Case study · Home improvement contractor
Growing, and losing money on every job.
Sales past a million, net income negative, and the owner doing the estimating, the scheduling and the production himself. Five years later the business is profitable and we are still in the seat.
The situation
Growth was hiding the problem.
The company was growing, and that was the problem. Revenue had pushed past a million dollars, but net income was negative and every new job seemed to cost more than it brought in. The owner was the estimator, the scheduler and the head of production all at once, so nothing moved unless it moved through him. And there were no numbers that could tell anyone where the money was actually leaking.
What we did
We took two seats, the finance seat and the operating seat, and stayed close to the work rather than handing over a report.
- Built the financial reporting so the business could finally see profitability at the job level, not just the bank balance at the end of the month.
- Put structure and accountability into how work was estimated, scheduled and run, so it stopped depending on the owner being in every conversation.
- Built a scorecard that showed, every week, whether the business was making money, and where.
The result
Profitable, and no longer running on one person.
The business turned profitable. The owner stopped being the only person who could see what was happening, and the numbers started telling the truth every week instead of once a year. Five years later, we are still in the seat.
One of eight. See the other results, or find your own weakest link.
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