October 6, 2025 • 41 mins
We break down how contractors can stop mixing wages with profit, set a real project manager salary, and build cash reserves that make growth possible. A simple example shows how to allocate profit to taxes, owner distributions, and retained earnings without starving the business.
• separating labor pay from company profit for solo operators
• setting a fair PM salary while keeping profit in the business
• targeting gross margin ranges by job size and risk
• understanding revenue, gross profit, and overhead as controllables
• avoiding overhead creep as you scale teams and trucks
• simple monthly flow for taxes, distributions, and reserves
• why clean job costing beats generic CPA reports
• action steps to start now and get books ready by January
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:01):
Welcome to Contractor Cuts, where we cover
the good, the bad, and the uglyof growing a successful
contracting company.
SPEAKER_02 (00:13):
Welcome to Contractor Cuts.
My name is Clark Turner.
I'm James McConnell.
Thank you for joining us again.
You hate the intro part themost.
I do.
I know.
Next time I'll say your name.
I'm James Picado.
unknown (00:24):
Bang!
SPEAKER_00 (00:26):
Back at it! Back at it again.
Coming in hot, hot, hot.
We got a Starbucks coffee, not asponsor.
Anyway, doing big stuff here inthe Casa de Turner.
SPEAKER_02 (00:37):
Well, thank you guys again for joining us this week.
This is kind of a continuationfrom last week when we were
talking about how much money youneed to start your contracting
company, what you need to bedoing to get going.
This is going to be a two-partseries on how to pay yourself.
We did a how to pay yourself asan owner two, two and a half
(00:58):
years ago, probably.
So we're retouching that, butwe're good doing a deeper dive
into it.
So many moons ago.
So many moons ago.
And James wasn't a part of thatone.
So this will be we'll take yournew turn.
Brand new, fresh perspective.
And it's going to be hot.
Yes.
James is like a financier.
Like he is he when you thinkmoney is James.
Money, tech.
(01:21):
Money and tech is like if yourWi-Fi is broken, go to James.
Talk to me.
All right.
So today the title of this isPay Yourself Right from Chaos
Draws to a Real Owner Salary.
Right.
And so we're this to this weekis going to be talking about
like the front end, how to getgoing on doing this.
(01:41):
And then next week we're goingto talk about the book that we
love.
That if you haven't read, readit this week.
Start listening to it onaudiobook, whatever it is.
It's called Profit First, MikeMcCowski or something like that.
That's his name.
You're crushing it.
(02:02):
And it's Mike Michaels.
Michael.
It's something.
But, anyways, it's it's a reallygood book.
We uh next podcast is kind of abook book report on that.
Um it's it's how we think moneyshould be managed.
Um we do a little bitdifferently.
It's kind of the contractor'sversion of the profit first
method.
Um, but next week will be areally good one.
So today is diving intounderstanding and kind of
(02:25):
setting up how to get money inthe background, how to start
storing money and how to startgetting to the spot that you can
actually have different bankaccounts and move stuff around
the right way and have ownerdistributions.
Um starting off with this, Ithink it's best to set it up as
really the different sizes ofcompanies, the different spots I
see guys coming in to coaching.
(02:46):
One being guys still swingingthe hammer, out there doing the
work, doing the labor.
And James, why don't we, if youcan for me, I I talk fast and I
kind of go through the stuffquickly and numbers I get lost
in.
So treat yourself as thecontractor.
Treat yourself as uh if youwould be kind of like the
contractor learning this stuffin terms of pick me apart.
SPEAKER_01 (03:10):
I'll act as if I don't understand what you're
saying.
Perfect.
And I'll act as if that's thecase.
That would be great.
SPEAKER_02 (03:20):
Thank you so much.
But pick apart what I'm sayingif if I if I get running too
fast.
Um so starting off, guysswinging the hammers.
Guys out there, tool belts on,you know, they do two jobs at a
time, three jobs.
Um, they're doing most of thework themselves or subbing out
the electrical and plumbing, butthey're doing most of the most
of the work themselves, butthey're out in the field with
(03:41):
their tools.
Um, those guys, I think what Iwant to see from that style of a
contractor as they're growingtheir company is we need to
start separating out profit forthe company versus pay for your
job.
Um, in those roles, thoughoftentimes those guys, and we
said this on last week'spodcast, they they look at a job
(04:03):
and say, Hey, I charge$500 a dayfor my time for me to mobilize
and get out there.
That's a four-day job.
I'm gonna charge you$2,000 forme to come out and do that job.
SPEAKER_01 (04:14):
That you're selling your time for money.
And in this scenario, thecontractor, all they're thinking
about is how much does it cost?
Like what is my time worth?
SPEAKER_02 (04:23):
Yes, exactly.
They're selling uh they'rethey're literally exchanging
their hours for dollars.
SPEAKER_01 (04:29):
They're working$400 a day, five-day job, two
thousand dollars.
SPEAKER_02 (04:32):
That's what we're talking about now.
Like they're working at HomeDepot or McDonald's, like you're
just getting hourly pay, dailypay.
And so those guys, what areother Chick-fil-A.
Chick-fil-A.
Yeah, there's people that workthere.
So when you're viewing that, andwe talked, we touched on it last
week about how on those jobs youneed to be building in more than
(04:55):
just your time because it's notfour days.
It's not five days on the jobside, it's a day and a half
before doing an estimate.
You drove out there last week toget your eyes on the job and put
things together the day beforeyou went to Home Depot and
bought some materials.
SPEAKER_01 (05:07):
The same way that you describe, and I'm sure
you've talked about this onother podcasts, but the same way
that you sell the vendors andcrews that you're working with
on working with you is the stuffthat you're saying guys aren't
accounting for those things whenthey're doing that their own
hammer swinging.
SPEAKER_02 (05:24):
Absolutely.
That nail in the head.
So the the like we lay out onthe on the onboarding subs,
where it's like I'm doing all ofthis other work in blue, the
little part in red that you'redoing, the the labor itself,
that's what you're getting paidfor, and I'm getting paid for
everything else.
That's the everything else thatyou don't charge for when you're
a one-man show, right?
It's like I need this job, and Iuh I if I got 500 bucks a day,
(05:46):
I'm great.
Well, you're not working fivedays a week, four weeks a month
at$500 because you've got allthis other work that you're
doing.
You're you're you're runningaround, you're picking stuff up,
you're making returns, you'rehunting money down, you're doing
accounting, you're meeting withyour CPA.
Like, there's so much work thatyou're doing for free for your
company because you're onlycharging for the actual middle
labor part that you're doing.
Yeah.
(06:06):
So what we want you to startdoing is find your price point.
And we've talked profitpercentages a ton.
Uh, there's not a right one.
It's it's individually,depending on the size of the
job.
If you're doing, if you're aone-man show and you're doing
one job at a time and you'recharging 500 bucks a day and
that's it, you got to be 50%profit on that for your company
(06:26):
to survive.
If you're doing large-scalestuff, some commercial jobs are
cost plus at 10% and they'rekilling it because it's a$20
million job.
And that's okay to make$2million on that in the next nine
months as we do the project,right?
So don't get stuck on profitpercentage.
We aim for 35-ish percent.
It used to be 32, 30.
We're trying to kind of creepthat up a little bit and and and
(06:49):
really find the right clienteleat 35, sometimes 40.
But I know we slide the scale,right?
On a$20,000 job, we're making50%.
On a$120,000 job, we're making40%.
On a$300,000 job, we're making35%.
And it scales along with howmuch work we're doing.
So don't get lost and stuck onthe numbers of what your markup
(07:10):
should be.
If you want to talk through yourjob, your specific what you do,
you want to know, you know,assessment of your percentage
you should be at, call me.
Hit me up on our website.
I'd love to chat with you aboutthat.
Either way, we need that markupon top of how much it costs you
for your day labor, how much youyou need to make yourself.
And finding that number is awhole different animal of, well,
(07:33):
uh, you know, in my market, Ineed to be making 80,000 a year.
I work at most four days a weekfor 50 weeks a year, and you can
do the math on that.
Some guys, you know, as they getbetter and get older and you
have more of a clientele, theyraise that up and I need to be
at 150 a year, I need to be at180 a year, whatever it is, I
get paid for the work thatyou're doing separately than
(07:55):
that profit markup.
And don't pay yourself out ofthat profit markup.
So when you're that one-manshow, I want you to say, okay, I
need 500 bucks a day.
I'm gonna charge$2,000 for thesefour days.
And then as a company, I wantthe company to make an extra
thousand on top of that.
So I'm charging this client$3,000 for the work.
I'm going to pay myself$2,000for the work I did this week.
(08:20):
And that last thousand is gonnago into my bank.
That last thousand is going intocash flow.
That last thousand is not beingVenmo to me personally, it's
being deposited into my companyaccount.
And if you have a personalaccount and a business account
separated, that's we put it allin the business account.
And then I take my$2,000 for thelabor I did into my personal and
(08:41):
pay it out to myself.
SPEAKER_01 (08:42):
This is not uh a joke, but in this scenario, the
$2,000, does that includematerial or is that in the
$1,000, or was the clientsupplying the material?
SPEAKER_02 (08:53):
Total uh in that example, I wasn't buying
materials.
Okay.
So on my example on that wouldbe hey, I've got a thousand
dollars or you know, fivehundred dollars of material.
So I'm charging them$35.
And so it's like$2,000 forlabor,$500 for materials, and a
thousand for profit.
Trying to be simplistic and notmarking up materials is easier
(09:14):
when you're getting going, um,especially when you're dealing
one-on-one with the homeownerwho's like, well, I'll just go
out there and buy it.
No, I'm uh let me just handleit.
Uh, you're gonna buy the wrongthing.
It's gonna make make me take behere for an extra two days.
Yeah.
All that being said, what whatwe want is we want you to pay
yourself twice.
We want you to get paid for that$2,000 for the work.
And I want a thousand dollars inthe bank.
(09:35):
We're gonna talk next week abouthow to spend that thousand
dollars in the bank and whataccounts and how to pay tax and
all that stuff.
But mostly we wanna startbuilding up to usually what I
like to see is one month ofrevenue in the bank.
So if you're a company doing$100,000 a month, let's have a
$100,000 nest egg.
(09:55):
That money's gonna go up anddown depending on cash flow.
And hey, we're on three bigjobs, and so we're two of the
jobs we don't get paid till theend.
So that$100,000 is down to$40,000, but I get that money
back and it goes up to$120,right?
That that sort of cash flow towhere my standard, if I had my
accounts receivable countedalong with my bank account, is
(10:16):
around is as averaging$100,000.
If I'm doing$100,000 a month,right?
That that being said, we'regonna get into that later.
Let's let's stay stay groundfloor here.
I want to live off that labor.
I want to live off that$2,000 amonth.
If I need all three or$2,000 forthose, for those four days, if I
need all$3,000 to live as a andI'm staying busy, right?
(10:39):
Not if you're working one week amonth, but if you're staying
consistently busy and you can'tlive off of the labor price, you
gotta raise your labor prices,not steal your profit.
Right?
We gotta get, okay,$500 is alot.
If if you're charging$300 a dayand then all of a sudden it's
like, I feel like I'm working alot and I'm just breaking even,
you gotta be go up to$400 a day.
(10:59):
We got to bump that up and westill gotta make profit on top
of that.
So no matter what you'recharging, whether it's$200 a
day,$500 a day,$800 a day, Idon't care what your level of
expertise that you're charging,I gotta see profit above and
beyond that number built in forthe company to survive.
Because if you're spending allof your profits, then one month
you have a bad week.
(11:20):
Uh-oh.
Yeah.
Two weeks, three weeks, nowwhere I'm getting money.
All right.
That's kind of the the uh theself-operators, the
in-the-field, the hammerswingers going into the project
manager operators, right?
Those guys that are actuallyrunning as a true GC that isn't
doing work, isn't swinginghammers, but is general
contracting all of the work ontheir job sites.
(11:44):
I want to do it the same exactway, except that we're gonna
have an extra layer in themiddle.
So as a GC, James, you are outthere, you're not swinging a
hammer, you've got five jobsgoing on right now, you got two
about to start, you're managingall your crews, your labor and
materials, let's say, are$10,000for number's sake.
(12:06):
We need to do a big enoughmarkup that we can pay a project
manager salary to you out ofthat markup and still have the
money left over in the accountfor the company to be growing
and making money.
And we'll, again, we're divingdeep into what those numbers
should look like in a second.
But just to understand thatconceptually, I want your the
the profit, the 30% can't be100% of European payroll.
(12:30):
Uh so if I'm$10,000 of laborthis month and I marked it up
and I'm making$33,000 of profitthis month, A, you're not gonna
survive on that.
But B, I need you to take$2,000home with you, and$1,000 is
gonna stay in the bank account.
Uh and we'll talk about thatagain in a second.
We need to figure out what yourminimum pay needs to be as a PM.
(12:51):
But our goal is to grow thiscompany to where that PM role
has a set pay, a fair marketvalue pay for that PM role that
you're paying yourself.
And then we're putting moneyaway above and beyond that as
company profit.
Because as you grow andduplicate and grow and grow, and
now I'm gonna hire a PM to comein with me, your PM pay is gonna
(13:15):
go away partially, and you'regonna start living off your
distributions from the companyas an owner.
Right.
This is how you duplicate andgrow yourself out of the company
is as big as we can make thecompany pay, the profits coming
in and the owner distributions,as soon as I can live off that,
I don't need that PM pay.
And I can hire guys in, and it'snot costing me anything because
(13:35):
I can live off my ownerdistributions.
So that's kind of the biggerpicture of what we're talking
about.
But mainly pay yourself as aproject manager, even if you
we're growing it and getting toa spot.
I want a, all right, what isgonna be my pay?
I need eight grand a month tosurvive in this market, where we
live, my bills.
Great.
So let's figure out how we geteight grand a month to you and
(13:57):
another four to eight grand amonth into the company.
Let's work these numbersbackwards and be like, hey,
you're doing eighty thousanddollars of revenue a month.
Looking at the numbers, yougotta be at 180 to make all your
numbers work, right?
There's it's all math in theback end to understand where we
have to be.
You just gotta do the work andunderstand like I need eight
grand a month, I need six granda month, I need twelve grand,
(14:20):
whatever, whatever market you'rein, then we got to figure out
what the profit is and how muchwe need to be charging and how
much revenue you need to bedoing to survive as a company.
Make sense?
Totally.
Did I miss anything there?
SPEAKER_01 (14:32):
Was anything confusing?
No, I mean, I I think we're uh Ithink everything's still up in
the air for me right now.
Perfect.
I'm waiting for for the landingto stick.
Great.
SPEAKER_02 (14:48):
All right, so with everything that I just said,
we've got we've got threedifferent numbers that you are
gonna control.
You're running this company,there's three numbers that you
control.
Number one, revenue.
How much money can I do?
And by controlling that, it'smarketing, going out, finding
people, uh calling on oldclients, asking your aunts and
(15:09):
uncles and parents and friendsand old teachers, do they know
anyone that needs renovation?
It's doing the gorilla marketingto get out there and find it.
Maybe you're starting to runsome ads, maybe, but that number
is fluctuating.
It's up and down in terms of therevenue number.
The second number, your grossprofit percentage on cost of
goods, your labor materials.
(15:30):
How much profit am I going tomark that number up?
So if I'm doing a hundred granda month in revenue, how much of
that is gonna be my cost ofgoods?
Normally we're we're aiming toland at 32% profit and what 68%
cost of goods.
Um I I think the number thatthat we came up with, I think
(15:51):
it's like 40.
I think it was 46% of our everydollar we invoices labor, and
then it was like 21 and a halfpercent of every dollar we
invoices for materials, and thenthere's 32% profit.
That's where we want to end on abad day.
Um and so those numbers,understanding that again, that's
(16:14):
that's I ran numbers over 10years of our company running,
and that's that hit on thehealthy times for I think it was
41, 45, 46, somewhere in there,and then 21, 22% for materials.
And some of that is relative.
You know, I pay my some guyspay, I'm gonna pay one number to
my flooring guys, and they dothe labor part of it.
(16:35):
I cabinets, they do the laborpart of it.
So that's gonna fluctuate thedifference.
At the end of the day, I want68%, 67% of my cost being cost
of goods.
And I want 32% to be my profit.
So that's the number secondnumbers that we have to know and
that we can control.
The third number is overheadpercentage of my revenue.
(16:56):
How much are you spending onyour truck?
How much is insurance?
How much are you spending on?
Are you renting an office?
Do you have employees?
Do you have a CPA?
Are you uh am I a coach for youand I'm on your team with you?
Are you, you know, software, allof those expenses, what
percentage of that of youroverhead?
Now, I'm not going to give you apercentage right now because
(17:18):
that number is all over theplace depending on the size of
your company.
And the smaller you are, thelower that percentage is, right?
On a on a startup company, whenyou're really thin, you don't
have employees, you're probablygonna be around eight to nine
percent on that number.
Once you get up to uh alarge-scale company, you're
around 21% on that number.
(17:38):
And this this is a deeper divethat we're not doing today, but
that number is what kills peopleas they grow.
That's the crunch the numbersagain because the bigger you
grow, crunch, it doesn't work,right?
And so guys get set up and say,well, you know, my overhead's
about 8%.
Um, and I'm I I only got tocharge 15% and I'm making good
(17:58):
money.
Well, as you now you gotta makea hire.
Now you your insurance goes from$300 a month to$1,500 a month
because you're doing morerevenue.
And as you grow, your expensesgrow not the same
percentage-wise.
It's not the same incrementalgrowth as when you're growing
the company.
Because when it's just me, I'msuper efficient.
When I have two, three, fourproject managers, I now have a
(18:22):
head of construction, a separaterole that is nothing but sucking
overhead to manage those guys,to make sure they're doing the
paperwork, to make sure they'redoing it's gonna be me, but
eventually it's it's gonna besomebody else.
But when I was previously takingthe pay of a project manager, I
now have to pay that to aproject manager, and I've got to
take an additional pay for me tomanage that guy, right?
(18:42):
And so as we grow the companies,that overhead, the the
percentage of your profit, whichis your of overhead, usually
grows to about 20, 21%.
If I can get it down to 17, 18,we're doing awesome.
I remember when we uh back whenwe closed down the service
division of our company, andthis was the reason.
We couldn't make enough money onit.
(19:04):
We we said on the serviceservice side, we had seven
trucks, six trucks on the road,I think, doing service calls and
punch out work and that sort ofthing.
We had to, we looked at it andwe're like, either we get up to
20 trucks or we get rid of it.
But we can't, this in between iskilling us.
We we got to get to the tippingpoint, and we're like, it's just
all of our efforts, overhead,and expenses.
(19:25):
We it was 50% of our ouroverhead was on that division,
and it was like 8% of ourrevenue.
I remember the exact moment inthe hotel room.
SPEAKER_01 (19:34):
Yeah, and it was like okay.
SPEAKER_02 (20:36):
I I remember you and Jared sitting on the couch, and
I was pacing, I was like, Ithink we just fire everybody and
close it down.
And it was like, well, yeah, Idon't know any other way to do
it.
And and we didn't, it wasn'tclearing house, but we did lose
lose a handful of guys, and someuh we moved a couple over to
project manager, right?
We we kind of shifted thingsaround, but we were looking at
(20:57):
our numbers, and the only reasonwe made that decision, which was
the smartest decision we we madein an in like a five-year
period, that was the smartestdecision we made at that time,
was because we knew our numbersand could look at it and say, My
heart says I want to keep thisdivision.
My my pride wants to keep threedivisions in this company and
all these guys, and I see mytrucks on the road, and people
(21:19):
text me that they saw my truck.
Like, my pride wants to keep allthis, but when I'm looking at
it, why are we doing this?
Like, what's the point?
I remember being like, This thisamount of it's 50%.
I was like, we're makinghundreds of dollars a month on
this on this arm, right?
Like it was like, this is notwhat are we doing here?
Yeah.
One one screw up, one BobbyBoucher drinking driving down
(21:41):
the road.
Driving down the road, drinkinga Bud Light, and someone calls
in and says, Hey, your driver isdriving.
Literally drinking and driving.
And an accident there shuts thewhole company down.
Yeah.
Right.
And so it's risk versus rewardon that as well as looking and
knowing our numbers and saying,this is all of our overhead.
Like if we cut this, let's runthe numbers, we'll be at 15% of
(22:02):
our over our overhead is 15% ofour revenue, which was a great
number to get to.
But you have to documenteverything, you have to do a
year's worth of QuickBooksperfectly to understand and see
those numbers.
It's small steps getting there.
So I digress.
Those numbers you got to know.
And so when I when I'm startingwith guys, and really it's this
(22:23):
time of year that we're gonnastart doubling down and in in
all the coaching sessions.
That my my really it's November.
I started in October, butNovember, December, guys start
slowing down, right?
The the March through August,September, guys are just
slammed.
And so I'm trying to hold on fordear life, trying to get them to
move a couple inches down thefootball field every single
month.
(22:44):
October, November, December islike we're going to understand
your numbers.
And when we turn the corner intoJanuary, you're gonna be,
everything's gonna be doingdoing it the right way.
I want to reset, I want January1st, your QuickBooks to be
perfect.
I want your processes in place,and this is where we can pick up
some extra yardage going downthe field because you've got an
extra five sports.
(23:05):
Sports.
Uh, how do I say it for you tounderstand it?
SPEAKER_01 (23:08):
Uh you uh say you're catching a bunch of Pokemon.
You have as many Pokemon as youcan find.
There's the Pikachu's, there'sthe Charmander's.
You you know these ones.
SPEAKER_02 (23:22):
So again, it's if you're listening to this and
you're listening to it live asit released and you're not
listening to it six monthslater, this is a great time of
year.
October, November, December isthe time of year to start
doubling down and say, okay,I've slowed down a little bit,
take a breath, but let's spendan hour a week organizing your
(23:42):
QuickBooks.
And if you don't know what youshould be doing, let's get on a
call.
I hate how much I knowQuickBooks because I help you
out a lot with it.
But um this is the time to wherewhen we to set up those
processes, you're not gonna fixit overnight.
You're not gonna get everythingorganized.
But if we start by November 1st,everything trying to run the
right way, we work out thekinks.
(24:03):
And by January, we turn thecorner and every job is being
tracked.
We can see the numbers, I cansee my revenue, I can see all of
that stuff, and it's reallyclean.
And and you're launching into2026.
This is also something that uhwe're we're gonna work on.
If you're not in coaching, I'mand but you want to come on the
retreat in January.
This is one of I give three freesessions between now and well,
(24:23):
depending on when you'relistening to this, it's about
one a month from now until theretreat.
So if you sign up in December,you're getting one free session.
But if you're signing up now inOctober, you're gonna get three
free sessions that I'm gonna dosome coaching going into the
retreat.
Because I want you to understandthese numbers and I want to get
to a spot where we understandwhat you're doing.
So when you hit the groundrunning on the retreat, we're
(24:43):
not trying to sort through allyour QuickBooks and figure out
your numbers, but you're showingup with, okay, this is where I'm
starting.
What do we need a game plan fornext year?
SPEAKER_01 (24:51):
Yeah, if you go into the retreat with without that
information, you're gonna doyourself a pretty big
disservice.
SPEAKER_02 (24:58):
You're you're spending the whole time figuring
that out where everyone else issolving the problem of it.
SPEAKER_01 (25:02):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (25:02):
Right.
And so I think that's that'ssomething.
If you're thinking on coming onthe treat, or if you're not and
you just want to help some help,reach out.
Let me let me know.
I'd love to meet with you onthat.
All right.
So let's this might be where wesimplify some of this.
Or it might be more complicated.
Okay.
Let's go through an example.
I'll let you know.
Uh let's go through an example.
I'm gonna use some real worldnumbers that I wrote out.
(25:23):
I tried to be as simplistic aspossible, so I've got them
written down.
Um, so here's the example ofwhat I'm talking about.
Let's say your revenue is ahundred thousand dollars a
month.
You might be half that, youmight be triple that.
It doesn't matter.
Let's just use these as numbers.
$100,000 a month of revenue.
Let's say, for number's sake,your gross profit is$30,000 on
(25:46):
that.
Which means it's a markup of aabout 37% to have a 30 30%
profit.
I'm not gonna go into that.
SPEAKER_01 (26:00):
I'm so sorry.
Why would you even say that?
Because that math doesn't mathfor 95% of people.
I know, I know.
It's we'll just go back.
And now, if you really want toget nutty, if you graph this
out, the hypotenuse is unreal.
SPEAKER_02 (26:17):
Uh it's it's the difference of markup and gross
profit and and gross margin.
I'm not I'm not gonna get intoit.
Are you?
I really want to Okay.
So let's say you made$30,000 on$100,000.
Your gross profit To me, that's30%.
Your your margin, your grossprofit is thirty percent.
Okay.
(26:38):
But if you only did$70,000 ofwork, I'm going into it, and you
mark it up 30%, 30% of$70,000 is$21,000.
So you actually made$91,000total revenue.
Okay.
Because you made$21 instead of30.
Anyways, let's back it up.
Let's go.
Let's back it up.
Revenue is$100,000.
SPEAKER_01 (26:55):
Revenue's$100,000.
Gross profits$30.
$30,000.
30% margin.
SPEAKER_02 (27:00):
Margin.
No more.
Yes.
Uh of that, let's say on athirty thousand, your overhead
is very conservative.
You've done well, you don't havea twelve hundred dollar a month
truck payment, your overhead isseven thousand dollars a month.
So you're spending seventhousand a month, you're a
one-man show, that's insurance,that's gas, that's where we
(27:24):
don't have an office in there,um, that is just overhead, not
including what you're payingyourself.
That's just the overhead of thecompany.
Maybe you spent 800 bucks onsome ads, you did you you placed
something in a pay, whatever itis,$7,000 of overhead.
SPEAKER_01 (27:40):
Then Now let me stop you here.
Yeah, please.
The You're doing this as anexample of an owner, and that's
why you're not including whatyou're paying yourself inside of
the overhead.
SPEAKER_02 (27:51):
This is the this is the project manager style.
I'm I'm a general contractor,one man show, and I'm running a
bunch of jobs.
And I own my own this is mycompany.
I'm the owner.
I'm the owner of the company,I'm a one-man show.
This is not in the field.
It's hard to do a hundred granda month swinging a hammer by
yourself on one job at a time.
This is I'm project management,I got three to four jobs running
at a time, maybe a bump up tofive to six on the busy seasons.
SPEAKER_01 (28:15):
But I have no employees.
No employees, you're the ownerof the company.
That's why you're not includinguh your money, your paycheck
into the overhead.
SPEAKER_02 (28:27):
Well, yes, but what overhead, well, yes, let me let
me say the next sentence becauseit is$7,000 of overhead outside
of the salary and then a$5,000project manager salary for
yourself.
So our total overhead's$12,000.
But I wanted to be distinct thatfive of that is going to me, and
seven of it's covering all ofour overhead expenses.
(28:48):
Now I count that all asoverhead.
On my line, it says overheadseven K plus PM salary five K.
Total overhead is twelve K.
Does that make sense?
Yep.
So it's a$12,000 overhead, it's12% overhead right now.
Net profit is$18.
Net profit, operating profit is$18,000.
You're following the math.
Thank you.
So we got$18,000 after I paymyself five.
(29:11):
Most guys spend seven grand andthey've they've got twenty-three
there, and they're like, cool,I'm gonna take 15 of that.
21.
21 there.
Thank you.
So and they say, I'm just gonnatake half that, I'm gonna take
whatever it is.
I we're we're throw thatthinking out the window.
7,000 is my overhead, 5,000.
(29:32):
I'm paying a project manager.
Luckily, I've hired myself.
I'm a really good PM and I'vehired myself to be the PM at my
company, right?
We want the two different hats.
I got my owner hat, I got myproject manager hat.
And my hard ass hat.
So overhead's$12,000, and myprofit is$18,000.
Now, next thing we want to do,and we'll talk about how to do
(29:55):
this in the next podcast, is ofthe$18,000 sitting there, I want
to take 25% and put it into atax savings account.
Some guys pay taxes weekly, someare I'm sorry, monthly, some are
quarterly, some are annually.
I don't care how you do it, it'seasier to do it annually because
you have like I don't have wantto have three really good months
(30:17):
and pay high taxes, and thenthree really bad months and have
nothing.
I'd rather do it annually, butit's so hard because you gotta
save.
You might have a forty thousanddollar tax bill, and if you're
not good at saving, you're gonnascrew yourself.
SPEAKER_01 (30:29):
Well, let me let me add one thing to this.
You just this is what I I'vedone for mine.
Please, please.
Just high yield savings account.
Yep.
You don't don't put it into likemoney market or or whatever.
Yep.
High yield savings account andjust let that grow.
You'll make a couple hundredbucks.
Yes.
And then that money is notyours, though.
(30:51):
You're gonna plan on spendingthat with Uncle Sam.
SPEAKER_02 (30:55):
Yes.
And what one thing that I didwrong exactly what What you just
said was I this was a number ofyears ago, not too far.
I mean, probably five or sixyears ago, I had that account,
right?
It was just wasn't touched.
My buddy was over here talkingabout Robin Hood and how he was
doing investing.
I was like, Well, I got 40 grandover in this account, waiting
that Uncle Sam's let me borrowtill the end of the year.
(31:17):
And so I started investing itand it went down like I like I
lost like five grand.
It was like right before COVID.
And I was like, so I had to comeout of pocket at the end of the
year to cover my and and it waslike I gotta find 10 grand out
of my pocket just to cover mytaxes that I owe because I was
trying to be cute with mysavings.
So again, it's I got burned bydesigner pogs.
(31:43):
I remember that you lost yourhouse on that.
SPEAKER_01 (31:45):
I lost my entire house.
That is sad.
I have the sick pog collection.
SPEAKER_02 (31:49):
It is, I mean, that that one slammer that you have
that's like gold and crust.
It was amazing.
It was amazing.
Anyways, put that away.
It's not your money.
Don't touch it.
Sit it there.
If you are not good, knowyourself.
If you're not good with moneymanagement, try to pay monthly
taxes, try to pay quarterlytaxes.
Get that out of your hands, getit to Uncle Sam.
But we're pulling that out.
(32:10):
That means we have leftover.
After we had 18,000, we pulled45 out of it.
13,505 times three.
$13,500 is left in the companyaccount.
Right.
And so what I want to do, myrule of thumb on this is at the
end of the month, you can go50-50.
I'm doing a 50% ownerdistribution and a 50% retained
(32:35):
earnings in that account.
That means six hundred sixthousand seven hundred and fifty
dollars to me, six thousandseven hundred and fifty dollars
stays in the account.
If you are fine with that fivethousand dollar a month salary
and want to leave more in theaccount, I love you for it.
If you are, if that if you needmore than that$11,700.
(32:57):
It's in and buy some pogs.
It's in and buy some pugs.
If you get, if you borrow money,if you owe people, if that that
throws a wrench in all of this.
And so I like I most more guysthan not that I coach have some
debt servicing.
(33:18):
And I this was one of my biggestmistakes in doing in growing.
Like, like learn from this as acontractor that did it wrong.
I remember 2014, I took out likea$400,000 loan, just like, oh,
if we had it, like we'regrowing, we're doing this, we're
buying trucks.
And it's and it's the the noosearound the growth's neck having
that payment, having a eightthousand.
(33:39):
I mean, we were at one point, Ithink we had about$14,000 a
month servicing debts alone,which is like, could you imagine
if we grew a little slower,didn't have those debts, and had
$14,000 a month to put intogrowth.
SPEAKER_01 (33:52):
Yeah.
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (33:53):
And so it's just, I mean, it's it's drugs.
It's just a little bit.
Well, I can do, I mean, and I'llpay that back with this, and
that job's about to hit.
And I got that huge half amillion dollar one that is
starting in January.
Yeah.
Don't spend next month's moneyprofits this month.
Wait.
Be patient for a freaking month.
And when that money comes in,then you get to spend it.
(34:14):
So that's my warning on this.
But what we want to do is wewant to separate out$5,000 a
month for the project managerpay.
Again, what's a good projectmanager pay in your neck of the
woods?
$5,000 a month is terrible inLos Angeles.
$5,000 a month is great inMacon, Georgia, right?
Like it it depends on where youlive as to what that number
(34:36):
should be.
And all of these numbers shouldscale with that as well.
And the level of renovations orwork that's taking place.
SPEAKER_01 (34:44):
Like, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (34:45):
If uh I mean, I'm not going to get a project
manager that's doing new buildsfor me at$5,000 a month.
No.
But if you're working with abunch of REITs, doing investment
turns, quick flips.
I I don't need you as educated.
I need you to be a grinder andyou can get in there, do the
work, get out of there.
So again, you know, the mainthing that we're trying to drive
(35:06):
in here is what we need to knowwhere those dollars are going.
And it's not this clean.
It's never this clean becauseit's not like I do work, I get
all my money in, I can figureout which accounts I go, and
then I can do the next job.
That's not how it works.
So understanding this is levelone.
Level two is how do we make thisthe hit when the rubber hits the
road?
(35:26):
When I'm actually sitting downon a Friday looking at this
stuff.
So we're not going to talk aboutthat this week.
That's next week.
We're going to get into that.
Ending this podcast right now.
We've said a lot of stuff.
I hope it's been not thatcomplicated.
There's three things I have foryou to do starting today.
Do it this week.
Try to start doing these thingsand come back next week and
(35:48):
listen to the podcast.
Number one, if you are doingyour own labor, price your labor
as if you're hiring someone elseto do it and then hire yourself.
Right?
This is, I'm going to chargethree grand for this job.
I'd pay my labor two on this.
I'm going to be that laborthough.
I'm going to take that money.
And I made the two and I got anextra thousand that the
company's making.
Number two, identify your marginprofits and your margin
(36:12):
percentage and overheadpercentage.
So I have this much I spend onoverhead.
It's 8% of what I normally do onaverage month over month of
revenue.
Um, I have this much, I spend,I'm my margin is normally about
25% profit.
Now that I'm marking my jobs up25%, when at the end of the
(36:35):
month, I've made about 25%profit on the jobs I've I've
invoiced.
And of that, I'm spending 10% ofoverhead on it, which at that
point I want you to include yourPM salary, because that's that's
part of that over that overheadnumber.
Um, so knowing those numbers,you're not going to be able to
figure out until your books areclean.
But let's start moving that way.
(36:55):
So we're or the goal is to knowthose numbers by January.
So, what do we do?
How do we do that?
Job costing.
I'm tying every materialpurchase to the job.
I'm paying every crew, even ifI've got an hourly guy, there's
a way to do that to where hemight go to three different
jobs.
I will show you.
We I did it literally on Tuesdaywith one of our coaching clients
in Chicago.
This is how we do.
(37:16):
We pay for this job, this job,and this job in the software.
We make it, we pay him thecheck.
However, you do it, let me likeyou need to track where your
money's going so we can seeprofitability per job as well as
the company.
What I really, really hate isguys say, Yeah, my CPA just
handles that for me.
All your CPA is doing is sayingmaterials.
You spent$70,000, you invoiced$90,000, you made$20,000.
(37:41):
And that's not the case becauseyou might have spent$70,000 and
invoiced$90,000, but of that$90,000, you have a$30,000
invoice that you haven't spenton yet because it was a deposit
for the next job.
So in reality, you can't countthat, right?
In reality, I invoice 60 and on70 spend, right?
And so that's what the problemis.
(38:02):
The way CPAs do it is to keepyou upright with the government,
which is a very important thing.
That doesn't work inconstruction.
It doesn't work, and it worksfor a lot of companies.
It doesn't work here because ourmonth over month invoicing
doesn't equal our month overmonth spending.
I we invoice sporadically, I getdeposits on the last day of this
month and spend all the money ofthe first week of next month, or
(38:24):
vice versa.
So you can't trust your numbersif your CPA is doing.
You can trust it that you'repaying your the your taxes.
You can't trust that the jobcosts and understand your
numbers by just looking at whatyour CPA is doing in the
background.
You have to control yournumbers.
So we want to start this week.
How do we start doing that?
How do we start tying ournumbers and identifying what our
(38:44):
labor is, what our materialsare, and what our overhead is?
How do we categorize that inQuickBooks or whatever uh
software you're using?
And then the last thing, I wantyou to start breaking down well,
honestly, don't even do that.
Let's start with these twothings.
Let's go do your make sureyou're paying yourself and money
on uh as profit for the company.
(39:06):
And let's identify your marginand your three different areas:
your revenue, profit, expenses,as well as how much your
overhead is of your uh cost ofgoods.
Doing those things before nextweek's podcast will be helpful
because next week we're gonnabreak down once you're making
money, once you're starting todo this stuff, how do we manage
(39:28):
it?
How do and James and I are gonnatalk about how in our companies
how we actually pay ourselves,how that works, and what what
you should be doing.
So hope you enjoyed part one.
Anything that we need clarity onbefore we go, James.
No Mike Mikelowski.
I have it in my notes.
Profit first all the time.
(39:48):
Mike McClowski.
Mikelowski.
Mike Mikelowski?
That's made up.
Mikelowski.
M-I-C-H-A-L-O-W-I-C-Z.
But like Mike Mikelowski.
Oh Mike McLowicz.
What do you say?
(40:08):
Mikalowitz.
Mikelowitz?
I don't know.
It's a good book.
That's all I know.
All right.
If you want, if you wantcoaching, if you want to meet,
if you want to meet this weekwith me, go to the website, go
to go to contractorcuts.com.
You can sign up for this uh fora meeting with me.
If you want to come on theretreat, we don't have a retreat
sign up online yet.
(40:28):
Ever.
You have to have a 30-minutemeeting with me to make sure
you're fit for this retreat.
I want to make sure your mind'sright.
I want to prep.
I want to understand you.
We have max 30 people coming onthis.
Uh, and so if you want to come,we only have a few slots left at
this point, which is great.
Last year we filled up December15th.
Right now we're getting close tofull, which is fantastic.
(40:49):
But if you want in, reach out.
Let's have a conversation aboutit.
We can start coaching this weekor next week and start with some
of this basic stuff to get yourolling.
So when you hit the retreat inJanuary, you're killing it.
So that's the goal.
If you want to talk,contractorcuts.com or
ProStruck360.com.
Both of them go to the samespot.
Love to love to talk to you, andwe'll see you all next week.
(41:10):
Bye.
Bye.
Welcome to Contractor Cuts, where we cover
the good, the bad, and the uglyof growing a successful
contracting company.
SPEAKER_02 (00:13):
Welcome to Contractor Cuts.
My name is Clark Turner.
I'm James McConnell.
Thank you for joining us again.
You hate the intro part themost.
I do.
I know.
Next time I'll say your name.
I'm James Picado.
unknown (00:24):
Bang!
SPEAKER_00 (00:26):
Back at it! Back at it again.
Coming in hot, hot, hot.
We got a Starbucks coffee, not asponsor.
Anyway, doing big stuff here inthe Casa de Turner.
SPEAKER_02 (00:37):
Well, thank you guys again for joining us this week.
This is kind of a continuationfrom last week when we were
talking about how much money youneed to start your contracting
company, what you need to bedoing to get going.
This is going to be a two-partseries on how to pay yourself.
We did a how to pay yourself asan owner two, two and a half
(00:58):
years ago, probably.
So we're retouching that, butwe're good doing a deeper dive
into it.
So many moons ago.
So many moons ago.
And James wasn't a part of thatone.
So this will be we'll take yournew turn.
Brand new, fresh perspective.
And it's going to be hot.
Yes.
James is like a financier.
Like he is he when you thinkmoney is James.
Money, tech.
(01:21):
Money and tech is like if yourWi-Fi is broken, go to James.
Talk to me.
All right.
So today the title of this isPay Yourself Right from Chaos
Draws to a Real Owner Salary.
Right.
And so we're this to this weekis going to be talking about
like the front end, how to getgoing on doing this.
(01:41):
And then next week we're goingto talk about the book that we
love.
That if you haven't read, readit this week.
Start listening to it onaudiobook, whatever it is.
It's called Profit First, MikeMcCowski or something like that.
That's his name.
You're crushing it.
(02:02):
And it's Mike Michaels.
Michael.
It's something.
But, anyways, it's it's a reallygood book.
We uh next podcast is kind of abook book report on that.
Um it's it's how we think moneyshould be managed.
Um we do a little bitdifferently.
It's kind of the contractor'sversion of the profit first
method.
Um, but next week will be areally good one.
So today is diving intounderstanding and kind of
(02:25):
setting up how to get money inthe background, how to start
storing money and how to startgetting to the spot that you can
actually have different bankaccounts and move stuff around
the right way and have ownerdistributions.
Um starting off with this, Ithink it's best to set it up as
really the different sizes ofcompanies, the different spots I
see guys coming in to coaching.
(02:46):
One being guys still swingingthe hammer, out there doing the
work, doing the labor.
And James, why don't we, if youcan for me, I I talk fast and I
kind of go through the stuffquickly and numbers I get lost
in.
So treat yourself as thecontractor.
Treat yourself as uh if youwould be kind of like the
contractor learning this stuffin terms of pick me apart.
SPEAKER_01 (03:10):
I'll act as if I don't understand what you're
saying.
Perfect.
And I'll act as if that's thecase.
That would be great.
SPEAKER_02 (03:20):
Thank you so much.
But pick apart what I'm sayingif if I if I get running too
fast.
Um so starting off, guysswinging the hammers.
Guys out there, tool belts on,you know, they do two jobs at a
time, three jobs.
Um, they're doing most of thework themselves or subbing out
the electrical and plumbing, butthey're doing most of the most
of the work themselves, butthey're out in the field with
(03:41):
their tools.
Um, those guys, I think what Iwant to see from that style of a
contractor as they're growingtheir company is we need to
start separating out profit forthe company versus pay for your
job.
Um, in those roles, thoughoftentimes those guys, and we
said this on last week'spodcast, they they look at a job
(04:03):
and say, Hey, I charge$500 a dayfor my time for me to mobilize
and get out there.
That's a four-day job.
I'm gonna charge you$2,000 forme to come out and do that job.
SPEAKER_01 (04:14):
That you're selling your time for money.
And in this scenario, thecontractor, all they're thinking
about is how much does it cost?
Like what is my time worth?
SPEAKER_02 (04:23):
Yes, exactly.
They're selling uh they'rethey're literally exchanging
their hours for dollars.
SPEAKER_01 (04:29):
They're working$400 a day, five-day job, two
thousand dollars.
SPEAKER_02 (04:32):
That's what we're talking about now.
Like they're working at HomeDepot or McDonald's, like you're
just getting hourly pay, dailypay.
And so those guys, what areother Chick-fil-A.
Chick-fil-A.
Yeah, there's people that workthere.
So when you're viewing that, andwe talked, we touched on it last
week about how on those jobs youneed to be building in more than
(04:55):
just your time because it's notfour days.
It's not five days on the jobside, it's a day and a half
before doing an estimate.
You drove out there last week toget your eyes on the job and put
things together the day beforeyou went to Home Depot and
bought some materials.
SPEAKER_01 (05:07):
The same way that you describe, and I'm sure
you've talked about this onother podcasts, but the same way
that you sell the vendors andcrews that you're working with
on working with you is the stuffthat you're saying guys aren't
accounting for those things whenthey're doing that their own
hammer swinging.
SPEAKER_02 (05:24):
Absolutely.
That nail in the head.
So the the like we lay out onthe on the onboarding subs,
where it's like I'm doing all ofthis other work in blue, the
little part in red that you'redoing, the the labor itself,
that's what you're getting paidfor, and I'm getting paid for
everything else.
That's the everything else thatyou don't charge for when you're
a one-man show, right?
It's like I need this job, and Iuh I if I got 500 bucks a day,
(05:46):
I'm great.
Well, you're not working fivedays a week, four weeks a month
at$500 because you've got allthis other work that you're
doing.
You're you're you're runningaround, you're picking stuff up,
you're making returns, you'rehunting money down, you're doing
accounting, you're meeting withyour CPA.
Like, there's so much work thatyou're doing for free for your
company because you're onlycharging for the actual middle
labor part that you're doing.
Yeah.
(06:06):
So what we want you to startdoing is find your price point.
And we've talked profitpercentages a ton.
Uh, there's not a right one.
It's it's individually,depending on the size of the
job.
If you're doing, if you're aone-man show and you're doing
one job at a time and you'recharging 500 bucks a day and
that's it, you got to be 50%profit on that for your company
(06:26):
to survive.
If you're doing large-scalestuff, some commercial jobs are
cost plus at 10% and they'rekilling it because it's a$20
million job.
And that's okay to make$2million on that in the next nine
months as we do the project,right?
So don't get stuck on profitpercentage.
We aim for 35-ish percent.
It used to be 32, 30.
We're trying to kind of creepthat up a little bit and and and
(06:49):
really find the right clienteleat 35, sometimes 40.
But I know we slide the scale,right?
On a$20,000 job, we're making50%.
On a$120,000 job, we're making40%.
On a$300,000 job, we're making35%.
And it scales along with howmuch work we're doing.
So don't get lost and stuck onthe numbers of what your markup
(07:10):
should be.
If you want to talk through yourjob, your specific what you do,
you want to know, you know,assessment of your percentage
you should be at, call me.
Hit me up on our website.
I'd love to chat with you aboutthat.
Either way, we need that markupon top of how much it costs you
for your day labor, how much youyou need to make yourself.
And finding that number is awhole different animal of, well,
(07:33):
uh, you know, in my market, Ineed to be making 80,000 a year.
I work at most four days a weekfor 50 weeks a year, and you can
do the math on that.
Some guys, you know, as they getbetter and get older and you
have more of a clientele, theyraise that up and I need to be
at 150 a year, I need to be at180 a year, whatever it is, I
get paid for the work thatyou're doing separately than
(07:55):
that profit markup.
And don't pay yourself out ofthat profit markup.
So when you're that one-manshow, I want you to say, okay, I
need 500 bucks a day.
I'm gonna charge$2,000 for thesefour days.
And then as a company, I wantthe company to make an extra
thousand on top of that.
So I'm charging this client$3,000 for the work.
I'm going to pay myself$2,000for the work I did this week.
(08:20):
And that last thousand is gonnago into my bank.
That last thousand is going intocash flow.
That last thousand is not beingVenmo to me personally, it's
being deposited into my companyaccount.
And if you have a personalaccount and a business account
separated, that's we put it allin the business account.
And then I take my$2,000 for thelabor I did into my personal and
(08:41):
pay it out to myself.
SPEAKER_01 (08:42):
This is not uh a joke, but in this scenario, the
$2,000, does that includematerial or is that in the
$1,000, or was the clientsupplying the material?
SPEAKER_02 (08:53):
Total uh in that example, I wasn't buying
materials.
Okay.
So on my example on that wouldbe hey, I've got a thousand
dollars or you know, fivehundred dollars of material.
So I'm charging them$35.
And so it's like$2,000 forlabor,$500 for materials, and a
thousand for profit.
Trying to be simplistic and notmarking up materials is easier
(09:14):
when you're getting going, um,especially when you're dealing
one-on-one with the homeownerwho's like, well, I'll just go
out there and buy it.
No, I'm uh let me just handleit.
Uh, you're gonna buy the wrongthing.
It's gonna make make me take behere for an extra two days.
Yeah.
All that being said, what whatwe want is we want you to pay
yourself twice.
We want you to get paid for that$2,000 for the work.
And I want a thousand dollars inthe bank.
(09:35):
We're gonna talk next week abouthow to spend that thousand
dollars in the bank and whataccounts and how to pay tax and
all that stuff.
But mostly we wanna startbuilding up to usually what I
like to see is one month ofrevenue in the bank.
So if you're a company doing$100,000 a month, let's have a
$100,000 nest egg.
(09:55):
That money's gonna go up anddown depending on cash flow.
And hey, we're on three bigjobs, and so we're two of the
jobs we don't get paid till theend.
So that$100,000 is down to$40,000, but I get that money
back and it goes up to$120,right?
That that sort of cash flow towhere my standard, if I had my
accounts receivable countedalong with my bank account, is
(10:16):
around is as averaging$100,000.
If I'm doing$100,000 a month,right?
That that being said, we'regonna get into that later.
Let's let's stay stay groundfloor here.
I want to live off that labor.
I want to live off that$2,000 amonth.
If I need all three or$2,000 forthose, for those four days, if I
need all$3,000 to live as a andI'm staying busy, right?
(10:39):
Not if you're working one week amonth, but if you're staying
consistently busy and you can'tlive off of the labor price, you
gotta raise your labor prices,not steal your profit.
Right?
We gotta get, okay,$500 is alot.
If if you're charging$300 a dayand then all of a sudden it's
like, I feel like I'm working alot and I'm just breaking even,
you gotta be go up to$400 a day.
(10:59):
We got to bump that up and westill gotta make profit on top
of that.
So no matter what you'recharging, whether it's$200 a
day,$500 a day,$800 a day, Idon't care what your level of
expertise that you're charging,I gotta see profit above and
beyond that number built in forthe company to survive.
Because if you're spending allof your profits, then one month
you have a bad week.
(11:20):
Uh-oh.
Yeah.
Two weeks, three weeks, nowwhere I'm getting money.
All right.
That's kind of the the uh theself-operators, the
in-the-field, the hammerswingers going into the project
manager operators, right?
Those guys that are actuallyrunning as a true GC that isn't
doing work, isn't swinginghammers, but is general
contracting all of the work ontheir job sites.
(11:44):
I want to do it the same exactway, except that we're gonna
have an extra layer in themiddle.
So as a GC, James, you are outthere, you're not swinging a
hammer, you've got five jobsgoing on right now, you got two
about to start, you're managingall your crews, your labor and
materials, let's say, are$10,000for number's sake.
(12:06):
We need to do a big enoughmarkup that we can pay a project
manager salary to you out ofthat markup and still have the
money left over in the accountfor the company to be growing
and making money.
And we'll, again, we're divingdeep into what those numbers
should look like in a second.
But just to understand thatconceptually, I want your the
the profit, the 30% can't be100% of European payroll.
(12:30):
Uh so if I'm$10,000 of laborthis month and I marked it up
and I'm making$33,000 of profitthis month, A, you're not gonna
survive on that.
But B, I need you to take$2,000home with you, and$1,000 is
gonna stay in the bank account.
Uh and we'll talk about thatagain in a second.
We need to figure out what yourminimum pay needs to be as a PM.
(12:51):
But our goal is to grow thiscompany to where that PM role
has a set pay, a fair marketvalue pay for that PM role that
you're paying yourself.
And then we're putting moneyaway above and beyond that as
company profit.
Because as you grow andduplicate and grow and grow, and
now I'm gonna hire a PM to comein with me, your PM pay is gonna
(13:15):
go away partially, and you'regonna start living off your
distributions from the companyas an owner.
Right.
This is how you duplicate andgrow yourself out of the company
is as big as we can make thecompany pay, the profits coming
in and the owner distributions,as soon as I can live off that,
I don't need that PM pay.
And I can hire guys in, and it'snot costing me anything because
(13:35):
I can live off my ownerdistributions.
So that's kind of the biggerpicture of what we're talking
about.
But mainly pay yourself as aproject manager, even if you
we're growing it and getting toa spot.
I want a, all right, what isgonna be my pay?
I need eight grand a month tosurvive in this market, where we
live, my bills.
Great.
So let's figure out how we geteight grand a month to you and
(13:57):
another four to eight grand amonth into the company.
Let's work these numbersbackwards and be like, hey,
you're doing eighty thousanddollars of revenue a month.
Looking at the numbers, yougotta be at 180 to make all your
numbers work, right?
There's it's all math in theback end to understand where we
have to be.
You just gotta do the work andunderstand like I need eight
grand a month, I need six granda month, I need twelve grand,
(14:20):
whatever, whatever market you'rein, then we got to figure out
what the profit is and how muchwe need to be charging and how
much revenue you need to bedoing to survive as a company.
Make sense?
Totally.
Did I miss anything there?
SPEAKER_01 (14:32):
Was anything confusing?
No, I mean, I I think we're uh Ithink everything's still up in
the air for me right now.
Perfect.
I'm waiting for for the landingto stick.
Great.
SPEAKER_02 (14:48):
All right, so with everything that I just said,
we've got we've got threedifferent numbers that you are
gonna control.
You're running this company,there's three numbers that you
control.
Number one, revenue.
How much money can I do?
And by controlling that, it'smarketing, going out, finding
people, uh calling on oldclients, asking your aunts and
(15:09):
uncles and parents and friendsand old teachers, do they know
anyone that needs renovation?
It's doing the gorilla marketingto get out there and find it.
Maybe you're starting to runsome ads, maybe, but that number
is fluctuating.
It's up and down in terms of therevenue number.
The second number, your grossprofit percentage on cost of
goods, your labor materials.
(15:30):
How much profit am I going tomark that number up?
So if I'm doing a hundred granda month in revenue, how much of
that is gonna be my cost ofgoods?
Normally we're we're aiming toland at 32% profit and what 68%
cost of goods.
Um I I think the number thatthat we came up with, I think
(15:51):
it's like 40.
I think it was 46% of our everydollar we invoices labor, and
then it was like 21 and a halfpercent of every dollar we
invoices for materials, and thenthere's 32% profit.
That's where we want to end on abad day.
Um and so those numbers,understanding that again, that's
(16:14):
that's I ran numbers over 10years of our company running,
and that's that hit on thehealthy times for I think it was
41, 45, 46, somewhere in there,and then 21, 22% for materials.
And some of that is relative.
You know, I pay my some guyspay, I'm gonna pay one number to
my flooring guys, and they dothe labor part of it.
(16:35):
I cabinets, they do the laborpart of it.
So that's gonna fluctuate thedifference.
At the end of the day, I want68%, 67% of my cost being cost
of goods.
And I want 32% to be my profit.
So that's the number secondnumbers that we have to know and
that we can control.
The third number is overheadpercentage of my revenue.
(16:56):
How much are you spending onyour truck?
How much is insurance?
How much are you spending on?
Are you renting an office?
Do you have employees?
Do you have a CPA?
Are you uh am I a coach for youand I'm on your team with you?
Are you, you know, software, allof those expenses, what
percentage of that of youroverhead?
Now, I'm not going to give you apercentage right now because
(17:18):
that number is all over theplace depending on the size of
your company.
And the smaller you are, thelower that percentage is, right?
On a on a startup company, whenyou're really thin, you don't
have employees, you're probablygonna be around eight to nine
percent on that number.
Once you get up to uh alarge-scale company, you're
around 21% on that number.
(17:38):
And this this is a deeper divethat we're not doing today, but
that number is what kills peopleas they grow.
That's the crunch the numbersagain because the bigger you
grow, crunch, it doesn't work,right?
And so guys get set up and say,well, you know, my overhead's
about 8%.
Um, and I'm I I only got tocharge 15% and I'm making good
(17:58):
money.
Well, as you now you gotta makea hire.
Now you your insurance goes from$300 a month to$1,500 a month
because you're doing morerevenue.
And as you grow, your expensesgrow not the same
percentage-wise.
It's not the same incrementalgrowth as when you're growing
the company.
Because when it's just me, I'msuper efficient.
When I have two, three, fourproject managers, I now have a
(18:22):
head of construction, a separaterole that is nothing but sucking
overhead to manage those guys,to make sure they're doing the
paperwork, to make sure they'redoing it's gonna be me, but
eventually it's it's gonna besomebody else.
But when I was previously takingthe pay of a project manager, I
now have to pay that to aproject manager, and I've got to
take an additional pay for me tomanage that guy, right?
(18:42):
And so as we grow the companies,that overhead, the the
percentage of your profit, whichis your of overhead, usually
grows to about 20, 21%.
If I can get it down to 17, 18,we're doing awesome.
I remember when we uh back whenwe closed down the service
division of our company, andthis was the reason.
We couldn't make enough money onit.
(19:04):
We we said on the serviceservice side, we had seven
trucks, six trucks on the road,I think, doing service calls and
punch out work and that sort ofthing.
We had to, we looked at it andwe're like, either we get up to
20 trucks or we get rid of it.
But we can't, this in between iskilling us.
We we got to get to the tippingpoint, and we're like, it's just
all of our efforts, overhead,and expenses.
(19:25):
We it was 50% of our ouroverhead was on that division,
and it was like 8% of ourrevenue.
I remember the exact moment inthe hotel room.
SPEAKER_01 (19:34):
Yeah, and it was like okay.
SPEAKER_02 (20:36):
I I remember you and Jared sitting on the couch, and
I was pacing, I was like, Ithink we just fire everybody and
close it down.
And it was like, well, yeah, Idon't know any other way to do
it.
And and we didn't, it wasn'tclearing house, but we did lose
lose a handful of guys, and someuh we moved a couple over to
project manager, right?
We we kind of shifted thingsaround, but we were looking at
(20:57):
our numbers, and the only reasonwe made that decision, which was
the smartest decision we we madein an in like a five-year
period, that was the smartestdecision we made at that time,
was because we knew our numbersand could look at it and say, My
heart says I want to keep thisdivision.
My my pride wants to keep threedivisions in this company and
all these guys, and I see mytrucks on the road, and people
(21:19):
text me that they saw my truck.
Like, my pride wants to keep allthis, but when I'm looking at
it, why are we doing this?
Like, what's the point?
I remember being like, This thisamount of it's 50%.
I was like, we're makinghundreds of dollars a month on
this on this arm, right?
Like it was like, this is notwhat are we doing here?
Yeah.
One one screw up, one BobbyBoucher drinking driving down
(21:41):
the road.
Driving down the road, drinkinga Bud Light, and someone calls
in and says, Hey, your driver isdriving.
Literally drinking and driving.
And an accident there shuts thewhole company down.
Yeah.
Right.
And so it's risk versus rewardon that as well as looking and
knowing our numbers and saying,this is all of our overhead.
Like if we cut this, let's runthe numbers, we'll be at 15% of
(22:02):
our over our overhead is 15% ofour revenue, which was a great
number to get to.
But you have to documenteverything, you have to do a
year's worth of QuickBooksperfectly to understand and see
those numbers.
It's small steps getting there.
So I digress.
Those numbers you got to know.
And so when I when I'm startingwith guys, and really it's this
(22:23):
time of year that we're gonnastart doubling down and in in
all the coaching sessions.
That my my really it's November.
I started in October, butNovember, December, guys start
slowing down, right?
The the March through August,September, guys are just
slammed.
And so I'm trying to hold on fordear life, trying to get them to
move a couple inches down thefootball field every single
month.
(22:44):
October, November, December islike we're going to understand
your numbers.
And when we turn the corner intoJanuary, you're gonna be,
everything's gonna be doingdoing it the right way.
I want to reset, I want January1st, your QuickBooks to be
perfect.
I want your processes in place,and this is where we can pick up
some extra yardage going downthe field because you've got an
extra five sports.
(23:05):
Sports.
Uh, how do I say it for you tounderstand it?
SPEAKER_01 (23:08):
Uh you uh say you're catching a bunch of Pokemon.
You have as many Pokemon as youcan find.
There's the Pikachu's, there'sthe Charmander's.
You you know these ones.
SPEAKER_02 (23:22):
So again, it's if you're listening to this and
you're listening to it live asit released and you're not
listening to it six monthslater, this is a great time of
year.
October, November, December isthe time of year to start
doubling down and say, okay,I've slowed down a little bit,
take a breath, but let's spendan hour a week organizing your
(23:42):
QuickBooks.
And if you don't know what youshould be doing, let's get on a
call.
I hate how much I knowQuickBooks because I help you
out a lot with it.
But um this is the time to wherewhen we to set up those
processes, you're not gonna fixit overnight.
You're not gonna get everythingorganized.
But if we start by November 1st,everything trying to run the
right way, we work out thekinks.
(24:03):
And by January, we turn thecorner and every job is being
tracked.
We can see the numbers, I cansee my revenue, I can see all of
that stuff, and it's reallyclean.
And and you're launching into2026.
This is also something that uhwe're we're gonna work on.
If you're not in coaching, I'mand but you want to come on the
retreat in January.
This is one of I give three freesessions between now and well,
(24:23):
depending on when you'relistening to this, it's about
one a month from now until theretreat.
So if you sign up in December,you're getting one free session.
But if you're signing up now inOctober, you're gonna get three
free sessions that I'm gonna dosome coaching going into the
retreat.
Because I want you to understandthese numbers and I want to get
to a spot where we understandwhat you're doing.
So when you hit the groundrunning on the retreat, we're
(24:43):
not trying to sort through allyour QuickBooks and figure out
your numbers, but you're showingup with, okay, this is where I'm
starting.
What do we need a game plan fornext year?
SPEAKER_01 (24:51):
Yeah, if you go into the retreat with without that
information, you're gonna doyourself a pretty big
disservice.
SPEAKER_02 (24:58):
You're you're spending the whole time figuring
that out where everyone else issolving the problem of it.
SPEAKER_01 (25:02):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (25:02):
Right.
And so I think that's that'ssomething.
If you're thinking on coming onthe treat, or if you're not and
you just want to help some help,reach out.
Let me let me know.
I'd love to meet with you onthat.
All right.
So let's this might be where wesimplify some of this.
Or it might be more complicated.
Okay.
Let's go through an example.
I'll let you know.
Uh let's go through an example.
I'm gonna use some real worldnumbers that I wrote out.
(25:23):
I tried to be as simplistic aspossible, so I've got them
written down.
Um, so here's the example ofwhat I'm talking about.
Let's say your revenue is ahundred thousand dollars a
month.
You might be half that, youmight be triple that.
It doesn't matter.
Let's just use these as numbers.
$100,000 a month of revenue.
Let's say, for number's sake,your gross profit is$30,000 on
(25:46):
that.
Which means it's a markup of aabout 37% to have a 30 30%
profit.
I'm not gonna go into that.
SPEAKER_01 (26:00):
I'm so sorry.
Why would you even say that?
Because that math doesn't mathfor 95% of people.
I know, I know.
It's we'll just go back.
And now, if you really want toget nutty, if you graph this
out, the hypotenuse is unreal.
SPEAKER_02 (26:17):
Uh it's it's the difference of markup and gross
profit and and gross margin.
I'm not I'm not gonna get intoit.
Are you?
I really want to Okay.
So let's say you made$30,000 on$100,000.
Your gross profit To me, that's30%.
Your your margin, your grossprofit is thirty percent.
Okay.
(26:38):
But if you only did$70,000 ofwork, I'm going into it, and you
mark it up 30%, 30% of$70,000 is$21,000.
So you actually made$91,000total revenue.
Okay.
Because you made$21 instead of30.
Anyways, let's back it up.
Let's go.
Let's back it up.
Revenue is$100,000.
SPEAKER_01 (26:55):
Revenue's$100,000.
Gross profits$30.
$30,000.
30% margin.
SPEAKER_02 (27:00):
Margin.
No more.
Yes.
Uh of that, let's say on athirty thousand, your overhead
is very conservative.
You've done well, you don't havea twelve hundred dollar a month
truck payment, your overhead isseven thousand dollars a month.
So you're spending seventhousand a month, you're a
one-man show, that's insurance,that's gas, that's where we
(27:24):
don't have an office in there,um, that is just overhead, not
including what you're payingyourself.
That's just the overhead of thecompany.
Maybe you spent 800 bucks onsome ads, you did you you placed
something in a pay, whatever itis,$7,000 of overhead.
SPEAKER_01 (27:40):
Then Now let me stop you here.
Yeah, please.
The You're doing this as anexample of an owner, and that's
why you're not including whatyou're paying yourself inside of
the overhead.
SPEAKER_02 (27:51):
This is the this is the project manager style.
I'm I'm a general contractor,one man show, and I'm running a
bunch of jobs.
And I own my own this is mycompany.
I'm the owner.
I'm the owner of the company,I'm a one-man show.
This is not in the field.
It's hard to do a hundred granda month swinging a hammer by
yourself on one job at a time.
This is I'm project management,I got three to four jobs running
at a time, maybe a bump up tofive to six on the busy seasons.
SPEAKER_01 (28:15):
But I have no employees.
No employees, you're the ownerof the company.
That's why you're not includinguh your money, your paycheck
into the overhead.
SPEAKER_02 (28:27):
Well, yes, but what overhead, well, yes, let me let
me say the next sentence becauseit is$7,000 of overhead outside
of the salary and then a$5,000project manager salary for
yourself.
So our total overhead's$12,000.
But I wanted to be distinct thatfive of that is going to me, and
seven of it's covering all ofour overhead expenses.
(28:48):
Now I count that all asoverhead.
On my line, it says overheadseven K plus PM salary five K.
Total overhead is twelve K.
Does that make sense?
Yep.
So it's a$12,000 overhead, it's12% overhead right now.
Net profit is$18.
Net profit, operating profit is$18,000.
You're following the math.
Thank you.
So we got$18,000 after I paymyself five.
(29:11):
Most guys spend seven grand andthey've they've got twenty-three
there, and they're like, cool,I'm gonna take 15 of that.
21.
21 there.
Thank you.
So and they say, I'm just gonnatake half that, I'm gonna take
whatever it is.
I we're we're throw thatthinking out the window.
7,000 is my overhead, 5,000.
(29:32):
I'm paying a project manager.
Luckily, I've hired myself.
I'm a really good PM and I'vehired myself to be the PM at my
company, right?
We want the two different hats.
I got my owner hat, I got myproject manager hat.
And my hard ass hat.
So overhead's$12,000, and myprofit is$18,000.
Now, next thing we want to do,and we'll talk about how to do
(29:55):
this in the next podcast, is ofthe$18,000 sitting there, I want
to take 25% and put it into atax savings account.
Some guys pay taxes weekly, someare I'm sorry, monthly, some are
quarterly, some are annually.
I don't care how you do it, it'seasier to do it annually because
you have like I don't have wantto have three really good months
(30:17):
and pay high taxes, and thenthree really bad months and have
nothing.
I'd rather do it annually, butit's so hard because you gotta
save.
You might have a forty thousanddollar tax bill, and if you're
not good at saving, you're gonnascrew yourself.
SPEAKER_01 (30:29):
Well, let me let me add one thing to this.
You just this is what I I'vedone for mine.
Please, please.
Just high yield savings account.
Yep.
You don't don't put it into likemoney market or or whatever.
Yep.
High yield savings account andjust let that grow.
You'll make a couple hundredbucks.
Yes.
And then that money is notyours, though.
(30:51):
You're gonna plan on spendingthat with Uncle Sam.
SPEAKER_02 (30:55):
Yes.
And what one thing that I didwrong exactly what What you just
said was I this was a number ofyears ago, not too far.
I mean, probably five or sixyears ago, I had that account,
right?
It was just wasn't touched.
My buddy was over here talkingabout Robin Hood and how he was
doing investing.
I was like, Well, I got 40 grandover in this account, waiting
that Uncle Sam's let me borrowtill the end of the year.
(31:17):
And so I started investing itand it went down like I like I
lost like five grand.
It was like right before COVID.
And I was like, so I had to comeout of pocket at the end of the
year to cover my and and it waslike I gotta find 10 grand out
of my pocket just to cover mytaxes that I owe because I was
trying to be cute with mysavings.
So again, it's I got burned bydesigner pogs.
(31:43):
I remember that you lost yourhouse on that.
SPEAKER_01 (31:45):
I lost my entire house.
That is sad.
I have the sick pog collection.
SPEAKER_02 (31:49):
It is, I mean, that that one slammer that you have
that's like gold and crust.
It was amazing.
It was amazing.
Anyways, put that away.
It's not your money.
Don't touch it.
Sit it there.
If you are not good, knowyourself.
If you're not good with moneymanagement, try to pay monthly
taxes, try to pay quarterlytaxes.
Get that out of your hands, getit to Uncle Sam.
But we're pulling that out.
(32:10):
That means we have leftover.
After we had 18,000, we pulled45 out of it.
13,505 times three.
$13,500 is left in the companyaccount.
Right.
And so what I want to do, myrule of thumb on this is at the
end of the month, you can go50-50.
I'm doing a 50% ownerdistribution and a 50% retained
(32:35):
earnings in that account.
That means six hundred sixthousand seven hundred and fifty
dollars to me, six thousandseven hundred and fifty dollars
stays in the account.
If you are fine with that fivethousand dollar a month salary
and want to leave more in theaccount, I love you for it.
If you are, if that if you needmore than that$11,700.
(32:57):
It's in and buy some pogs.
It's in and buy some pugs.
If you get, if you borrow money,if you owe people, if that that
throws a wrench in all of this.
And so I like I most more guysthan not that I coach have some
debt servicing.
(33:18):
And I this was one of my biggestmistakes in doing in growing.
Like, like learn from this as acontractor that did it wrong.
I remember 2014, I took out likea$400,000 loan, just like, oh,
if we had it, like we'regrowing, we're doing this, we're
buying trucks.
And it's and it's the the noosearound the growth's neck having
that payment, having a eightthousand.
(33:39):
I mean, we were at one point, Ithink we had about$14,000 a
month servicing debts alone,which is like, could you imagine
if we grew a little slower,didn't have those debts, and had
$14,000 a month to put intogrowth.
SPEAKER_01 (33:52):
Yeah.
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (33:53):
And so it's just, I mean, it's it's drugs.
It's just a little bit.
Well, I can do, I mean, and I'llpay that back with this, and
that job's about to hit.
And I got that huge half amillion dollar one that is
starting in January.
Yeah.
Don't spend next month's moneyprofits this month.
Wait.
Be patient for a freaking month.
And when that money comes in,then you get to spend it.
(34:14):
So that's my warning on this.
But what we want to do is wewant to separate out$5,000 a
month for the project managerpay.
Again, what's a good projectmanager pay in your neck of the
woods?
$5,000 a month is terrible inLos Angeles.
$5,000 a month is great inMacon, Georgia, right?
Like it it depends on where youlive as to what that number
(34:36):
should be.
And all of these numbers shouldscale with that as well.
And the level of renovations orwork that's taking place.
SPEAKER_01 (34:44):
Like, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (34:45):
If uh I mean, I'm not going to get a project
manager that's doing new buildsfor me at$5,000 a month.
No.
But if you're working with abunch of REITs, doing investment
turns, quick flips.
I I don't need you as educated.
I need you to be a grinder andyou can get in there, do the
work, get out of there.
So again, you know, the mainthing that we're trying to drive
(35:06):
in here is what we need to knowwhere those dollars are going.
And it's not this clean.
It's never this clean becauseit's not like I do work, I get
all my money in, I can figureout which accounts I go, and
then I can do the next job.
That's not how it works.
So understanding this is levelone.
Level two is how do we make thisthe hit when the rubber hits the
road?
(35:26):
When I'm actually sitting downon a Friday looking at this
stuff.
So we're not going to talk aboutthat this week.
That's next week.
We're going to get into that.
Ending this podcast right now.
We've said a lot of stuff.
I hope it's been not thatcomplicated.
There's three things I have foryou to do starting today.
Do it this week.
Try to start doing these thingsand come back next week and
(35:48):
listen to the podcast.
Number one, if you are doingyour own labor, price your labor
as if you're hiring someone elseto do it and then hire yourself.
Right?
This is, I'm going to chargethree grand for this job.
I'd pay my labor two on this.
I'm going to be that laborthough.
I'm going to take that money.
And I made the two and I got anextra thousand that the
company's making.
Number two, identify your marginprofits and your margin
(36:12):
percentage and overheadpercentage.
So I have this much I spend onoverhead.
It's 8% of what I normally do onaverage month over month of
revenue.
Um, I have this much, I spend,I'm my margin is normally about
25% profit.
Now that I'm marking my jobs up25%, when at the end of the
(36:35):
month, I've made about 25%profit on the jobs I've I've
invoiced.
And of that, I'm spending 10% ofoverhead on it, which at that
point I want you to include yourPM salary, because that's that's
part of that over that overheadnumber.
Um, so knowing those numbers,you're not going to be able to
figure out until your books areclean.
But let's start moving that way.
(36:55):
So we're or the goal is to knowthose numbers by January.
So, what do we do?
How do we do that?
Job costing.
I'm tying every materialpurchase to the job.
I'm paying every crew, even ifI've got an hourly guy, there's
a way to do that to where hemight go to three different
jobs.
I will show you.
We I did it literally on Tuesdaywith one of our coaching clients
in Chicago.
This is how we do.
(37:16):
We pay for this job, this job,and this job in the software.
We make it, we pay him thecheck.
However, you do it, let me likeyou need to track where your
money's going so we can seeprofitability per job as well as
the company.
What I really, really hate isguys say, Yeah, my CPA just
handles that for me.
All your CPA is doing is sayingmaterials.
You spent$70,000, you invoiced$90,000, you made$20,000.
(37:41):
And that's not the case becauseyou might have spent$70,000 and
invoiced$90,000, but of that$90,000, you have a$30,000
invoice that you haven't spenton yet because it was a deposit
for the next job.
So in reality, you can't countthat, right?
In reality, I invoice 60 and on70 spend, right?
And so that's what the problemis.
(38:02):
The way CPAs do it is to keepyou upright with the government,
which is a very important thing.
That doesn't work inconstruction.
It doesn't work, and it worksfor a lot of companies.
It doesn't work here because ourmonth over month invoicing
doesn't equal our month overmonth spending.
I we invoice sporadically, I getdeposits on the last day of this
month and spend all the money ofthe first week of next month, or
(38:24):
vice versa.
So you can't trust your numbersif your CPA is doing.
You can trust it that you'repaying your the your taxes.
You can't trust that the jobcosts and understand your
numbers by just looking at whatyour CPA is doing in the
background.
You have to control yournumbers.
So we want to start this week.
How do we start doing that?
How do we start tying ournumbers and identifying what our
(38:44):
labor is, what our materialsare, and what our overhead is?
How do we categorize that inQuickBooks or whatever uh
software you're using?
And then the last thing, I wantyou to start breaking down well,
honestly, don't even do that.
Let's start with these twothings.
Let's go do your make sureyou're paying yourself and money
on uh as profit for the company.
(39:06):
And let's identify your marginand your three different areas:
your revenue, profit, expenses,as well as how much your
overhead is of your uh cost ofgoods.
Doing those things before nextweek's podcast will be helpful
because next week we're gonnabreak down once you're making
money, once you're starting todo this stuff, how do we manage
(39:28):
it?
How do and James and I are gonnatalk about how in our companies
how we actually pay ourselves,how that works, and what what
you should be doing.
So hope you enjoyed part one.
Anything that we need clarity onbefore we go, James.
No Mike Mikelowski.
I have it in my notes.
Profit first all the time.
(39:48):
Mike McClowski.
Mikelowski.
Mike Mikelowski?
That's made up.
Mikelowski.
M-I-C-H-A-L-O-W-I-C-Z.
But like Mike Mikelowski.
Oh Mike McLowicz.
What do you say?
(40:08):
Mikalowitz.
Mikelowitz?
I don't know.
It's a good book.
That's all I know.
All right.
If you want, if you wantcoaching, if you want to meet,
if you want to meet this weekwith me, go to the website, go
to go to contractorcuts.com.
You can sign up for this uh fora meeting with me.
If you want to come on theretreat, we don't have a retreat
sign up online yet.
(40:28):
Ever.
You have to have a 30-minutemeeting with me to make sure
you're fit for this retreat.
I want to make sure your mind'sright.
I want to prep.
I want to understand you.
We have max 30 people coming onthis.
Uh, and so if you want to come,we only have a few slots left at
this point, which is great.
Last year we filled up December15th.
Right now we're getting close tofull, which is fantastic.
(40:49):
But if you want in, reach out.
Let's have a conversation aboutit.
We can start coaching this weekor next week and start with some
of this basic stuff to get yourolling.
So when you hit the retreat inJanuary, you're killing it.
So that's the goal.
If you want to talk,contractorcuts.com or
ProStruck360.com.
Both of them go to the samespot.
Love to love to talk to you, andwe'll see you all next week.
(41:10):
Bye.
Bye.
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