Real Results from
Real Contractors

The Situation: Owner was running a 12-person HVAC shop, doing $4.2M in revenue, mostly residential service and replacement. Financials showed 6% net margin, but cash was always tight. Seasonal swings meant borrowing on a line of credit every spring.

What We Found: Service calls were priced 15% below market. Install jobs looked profitable on paper but were absorbing untracked warranty callbacks. Two techs were running at 40% utilization while others hit 75%.

What We Did: Repriced service calls to market rate. Implemented job costing that tracked warranty costs back to original install. Restructured truck routes and tech assignments. Built 13-week cash forecast to eliminate seasonal borrowing.

The Result: Net margin jumped from 6% to 14% within one quarter. Owner stopped using the line of credit for the first time in 5 years. Added $336K to annual bottom line without adding a single new customer.

The Situation: Plumbing company doing $5.8M with a mix of residential service, new construction, and commercial TI work. Owner knew AR was "a little high" but didn't realize how bad. Payroll was stressful every two weeks.

What We Found: $180K in receivables over 60 days. Three GCs owed $95K combined and were slow-paying everyone. One commercial client had disputed an invoice for 6 months with no follow-up.

What We Did: Implemented weekly AR aging review. Renegotiated payment terms with the three GCs (or walked). Resolved the disputed invoice (partial write-off, but collected $18K that was written off as lost). Set up progress billing on jobs over $10K.

The Result: Collected $180K in 60 days. Average days outstanding dropped from 52 to 31. Payroll stress eliminated. Owner took first real vacation in 3 years.

The Situation: GC running $7.1M in residential remodels and light commercial. Felt like they were busy but not making money. "We're doing more work than ever but I can't figure out where it's going."

What We Found: One $400K commercial project was bleeding $50K/month in cost overruns. Change orders weren't being tracked or billed. Subs were billing for work not yet completed, and the PM wasn't catching it.

What We Did: Emergency WIP review on all active projects. Identified the bleeding project and documented $120K in unbilled change orders. Restructured draw schedule. Implemented weekly job cost reviews with PMs.

The Result: Recovered $85K of the $120K in change orders. Stopped the $50K/month bleed. Project finished at 8% margin instead of projected 15% loss. Owner now reviews WIP weekly and hasn't had a surprise since.