Guide
Busy all the time, and not much left at the end.
If the work keeps coming in and the money isn’t staying, the problem is almost never effort. It’s usually one of four leaks, and you can check each one yourself.
Where it usually goes
Prices that stood still while costs moved
If your costs rose 15% over three years and your prices rose 5%, every job now pays you less for the same work. Being busy hides it, because the total coming in still goes up.
Work that costs more than it brings in
Most businesses have some: the small jobs, the far-away ones, the customer who always wants one more thing. It feels like revenue. On the books it’s a cost.
Paid time nobody bills
Driving, redoing, waiting, quoting work you don’t win, typing the same details into three systems. Example: four people losing an hour a day each, at $30 an hour, is about $31,000 a year.
Money earned but not collected
Work finished but not yet invoiced, and invoices nobody chased. It’s yours. It’s just not in the bank.
Check it yourself this week
- Take your last ten jobs or sales. Next to each, write what you charged and roughly what it cost to deliver: materials, hours times what you pay per hour, travel. Circle any where the gap is thin or negative.
- Put today’s prices next to your prices three years ago. Then do the same for your three biggest costs.
- Ask everyone to note, for one week, any time spent on something that won’t be billed.
Collecting is its own leak. Field note 05 covers it.
When it’s worth getting help
If the check shows one leak and you know how to fix it, fix it. You don’t need us for that.
If it shows several, or you couldn’t get the numbers out in the first place, that’s usually the real problem: the business can’t tell you where it makes money. That’s what we build. A fixed price you see before anything starts, and you keep what’s built.
Want the leaks found for you? Before we talk, Joe reads your business from what’s public and sends a one-page read of where it’s most likely leaking. You commit to nothing.