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What's Standard Gross Profit for Your Industry?
I once listened to Tom Reber preach about 50% gross profit and how if you aren't aiming for that, you are going to hurt yourself short/ longer term. He was basically saying, for every dollar you make, you need to make two. This has been super impactful for me and my business but I'm noticing on my really big projects, it's so hard to keep that. I have one $120k exterior BBQ that has definitely had some inefficiencies but we are probably looking at 35% end of day. But that's 35% of a large $$ so that is kind of ok. For those of you who do a good job tracking this (btw Jobber's gross profit calculator is objectively amazing for this btw)- what is your gross profit and what do you usually shoot for?You Don’t Have a Lead Problem You Have a Follow-Up System Problem
You’re not losing jobs to competitors you’re losing them in your follow-up. Most HVAC businesses I’ve seen don’t have a lead problem… they have a system problem: missed calls, no follow-ups, and zero tracking. The ones scaling consistently are doing 3 things right: Capturing every lead in a CRM Automating follow-ups (SMS/email) Running simple local campaigns that bring repeat jobs Curious what system are you currently using to track and convert your leads? If you’re open, I can share a simple setup that’s working for other contractors.Has anyone used AI or automations to reduce admin payroll?
We’re currently around a $1.7MM run rate with 3 admins plus managers, and one thing I’ve been heavily focused on lately is using AI/automation to prevent admin payroll from scaling linearly with revenue. A few years ago, every growth problem felt like: “we need another office person.” Now we’re trying to solve problems with systems first: automated follow-ups templated customer communication AI-assisted email/text drafting better scheduling workflows SOP documentation automating repetitive admin tasks reducing internal back-and-forth Not trying to eliminate people (more trying to let the existing team handle higher revenue without constantly adding overhead). Right now our indirect payroll (excluding owner pay) sits around 12% including managers, and I’m curious where other companies are landing operationally. Would love to hear what’s actually working in real businesses vs just AI hype.
