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How do you actually track job profitability (not just revenue)?
Quick question for other Jobber users — when you want to actually know how profitable a job was (after labor and expenses, not just the invoice total), or how your crew's utilization looks over a month, how do you currently figure that out? Pulling into Excel? A separate spreadsheet? Just gut feel? I'm curious whether this is a real pain point or if I'm overthinking it — trying to understand how people actually track profitability day to day.What marketing channel works best for you right now???
Hello, We are currently evaluating our marketing strategy to improve lead consistency and build deeper community trust. While we currently use Yelp, we find the results inconsistent and often attract price-shoppers rather than long-term clients. :( Moving forward, I would like to pivot our focus toward community-based marketing, such as sponsoring local schools and Little League teams. These sponsorships build the kind of long-term goodwill and trust that ensures local homeowners think of us first during emergencies. To clarify our strategy, we are avoiding the following channels: - Lead Aggregators (Angi, Networx, HomeAdvisor): These platforms sell the same lead to multiple contractors. The requirement to respond within seconds to avoid losing the job—while still being charged—does not align with our workflow. - Yelp for Major Projects: Due to high cost-per-click metrics and a high volume of price-sensitive inquiries, we find this to be a low-return channel for larger plumbing jobs. Your Friendly Neighborhood Plumbers,What’s Your Target Gross Margin vs. Actual Net Margin? Let’s Benchmark.
In home services and contracting, top-line revenue gets all the attention, but net profit pays the bills. Many trade operators aim for a 40–50% gross profit margin to retain a healthy 15–20% net margin, but actual figures vary significantly based on team size and trade complexity. A standard healthy benchmark breakdown often looks like: Cost of Goods Sold (Direct Labor + Materials): 50–60% of revenue Overhead & Operating Expenses: 25–30% of revenue Net Profit Target: 15–20% of revenue I’d love to benchmark with the community: Are you hitting your target net margins consistently as you scale, or is overhead creeping up faster than revenue? Where are you seeing the biggest pressure on your margins today?How much do you trust the numbers your bookkeeper is giving you?
One of the things I’ve learned as we’ve grown is that having a bookkeeper and having a GOOD bookkeeper are two very different things. Clean books aren’t just about taxes. If things are being categorized incorrectly, reconciliations aren’t happening properly, or your financials are months behind, you can be making major decisions based on numbers that aren’t even accurate. Revenue can look great while profit tells a completely different story. And as an owner, you shouldn’t have to become a bookkeeper—but you do need financials you can actually use to run the business. I’m curious how other owners handle this: How involved are you in reviewing your financials, and what reports or numbers do you look at regularly to know your bookkeeper is actually giving you an accurate picture of the business?Those who charge for inspections, do you have a flat rate or does it depend on the porperty?
I recently got a request for a rodent assessment for a house that is about 10,000 sqft, an absolute monster of a house with 6 levels, a 4 car garage (buddy has a McLaren 750S, Porsche 917, Ford GT and a Range Rover!!!), vehicle lifts, elevator, separate chef kitchen, indoor pool...the works! I told the homeowner my standard fee for a more modest sized house, and that I would have to triple that to be able to spend the time at their home and not feel rushed. They did agree and made no issue out of it but it did make me wonder how other people approach this. Then I found the issue areas and they were about 3-4 times as many as a regular house and the cost reflected that. More doors, vents, cracks, holes, utility lines...it was insane. Should I have kept the inspection charge the same knowing I would find many many more holes or was it smart to up the inspection charge?Are You Building a Business or Just Creating Yourself Another Job?
It’s easy as a small business owner to get caught up doing everything yourself. At what point do you start delegating, hiring, or putting systems in place so the business can operate without you being involved in every job? I’d love to hear how other owners are making that transition while still keeping quality and customer service high.
PROPERTY BASED PRICING
Changing pricing across the board is very time consuming. a few requests. Let the service and product catalog create a proper pricing matrix, to allow mass changes. Example: i do lawn care. after tracking everything and running the numbers i charge by sq ft. of the entire property. (factors in the trimming time better than just the lawn size) there are tiers for the pricing 0-10999 $50 11000-12999 $53 and .001 for ea sq ft over the min 13000-14999 $55 and .002501 for ea sq ft over the min etc etc etc. Im **bleep** about the numbers and almost every time i don't follow the formula i will lose money. What im looking for is something like this for the product catalog. You open up the the catalog and either put a blanket price on it that always populates or build that service or products pricing matrix, that then pulls whatever it needs from the clients page in my case property sq ft. runs it through the pricing matrix and spits out the number for that particular service. and yes we can always change it individually when needed byt this would put the pricing in the ballpark. and when sending out renewal letters, this cuts down hours and hours of work as its in house. when you need to change the pricing as everything goes up or down, you go adjust the pricing matrix, not every single clients page. For my treatment side of things, the lawn size is what matters, so the matrix would pull that number off the client page. I do christmas lights, i charge per linear foot as a baseline. it pulls that. this is about speeding up quotes going out especially in mass. Basically the sales book of this is what we charge for xyz the sales guy needs to price consistently compared to the other sales guy its in house and not on some seperate excel sheet outside of the CRM.Should customers pay more if they refuse auto-pay?
Auto-pay saves a lot of admin time in a recurring service business. Manual billing sounds simple until invoices sit unpaid, cards fail, reminders pile up, and someone has to decide whether to pause service. That extra follow-up has a cost. I don’t think every customer who avoids auto-pay is a bad customer. Some people just prefer more control. But if one customer requires more billing work every month, should they pay the same price as someone on auto-pay? I’m starting to think manual billing fees make sense. Something simple like: “Auto-pay is included with monthly service. Manual invoice payment is available for an added admin fee.” Do you require auto-pay, charge more for manual billing, or let customers pay however they want?
What small business grants can you apply for regularly as a new business owner?
So I recently found out about small business grants. I was wanting to see if anyone had any tips or suggestions for what grants to apply for monthly. Me and my fiance just opened a kitchen at a bar we are looking to refurbish and create a new menu. We are looking for any extra help we can get.
Any Recommendations for SBA Lenders?
I’m curious whether anyone here has successfully used an SBA loan, grant, or other government-backed funding program for a very small business. I run a one-person metal art and fabrication business, and finding realistic financing has been difficult. A lot of the options marketed toward small businesses seem to come with high interest rates, aggressive repayment terms, or daily and weekly withdrawals that can make an existing cash-flow problem even worse. I’d be interested in hearing from anyone who has actually gone through the SBA process: Which loan or grant program did you use? Was the application process manageable? What documentation did they require? Did the funding genuinely help your business grow? Were there any fees, repayment terms, or surprises you wish you had known about beforehand? I’m especially interested in options that might work for a one-person business looking to purchase equipment, improve production capacity, or create more stable cash flow without getting trapped in predatory financing. Has anyone found an SBA lender, grant program, or small-business resource they would genuinely recommend? Thanks in advance, I am located in Northeast Pennsylvania.
