Guides, documented.
12 published articles
What a Contractor Has to Sell Before the Business Earns a ProfitBreak-even is not the point where you start getting paid. Owner compensation sits inside the cost structure ahead of net profit. This is the sales volume at which gross profit finally equals the overhead budget.Published Sep 7, 2026 · reviewed →What Is Markup vs Margin? The Number You Add Is Not the Number You KeepMarkup and margin measure the same gross profit from two different starting points. For a contractor, confusing them turns a price that looks profitable into a shortfall. For a homeowner, the difference explains why no contractor can build your job for what the materials and labor cost.Published Sep 6, 2026 · reviewed →Contractor Mileage Deduction: What to Record and What the Deduction Is Worth2026 has two mileage rates, 72.5 cents through June and 76 cents from July. Your log has a line in the middle of it, and a year-end total cannot be priced.Published Sep 7, 2026 · reviewed →The 21 Overhead Categories Contractors Should TrackOverhead is every business cost recovered through your markup instead of charged to a job. Sort your expenses into the right buckets and your markup means something; classify them inconsistently and the markup quietly stops covering the business.Published Sep 6, 2026 · reviewed →Contractor Time Tracking: Compare Estimated Hours With Actual Job HoursComparing estimated and actual hours reveals a variance to investigate, not a verdict. It tells you about the labor-hour assumption, and nothing on its own about whether the job made money.Published Sep 7, 2026 · reviewed →Bargain Hunters, Tire Kickers, and Five Other Leads You Will RecogniseSeven patterns a residential contractor actually gets on the phone, the score each one tends to produce, and the move that follows.Published Sep 9, 2026 · reviewed →Where a Contractor's Non-Billable Time Gets Paid ForYou set a $100,000 target. Non-billable hours do not add a second cost on top of it, they change where that same cost has to be recovered. The rule is that it gets recovered exactly once.Published Sep 7, 2026 · reviewed →When to Charge for the Estimate, and How MuchThere is no such thing as a free estimate in a properly structured contracting business. The lead score decides when you say so on the call, and what you are selling decides the price.Published Sep 9, 2026 · reviewed →How to Qualify a Contractor Lead in Seven MinutesA phone screening method that grades a lead from -5 to +5 in a suggested five to seven minutes, before anyone drives anywhere. Five criteria, three possible scores each, one sum that points to the next step.Published Sep 8, 2026 · reviewed →The 4 Stages of a Remodeling Business, by Annual RevenueUnder $150K, $150K to $500K, $500K to $1.5M, and over $1.5M: four stages that operate in fundamentally different ways. Each stage tends to add jobs, staff, and overhead, and every one of those changes means the markup gets recalculated.Published Sep 6, 2026 · reviewed →What a Solo Contractor Has to Charge to Make $100,000Not a motivational number. A worked model: eight projects, a real overhead budget, the owner's pay classified by the work it pays for, and the markup that falls out of it.Published Sep 6, 2026 · reviewed →The Hourly Rate a Solo Contractor Needs to Make $100,000A 40 hour week does not contain 40 billable hours, and materials sold at cost pay for nothing. Both of those facts push the rate higher than most contractors charge.Published Sep 6, 2026 · reviewed →