows, automation keeps it profitable instead of chaotic.

Step 9: Measure profitability and adjust

A plan only works long-term if it’s profitable. Track these three numbers:

• Time spent per customer per year
• Revenue earned from the plan
• Extra work generated from plan customers

You’ll quickly see if your pricing makes sense — or if the plan needs tweaking.

Final thoughts: Small plans create big stability

You don’t need hundreds of customers for maintenance plans to work. Even 20–40 customers paying monthly can cover your vehicle costs, insurance or a slow winter month.

Maintenance plans turn one-off jobs into recurring income, reduce seasonal dips, and make your business far more predictable — financially and operationally.

GoTaskhub helps you manage the entire process with:

• Recurring tasks and reminders
• Customer tagging and plan tracking
• Automatic scheduling for annual visits
• Invoicing and payment collection
• A client portal where customers can renew or book

The more predictable your work becomes, the easier it is to grow — and a solid maintenance plan is one of the most reliable ways to get there.