For service businesses
Cleaning, landscaping, plumbing, pest control, pool, moving, detailing, junk removal. The lead engine is one problem; running the thing profitably is another. This section is about the second one.
Every article carries a worked example. No theory without a number attached.
There is no shortage of advice about marketing a service business. There is almost nothing honest about the mechanics that decide whether the work is worth doing: what an hour actually costs you, what a deposit protects, why route density beats volume, and what happens when a customer will not pay.
Loaded hourly cost, minimum job size, travel time, and why your price list is probably built on a number you guessed three years ago.
What each trade actually requires, why general liability and workers comp are one decision and not two, and what an uninsured claim does to a small company.
Deposits, milestone payments, card fees, chargebacks and the collection sequence that works before it becomes a legal problem.
Route density, drive time as a cost line, how many jobs actually fit in a day, and the true cost of a cancellation.
W-2 versus 1099 and the risk of getting it wrong, what a technician really costs per hour, and how to keep the good ones.
Recurring service plans, which customers to fire, and why the cheapest revenue in the business is the customer you already have.
Most service businesses price from a competitor’s rate. Here is what an hour actually costs.
Charging $65 an hour on this cost structure is a 31% gross margin before a single overhead dollar — rent, insurance, software, office. Companies that price from what the competitor charges are inheriting someone else’s cost structure, and it is usually not theirs. The full calculation, with overhead included, is here.
Every piece in this section is built the same way: the framework, a worked example with real numbers, and something you can use this week.
Pricing a plan from your own loaded cost, the four things that make it a product rather than a discount, where plans actually get sold, and $71,400 of repair work found on visits already paid for.
13 min read
OperationsWhat a missed call really costs, measuring answer rate by hour, why a trained booker converts 72% where a technician converts 50%, and $24,480 more revenue from the same spend.
13 min read
PricingLabor burden, the utilization rate nobody measures, overhead per billable hour, and why adding 20% gives you 16.7%. The one number every price should be built on.
13 min read
HiringThe real cost of a $26 wage, when you can genuinely afford a hire, why classification is not a choice you and the worker make, who to hire first, and the first ninety days.
13 min read
CustomersWhat a bad account really costs across five hidden lines, how to sort your book in an afternoon, fixing before firing, and a book that shrank 3% while profit rose 11%.
13 min read
RiskWhat general liability really excludes, why an uninsured subcontractor becomes your claim, how unlicensed work voids coverage and the right to be paid, and what a full program costs.
14 min read