Every restoration business is looking to increase profitability. In this industry, the profit potential is one of the most important things to track. If you do not make enough to stay in business and reinvest, not only will you be out of business quickly, but your customers will not trust that you can take care of their needs and do a good job. Even more important than the profit potential is to guarantee you are making a profit. If you do not know where the money goes and how much time it takes to complete each job, then you have no way of controlling those costs and ensuring profitability. Our restoration business consulting can help you get back on track.
Every restoration business is looking to increase profitability. In this industry, the profit potential is one of the most important things to track. If you do not make enough to stay in business and reinvest, not only will you be out of business quickly, but your customers will not trust that you can take care of their needs and do a good job. Even more important than the profit potential is to guarantee you are making a profit. If you do not know where the money goes and how much time it takes to complete each job, then you have no way of controlling those costs and ensuring profitability. Our restoration business consulting can help you get back on track.
Steps to Maintain and Increase Profitability using Restoration Business Consulting
Analyze your costs
The first step in managing profitability for your restoration company is knowing what it costs to run your business. Start by calculating how much it costs for labor and materials, then add up all your expenses (rent, utilities, administrative costs, etc.). Subtract that number from the monthly revenue, and see how much profit you make on each job.
Set a goal for increasing profit margin per job
You can use this information to realize how much you need to make each year to meet your desired profit margin goal (say 25%). Once you know this number, divide it by the number of jobs you need to do each year (say 200) to find out how much money per job you need to make for your business to be profitable by the end of the year.
Create a plan for meeting these goals
Create or adjust your business plan to identify your short and long-term goals and create a plan for meeting them. Goal-setting will help keep you focused on meeting your financial goals as a contractor. It also helps create an overall vision of where you want to take your company. This includes increasing profitability, managing cash flow, and setting sales targets.
Benchmarking Your Restoration Business
A successful restoration business establishes profit benchmarks for all of its services. Setting profit benchmarks is a simple yet necessary tool for any business owner. Without them, it is impossible to know how well your services perform and make changes to improve profitability.
Establishing benchmarks distributes the total overhead cost across your service lines evenly. Using the information generated, you can quickly see which services are achieving their target and which need your time and attention.
Calculating Benchmarks
The revenue, expenses, and profit must be kept separate for each service. To do this, combine the business revenue and expenses, allocate a percentage of shared costs to each service line, and track results over time. If a service fails to meet profit benchmarks, consider adjusting the price for that service or figure out ways to reduce expenses.
When it comes to your business finances, there are three key issues that every business owner must be able to handle: cash flow, profit and loss statements, and managing your costs. If you are serious about running a successful business of any kind, you must understand how to handle these issues.
Restoration Estimate Training
Estimates are your industry’s way of communicating the value of your work. They help you set fair prices for the services and products and give customers confidence that the numbers are sound. Yet many restoration services don’t approach estimates this way; instead, most work off their hunch or a formula memorized from their boss. If this describes you, it is time to move past this estimation mentality to a more professional (and profitable) way of doing business.
Training provides restoration estimators the critical information they need to plan and execute a reliable, repeatable estimating strategy. The instructor covers topics such as determining appropriate bid times and settings, actual costs, external factors influencing performance (weather, unexpected problems), determining equipment needs for various projects, estimating labor requirements, and calculating overhead percentages. The instructor will include real-world examples in each topic area so that attendees can replicate the work.
Never Guesstimate
Estimating is the most crucial part of the restoration business. Unfortunately, most restoration companies lack an established estimating process and use the “guesstimation” method, which leads to broken estimates, missed opportunities, and lost revenue.
The key to success is quoting your customers accurately with speed and confidence. Estimating for a restoration job should be a process that involves you gathering detailed information about the damage and developing a proposal cost based on the insured’s insurance carrier, existing damage on the property, and claims history. With this information, you’ll be able to provide an accurate estimate, win many more bids, and increase profits for your company.
How Can MAS Consulting Help My Restoration Business?
When you first start a restoration company, you feel like you already know everything there is to know about the industry. But as your business grows and changes, you need to expand your knowledge and stay up-to-date with changes in the industry.
MAS Consulting specializes in restoration business consulting by helping businesses maximize profit potential by giving an outside perspective, offering valuable resources, bringing in expert skillsets, and sparing you the stress, time, and money needed to reach your goals.
Helping Your Restoration Business Succeed in Today’s Competitive Climate
MAS works closely with each restoration business consulting client to help keep their books in order. We also assist in establishing profit benchmarks for restoration services and mastering the skill of estimating for your restoration jobs. MAS will also review material costs and assist in implementing employee pay incentives. Lastly, we teach all team members unknown trade secrets not taught anywhere else.
Contact MAS Consulting
MAS Consulting is here to help you gain valuable resources and outside perspectives on how things work in your business so that you don’t have to waste time and money on figuring out what works best for your company. We’re not just another number crunching firm; we are an experienced team of professionals passionate about helping other businesses succeed. Contact us today to get your restoration company headed in the right direction!