What funding programs actually helped your business grow and which ones should you avoid?
I own a residential/commercial cleaning and interior painting company in Indiana and I’m trying to grow responsibly. Between equipment, payroll, insurance, marketing, and vehicle costs, expenses add up quickly. I’m looking for legitimate grants, low-interest funding, or small business assistance programs that actually helped your company grow — especially for service businesses. Any real experiences, recommendations, or programs to avoid would be appreciated.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?How Understanding Gross Profit Changed My Business
For a long time, I thought I was doing everything right. Work was coming in, the crew stayed busy, and the revenue numbers looked solid. But every month I was stressed about money and I couldn't figure out why. It wasn't until I really sat down and looked at my numbers that things started to click. I came across Tom Reber's work, and it completely changed the way I thought about pricing. The biggest thing I took from it was understanding gross profit — not just revenue, not just what a job "feels like" it's worth, but what's actually left after you pay for labor and materials. Once I understood that number, I realized I had been leaving a lot of money on the table for years. What I Learned Gross profit is the money left from a job after you cover your direct costs — labor and materials. That number has to be healthy enough to cover everything else it takes to run your business: your truck, insurance, tools, software, your time. If your margin is too thin, all of that comes out of your pocket and you never get ahead. For me, setting a clear gross profit goal on every job was the turning point. It gave me something to price toward instead of just guessing and hoping it worked out. What Changed I stopped pricing jobs to win them and started pricing them to actually make money on them. Some bids I lost. But the ones I won started feeling worth it. Cash flow got easier. I could actually see where the money was going — and more importantly, where it was staying. It wasn't an overnight fix, but getting honest about my numbers was the first step to building a business that felt sustainable instead of just busy. If you've been in that same spot — working hard, staying booked, but still wondering where the money went — start by looking at your gross profit on every job. It might surprise you.
Financial setup to start a business
I know some free resources like for Michigan but how is everyone going about getting grants/loans to startup cause that’s what I need in Muskegon Mi. Started a go fund me gofund.me/67d96e4c5 that’s not working at the moment so I applied for here still have to sort thru the states economic grants and loans.How can service businesses automatically add late fees or interest to overdue invoices?
Does anyone know how to add auto interest or late fees to invoices? Considering the scope of my work this would be real handy when my average invoice payment time is around 50 days. Because of this I have to finance my own payroll and if I could recoup some of these interest charges automatically. Too many invoices to manually add feesWhen is it time to hire an accountant?
I am wondering at what point some of you guys have hired an accountant? Did you hire one to grow? To maintain what you have? Or are you simply using one to file taxes at the end of the year? I am thinking about hiring an accountant to manage my finances for me and see where things go, but wondering when is the right time.How can I create an invoice for the deposit?
When doing certain commercial work the client will ask us to send them an invoice for the deposit. This isn't typically how Jobber works as the invoice isn't created until the job is closed usually. What is the best way to send a customer an invoice before having the quote signed, deposit paid, or the job completed? Hope that makes sense. Thanks in advance!
