Sick of chaotic job sites, shrinking profit margins, or not knowing where the money’s going? In this episode, Charlie sits down with Eric Fortenberry, founder of JobTread, to break down how smarter systems, better pricing models, and the right leadership mindset can radically transform your home improvement business.
Learn how Eric took a struggling $5M company to $8M in one year—with a 43% increase in gross profit—by fixing the fundamentals most contractors overlook.
In This Episode:
- (0:00) Intro: Who is Eric Fortenberry?
- (2:10) From Finance to Construction: Eric’s unconventional journey
- (4:50) The $800K mistake hiding in your books
- (8:40) Why margin ≠ markup—and how that’s killing your profit
- (12:00) The three pillars of scalable systems
- (18:30) The real cost of poor project management
- (26:00) Why fixed pricing changed everything
- (33:15) Standardizing chaos: Can you scale with variety?
- (40:20) AI, CRMs & integrating with tools like Go High Level
- (48:30) Hiring smart: When (and how) to build your team
- (54:45) Eric’s top 3 growth levers for contractors
🔗 Links & Resources
- Learn more about JobTread
- Connect with Eric on LinkedIn
- Connect with Charlie on LinkedIn
- Book a free consultation — let’s map out your business’s next move.
Subscribe to The Scale Up Project and leave a review if you’re ready to build a business that runs as smoothly as your job site should.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.