Readiness check

Is your contracting business actually healthy?

Most contractors are great in the field and fly blind on the business. The trades are full of busy companies that look profitable and still cannot make payroll, because the money is tracked by gut and the bank balance. Answer for how the business is actually run today, not how you mean to run it. The score stays on your device; enter an email only if you want the business health checklist sent over.

1. Do you job-cost every job, comparing the actual labor and material against the estimate?Yes, every job is costed actual-vs-estimateSometimes, or only on the big onesNo, we find out at tax time if we made money

2. Do you price from your real burdened cost and a target margin, not a number that feels right?Yes, priced from burdened cost and overheadRoughly, with a markup we have always usedNo, we match the market or guess

3. Do you run a cash flow forecast, so you see a tight payroll week before it arrives?Yes, a rolling cash forecast we updateWe watch the bank balanceNo, payroll week is sometimes a scramble

4. Do you invoice fast and track AR aging so old balances get worked, not forgotten?Yes, invoice same-day and work the agingWe invoice eventually and chase when slowNo, invoicing lags and old balances sit

5. Do you know your backlog, the weeks of signed work ahead, to plan staffing and cash?Yes, we track backlog and plan to itWe have a rough feel for how busy we areNo, we take work as it comes and react

6. Is the work captured in one system (work orders, time, customers) instead of trucks and heads?Yes, one system everyone usesPartly, some paper and some softwareNo, it lives on phones, notebooks, and memory

7. Do you review a short scorecard of the numbers that matter on a regular cadence?Yes, a weekly or monthly scorecard we act onWe look at the numbers now and thenNo, no regular review of the numbers

8. Are you recruiting and onboarding so a key person leaving would not cripple the company?Yes, a pipeline and a real onboarding planWe hire when desperate and train on the flyNo, the business runs on a couple of people