Hard Earned is the hiring network for skilled trades and service companies. Every applicant carries a verified work history, a license check and named vouches from the owners and crews they've worked with.
Invite-only. 60 days free on any paid plan. Founding employers keep Growth at $99/mo for life.
The problem
Job boards sell you applicants by the hundred. Most can't do the work, and many never answer the phone.
You train a tech for ninety days and he's gone. The cost is the wages, the truck time, and the customers you lost on the way.
A résumé is typed by the applicant. The reference call takes an hour and you only make it after you've already invested.
Anonymous employer reviews hurt you and teach you nothing. You want to be judged by the people who actually worked for you.
The signal you actually want is simple. Did this person show up, do the work and leave on good terms? Only the people who worked beside them can tell you. Hard Earned puts that answer in front of you before the interview, not after the hire.
How it works
Founding employers are invited in by the founder, or by a member who knows their work. A short call, no cold sign-ups.
Say how you work, what you build, where you're headed and what the job really pays. Upload your logo and photos of your crews at work.
Open Role, New Territory, New Project or New Hire. Each post is tied to something real, and each opening lists on Google for Jobs.
Each applicant's profile shows work history, license status, and named vouches. Compare applicants side by side and run structured interviews with your team.
Use cases
You need one person who will work unsupervised, learn the market and own the route. That's a trust problem, not a license problem. On Hard Earned a territory-launch role is its own post type, and the applicants you see come with the people who will stand behind them.
Pest control · Lawn & landscaping · Pool service · Route-based services
A Texas TDLR license lookup is built in, so you can see that the license is real and current. Pair it with employer-confirmed work history and you know where the experience came from.
Electrical · HVAC · Plumbing · Low-voltage and security
Post once, share the link to your Facebook page and your crew group chat, and let your own people send the right applicant your way. Your best next hire usually knows somebody who knows somebody.
Service techs · Installers · Helpers · Drivers
Look for a track record of tenure, not job-hopping. Vouches from foremen, coworkers and former owners show who people choose to work beside.
Foremen · Crew leads · Superintendents · Operations managers
Add Owners, Admins, Hiring Managers and Interviewers. An Interviewer sees only the scorecard for their candidate. They don't see pay or team settings, and that boundary also keeps bias out of the loop.
Multi-location operators · Family businesses · Acquired companies
Post temporary, contract or short-term roles with an expected duration, and search for workers who've said they're open to temp work. You hire them directly. There is no agency markup and no fee tied to what you pay.
Seasonal crews · Project-based work · Contract techs · Overflow help
Trade school and apprenticeship graduates arrive with an instructor's vouch. Post apprenticeship roles and grow your own bench of people trained your way.
Apprentices · Helpers · Trade school graduates · Entry-level
New owners inherit a crew and a reputation they didn't build. Use Hard Earned to learn who your people are, hire for the gaps, and stand up your own bench of vouched-for talent.
Small business buyers · Search-fund operators · Succession transitions
What you get
What you see
Instead of a one-page résumé you can't check, you see tenure by employer, a confirmed license, and short vouches from the owners and crew leads who watched the work firsthand.
The profile is the application. A member worker applies in one click, and you start from evidence.
Example profile · fictional
J. Rivera
HVAC service technician · Austin, TX · 7 years
Straight answers
Not yet at scale, and we won't pretend otherwise. We're opening one Texas metro at a time. Founding employers bring the first vouched-for people, so the network starts with real relationships.
Keep it. Hard Earned is where the people you'd actually hire show their proof. Use the board for volume and use us for trust.
Posting a role takes minutes, and you can run your hiring from your phone. Your page and your vouches are built from the relationships you already have.
No. Hard Earned is a self-service platform. You search, you choose who to contact, and you make every hiring decision. We never place anyone.
See full pricing. What we ask in return: a 30-minute conversation about how you hire today, and the names of the people you'd vouch for when we open your metro.
Questions
Starter is free: one active job post, standard search, five introduction requests a month and the compliance coach. Growth is $199 a month with unlimited job posts, the AI hiring assistant and 50 introduction requests. Scale is $1,990 a year. Every new paid plan starts with 60 days free. Founding employers keep Growth at $99 a month for life. There is never a fee tied to a specific hire, and worker profiles are free.
No. Hard Earned is a self-service hiring platform. Employers post roles, review applicants, and decide who to contact and hire. Hard Earned does not select, recruit, or place candidates.
Three ways. Texas license numbers are checked against the TDLR lookup. Work history can be confirmed by a former employer on the network. Vouches come from named people the worker actually worked with. Credentials we can't yet look up automatically are reviewed manually.
Electrical, plumbing, HVAC, pest control, landscaping and lawn care, roofing, welding and fabrication, construction and general labor, carpentry, painting, concrete and masonry, automotive and diesel, CDL driving and logistics, manufacturing and machining, municipal and public works, low-voltage and security, plus operations and office roles.
An assistant you drive. Describe the person you need in plain English, on the web or by text, and it searches verified profiles, lists your open roles and ranks applicants for a role using only verified signals such as license checks, vouches and your own scorecards. It never contacts a candidate on its own. You choose who to reach out to.
A check that runs on every job post, search and message before it goes out. It flags and suggests rewrites for wording that could create legal risk, such as references to protected traits, and explains why. It is a guardrail, not legal advice, and it never makes a hiring decision.
Yes. Post temporary, contract, part-time, full-time or apprenticeship roles, set an expected duration, and search for workers who are open to temp work. You hire and pay them directly. Hard Earned is not the employer and charges no fee tied to the hire.
Texas first, one metro at a time. If your company is outside Texas, apply anyway and tell us where you hire.
Trust is the product. Every member gets in because someone vouched for them or because the founder reviewed their application. That keeps bots, tire-kickers and anonymous noise out.
There are no anonymous reviews on Hard Earned. Workers can vouch for an employer by name, tied to confirmed tenure, such as “worked here three years, would work here again.” That vouch history becomes your would-work-again rate.
Yes. Add team members as Owner, Admin, Hiring Manager or Interviewer. Interviewers see only the scorecard for their assigned candidate.
Apply as a founding employer. We'll set up a short call, build your company page together, and open your metro with the people you'd vouch for.