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Anyone else realize they were breaking even or losing money after expenses?
I had a phase where we looked “busy” on paper, fully booked, money coming in, but when I actually broke down the numbers, some jobs were barely breaking even. Once I factored in true payroll burden (taxes, workers comp), supplies, insurance, and transaction fees, it was a wake-up call. There were jobs we were doing that felt productive day-to-day but weren’t contributing to profit at all. For us, it came down to tightening up pricing, being more intentional about which jobs we accepted, and really understanding our numbers on a per-job basis (not just overall revenue). Curious if anyone else has gone through this and what changes made the biggest impact for you?Are you profiting more from one-time services or recurring contracts? How do you know?
Over the past year, our business has grown into a predominantly recurring-revenue model, with nearly 90% of our monthly income coming from weekly, biweekly, and monthly clients. While one-time cleans (like move-ins/outs and deep cleans) often bring in higher ticket prices upfront, we’ve intentionally prioritized recurring clients because they create long-term stability, stronger client relationships, and more predictable scheduling for our technicians. That said, we’ve noticed that one-time cleans play a powerful role as an entry point into our ecosystem—they’re often the first experience that converts into a recurring client. Now, as we scale toward $3M and expand into new markets, we’re looking more closely at: Profit margins by service type Customer lifetime value (LTV) from recurring vs one-time Conversion rates from one-time → recurring We want to better understand not just which service brings in more revenue, but which one truly drives profitability, retention, and sustainable growth—so we can refine our pricing, marketing, and sales strategy accordingly.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.What types of expenses do you put in Gross Profit?
I'm hiring an operations manager and making a portion of their pay based off gross profit performance. This is a big move for me because I've been the ops manager and the sales person so now that someone else's compensation depends on this line item, I need to have it tight. Out of these things, which are appropriate to put in gross profit? Worker compensation insurance Sales commisisions Mileage for technicians driving to jobs Materials used to repair office Labor for an in field "runner" to get supplies for everyone A portion of the ops manager's salary if they work in the field Curious to get ya'lls input on this. Thanks!
Scaling a Commercial Cleaning Business – What’s Working for Landing Larger Contracts?
I run a commercial and post-construction cleaning company operating across NYC, Connecticut, and New Jersey. We focus on long-term facility maintenance rather than one-time jobs, and I’m currently pushing to scale into larger commercial accounts and consistent contracts. I’ve been doing direct outreach, building internal systems, and focusing on service quality and retention. At this stage, I’m looking to refine what’s actually working for others when it comes to landing and maintaining higher-value contracts. For those operating at scale: – What has been most effective in securing larger commercial clients? – Are you seeing better results from direct outreach, partnerships, or platforms? – Any specific strategies that helped you move from smaller jobs to consistent contract work? Appreciate any insight from those who have already made that jump.
Do you know your actual effective hourly rate per client — once travel time is included?
Hi everyone — I'm a developer, not a cleaning business owner, so I'll be upfront about that. I'm doing early research before building anything. I've been spending time in this community and something keeps catching my eye. There are a lot of conversations about pricing, undercharging, and knowing your numbers — but the specific gap I keep noticing is this: Jobber shows you revenue per job, but it doesn't tell you your real effective hourly rate per client once you factor in drive time and how long a job actually ran versus what you quoted. For a residential cleaning business with recurring clients, that seems like it could matter a lot. The client who pays $200 but takes 45 minutes to drive to might look identical in Jobber to a client who pays $180 and is 5 minutes away. My question, specifically for cleaning business owners using Jobber: is this actually a problem you run into? Are you tracking profitability per client in any way right now — spreadsheet, gut feel, something else? And if you're not tracking it, is that because it's genuinely not a priority, or because there's no easy way to do it inside Jobber? Not selling anything — I haven't built anything yet. I'd genuinely love to have a 15-minute conversation with a few people who manage recurring residential clients in Jobber. Happy to share what I learn with anyone who's interested. Drop a comment or DM me.What KPI's are you using to measure your business?
So i hear a lot of influencers like Tommy Melo talk about these and I feel like the KPI's that actually matter in your specific business can vary a lot. For those of you who are tracking this what main ones are you using? RIght now i"m doing: Charge Rate - What are we actually making on the amount of time the guys are working Average Job Size Usage Rate for employees - out of how many available hours they have, how much am I scheduling them forHow can home service businesses improve profit margins without raising prices?
If you had double your profit margin without raising rates, what would you cut or optimize? Our payroll all-in consistently remains at around 50%, but I was hoping to hear what others are doing considering labor is our biggest expense as home service businesses!
