When I’m meeting with contractors and construction business owners, I’m regularly asked what are the pillars of a successful business. I was actually just asked this yesterday in a call with a young remodeling contractor in PA who’s trying to grow a business his dad started 30 years ago. They want to scale and unlock new revenue milestones and move beyond referral-based marketing.
I appreciate this question and the ambition to grow because it suggests the asker is serious about what they’re doing. If you’re aware of the 80/20 rule (also called the Pareto Principle) you know that 20% of the effort produces 80% of the results. For business owners it’s important to ask the right questions, it’s even more important to stay in the game long enough that you learn what questions are the right questions. The right question can shift your paradigm and help you become someone who thinks and dreams differently about your business and the opportunities it may afford you.
My answer to the earlier-stated question which I will elaborate on in the text ahead–build systems in three main areas–coaching, marketing, and production. In other words–build with the end in mind. Here’s a hypothetical. If you were to build a business that you could sell in 5 years, how would you build it to last? How would you build it to transfer? How would you start if that was your end goal?
Most business owners don’t ask these questions at the outset. Some don’t ever ask these questions because they’ve never been prompted to do so. I’ve met at least half a dozen business owners this year that didn’t even know they could sell their business, that it was even a possibility. The harsh truth is that it isn’t a possibility if you build a business that can’t scale, can’t transfer, and depends on your involvement.
In the following paragraphs I want to lay out 3 critical systems that will serve the type of business owner who has decided that they want to either build a business or pivot an existing business toward a future where the business is not dependent on their involvement. For those wanting freedom from the business operation and the reward of passive income or a buyout (or both) this article is for you and is a distillation of the past several years that I’ve spent owning and operating 9 different construction businesses and hundreds of conversations with contractors like yourself.
First System: A Business Management System
After my partners and I had grown Restoration Carpentry to $1.5 mil in revenue and hired our 6th employee, we hit a plateau. Systems break at 3x and 10x (the Rule of 3 and 10 by Hiroshi Mikitani). Since 2021 we tripled in each notable category; personnel, revenue, and number of projects. It was around this time that someone recommended I read up on the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) by Gino Wickman in his book Traction.
We had noticed that the communication channels between the field and the office were breaking down, we weren’t clear on profit margins or if our overhead was sufficient to operate and grow the business, we were performing change orders without documentation, and so on. Our ability to manage the amount of work we had coming in with efficiency was being tested and we were scrambling to know how to respond. Wickman calls this the “ceiling” and EOS offers a blueprint to break through it.
EOS focuses on six pillars:
- Vision: It’s easy to get lost in the day-to-day grind. EOS forces you to align your entire team—from the estimators to the site foremen—around a Vision/Traction Organizer (V/TO). This ensures everyone knows exactly which types of projects you take on (and which you don’t) and where the company is headed over the next ten years. Without vision people (and businesses) perish. A clear vision provides a decision-making rubric to keep you ruthlessly focused on optimizing for your company’s stated values and aim. It’s every bit as much about learning what will serve your aim as what will not.
- People: Warm bodies in seats aren’t enough to run your business. EOS uses the Accountability Chart to move past traditional titles and focus on functions that serve your business. It ensures you have the right people in the right seats, holding everyone to a set of Core Values that define your company culture on the job site. Wickman recommends that you are also ruthless about company culture and personnel. I’ve heard it said, “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” If your people are not the right people, you need to let them go. Your business is an engine and it doesn’t run on good vibes and sentiment, it runs on engineered inputs. Correct oil–engine roars, incorrect oil–-engine failure.
- Data: Scaling requires moving from your gut feelings to real data tracking and awareness in a Weekly Scorecard. Instead of waiting until a project is closed out to see if you made money, you should track leading indicators—like weekly bid-to-hit ratios or change order approvals—to predict problems before they hit the ledger. Finances are a lagging metric. What happens in June may not fully reveal itself on the P&L until September. Accrual-based accounting with job-costing protocol, and proper metric tracking will ensure you can accurately forecast and recognize actual cash positioning at any given time. Everyone is invited (and empowered with a Scorecard) to own their piece of the puzzle to protect profitability and to learn how to recognize and address leaks in the bucket right when they arise.
- Issues: Construction is essentially a series of liabilities and obstacles waiting to be addressed. The IDS (Identify, Discuss, Solve) method replaces complaining with a rigorous discipline for killing issues at the root so they don’t haunt you on the next job. Elon Musk says, “the only failure that matters is the one that’s catastrophic.” I like to say that failure is only failure if you don’t learn from it quickly. Repetition in business operations is the prerequisite to intelligent decision-making. If you’re afraid to act, you’ll kill your ability to get the necessary repetitions. That’s Elon’s point–while everyone else is hesitating, he’s made 10 decisions and learned from all of them. The aggregate is equal to intelligence through pattern-recognition. The IDS Method will help your team make accurate assessments as you respond to the implications of your decision-making.
- Process: This is the scaffold for scaling your business. You must document the way your company does EVERYTHING. From the sales process, to pre-con meetings, to safety inspections, everything gets written down in an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure). When your processes are documented and followed by all, you can add more crews without sacrificing quality. Say the process and keep on saying it. Scaling absolutely depends on simplicity and repeatability in processes.
- Traction: This brings the vision down to earth through Rocks (90-day goals) and Level 10 Meetings. It creates a pulse of accountability that keeps the leadership team focused on high-level growth rather than getting sucked back into the details of daily production. This is another appeal to 80/20 thinking. Once your operations are systematized, the key decision-makers should focus on high-level leverage pulls related to company direction, networking, and business development. Again, the idea is that at every level each person knows their lane and their targets–all aimed at supporting the overall vision of the business.
These six components can help you transition from a business that relies too heavily on the owner’s sheer will, to a professional organization that runs itself with predictability. It will also help you identify and relieve unnecessary bottlenecks that are sometimes unclear at the earliest stages of business growth.
It took our team almost 9 months (the 9-month rule) to implement the pieces of EOS we thought were most critical. Understand that you can adapt EOS to meet your business needs. Size, style, and interest can all affect what pieces of the system are selected for. Just stay committed to whatever you decide and give these things time to normalize within your operational structure.
Second System: An Industry Leading CRM Software
On the heels of EOS, one of my business partners plugged the idea of using a construction software called BuilderTrend. BuilderTrend is a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software system specifically designed to help construction businesses manage customer relationships, track projects, and much more. It includes built-in lead management, proposal generation, and client-facing features that improve your ability to oversee operations and provide your customer a seamless and exceptional experience with your team.
At the time, we had four team members and were reluctant to see the need for an additional expense on the P&L, especially for a software that the rest of us weren’t convinced would even help us be more profitable in remodeling. I was wrong.
We went ahead and adopted the software in January of 2024 and BuilderTrend became an essential hub for our team and our clients. I even integrated it into our sales conversations, referencing our investment in an industry-leading software as a critical consideration for prospects comparing our services to other contractors. “The software centralizes communication, documentation, and payments – all at your fingertips. That’s one of the ways we ensure you have an exceptional experience with our team.”
A good CRM tool helps you administrate more effectively. Scheduling, job costing, project management, vendor payments, financial reporting, warranty information, subcontractor COI’s, all of this and more is readily available to you, your team, your subs, and your customers with privacy settings that allow you to lock and unlock access and augment users viewability in the app.
Our time with BuilderTrend was great but we eventually moved to JobTread for cost-saving purposes. We found JobTread to be equal to BuilderTrend in every way, but better-tuned for our particular team and services at a much lower price point.
Most of the top CRM tools also give you access to partner integrations. For instance, JobTread integrates with QuickBooks and Stripe for accounting and payment processing. The JobTread marketplace is regularly updated with other helpful partner recommendations like digital marketing partners (like RSM) as well as accountants, lawyers, and business coaches like Remodelers On The Rise.
Productivity and Efficiency Enhancements
A CRM system acts as the “front-office” engine, managing the customer journey from the first lead through to the signed contract, tracking interactions, managing the sales pipeline, and personalizing marketing efforts to increase customer retention. The other software system available to contractors is broadly called an FSM (Field Service Management). We won’t go into too much detail here on what constitutes an FSM but you should know there are differences and also that there are software brands that attempt to marry the two.
The fundamental difference lies in the unit of data: a pure CRM handles data from an account-centric angle, focusing on communication history and revenue opportunities, while a pure FSM handles data from a job-centric perspective, focusing on timestamps, labor hours, and materials used in the field.
I’m suggesting that the best software systems make a noteworthy attempt to do both the account and project-specific management.
Implementing a CRM is, initially, a time-consuming process. But, once up and running, the system drives impact across the entire lifecycle of your customer’s experience. Firms regularly report better traction with leads and conversions, subcontractor relationships, vendor procurement and billing, and employee time and expense tracking.
The industry broadly reports a 30+% boost in sales productivity by consistent CRM users, which allows personnel to focus intently on high-value tasks and acquisitions rather than unproductive lead-chasing activity. Combining a robust CRM platform with a polished sales presentation and consistent nurturing patterns results in a notable increase in lead conversion and a lift in overall sales revenue driven by better operational and data visibility.
Our employees learned quickly, through JobTread’s provided training modules, how to track their time, submit general expenses, leave daily logs for customer viewing, report warranty issues, and log change orders for management and customer approval. These modules are included in your software subscription and a client success manager is available to help you identify and implement the provided tools and systems.
This is a great testimonial for JobTread. The content is solid, but you’re right—it’s currently a “wall of text” that a busy lead might skim over.
To make this more scannable, I’ve broken it down into clear value propositions using headings, bullets, and bold text. This allows a reader to grasp the benefits of your process in seconds.
Elevating the Customer Experience with JobTread
Integrating a high-level CRM isn’t just about internal organization; it’s a value proposition that differentiates us from the competition. By leveraging industry-leading technology, we provide transparency and convenience that traditional contractors can’t match.
1. Seamless Financial Options
Modern consumers expect flexibility. Through JobTread’s integration with QuickBooks and Stripe, we offer a centralized billing experience that includes:
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Multiple Payment Methods: Credit Card, ACH, or third-party financing.
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User-Friendly Interface: A simple, “one-stop shop” for all financial transactions.
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Preemptive Satisfaction: We solve payment hurdles before they become frustrations.
2. Real-Time Transparency via Daily Logs
Communication gaps create anxiety. We’ve replaced sporadic after-hours texting with automated daily logs from our project managers and lead carpenters.
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Predictable Updates: Brief summaries of daily activities, accomplishments, and setbacks.
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Visual Progress: Logs include photos so clients can see the work unfolding.
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Client Portals: Customers can check updates at their leisure and leave comments, ensuring everyone is on the same page, 24/7.
3. Selling “Peace of Mind” over Price
We’ve found that our ideal clients are value-sensitive, not just price-sensitive. As I have said in this previous post, you are selling peace of mind
“A good CRM says to your customer: ‘We are invested in your experience.'”
By including JobTread in our sales presentation, we demonstrate a commitment to professional methodology. This allows us to charge a premium because we aren’t just selling a remodel—we are selling a managed, stress-free process.
The Impact
The ability to scale a remodeling business depends on the capacity to manage multiple projects without losing quality.
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Operational Efficiency: JobTread amplifies good behaviors and streamlines job-costing and accounting.
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Retention & Accountability: Real-time metrics ensure the customer never has to wonder if they hired the right team.
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Simplicity Wins: In a choice between a “smart-dashboard” experience and a “call the mechanic” experience, the modern homeowner chooses the tech-enabled professional every time.
Teams that invest in good tech are investing in customer acquisition and long-term retention by proxy.
Third System: The Digital Marketing Engine
When growth plateaus (for us, at the $1.3M mark), traditional networking and referrals are often no longer enough to maintain a trajectory. To climb higher, you must transition from a “name-work discrepancy” to a synchronized digital brand.
The “Scaffolding” Concept
Think of your internal systems as scaffolding. Before you climb, the base must be stable.
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Stability: Systems must lock together to support higher growth without production failure.
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Vision: The higher you go, the more you see. Effective systems allow you to forecast disruptions and identify new revenue inroads.
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The Advantage: Once the “scaffolding” of marketing is set, you gain an unfair advantage over competitors who are still operating at ground level.
Why Brand Messaging Matters
Your brand should create momentum before a customer ever speaks to a human. We realized our original brand (Restoration Carpentry) was limiting us to handyman-sized leads despite our $200k+ project capabilities.
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Synchronized Voice: Aligning content across all platforms.
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Clear Differentiators: Explaining exactly why you are the premium choice.
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Preview of Participation: Giving the client a “test drive” of your process through your digital presence.
The Dual Focus: Lead Gen vs. Conversion
A qualified marketing partner (like RSM) doesn’t just drive traffic; they integrate technical SEO with User Experience (UX).
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The Lead Gen Question: “How do I get more qualified people to my site?”
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The Conversion Question: “How do I get them to stay and buy into the brand?”
What to Look for in a Marketing Partner
Unless you are hiring in-house, your marketing partner should act as a guardian of your investment. Look for these four pillars:
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Proven Track Record: High retention rates and positive client sentiment.
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Strategic Roadmap: A clear, actionable plan rather than vague promises.
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Communication: Dedicated account management and regular reporting rhythms.
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Industry Expertise: A partner who understands the specific nuances of the construction and remodeling space.
Revenue goals are simply sentiment without an actionable strategy. A digital engine turns those goals into a predictable growth trajectory.
Build Your Blueprint for Success
This article is an attempt to give you a blueprint for success. In one sense, it’s right here at your fingertips, not hidden behind a paywall or in the mind of some top-level executive coach. That’s the good news. The strategy is obvious. But a blueprint is simply a piece of paper if you don’t know how to implement it. Ultimately, I’m suggesting you first, become aware of the strategy. Then, find experts who can help you to implement its components.
We see businesses fail all the time because of a lack of awareness and ability to implement these systems. At RSM, we want you to at least be aware of them. That’s the first step. We’re here to help you and to be a trusted partner in the industry.