How Much Does a DCV Business Owner Make? $115K Salary Scenario
A demand controlled ventilation business owner can plan around a $115,000 operator salary if they fill the general manager role and the business has enough working capital to cover early losses In the researched assumptions, annual revenue grows from about $199,000 in Year 1 to about $182 million in Year 5 Contribution margin improves from 700% to 746% after hardware, subcontract labor, commissions, fuel, and consumables The model does not support meaningful distributions until the mature year, when pre-tax operating profit is about $31,000 after payroll, fixed overhead, and marketing
Owner income$2.6MNet margin46%Revenue for target pay$320KBusiness difficultyHard
Want to test your DCV owner income?
Owner income calculator
Estimate owner take-home and the target-pay gap from monthly revenue, margin, payroll, overhead, reserves, and your pay goal.
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Planning note: Research-based planning estimate only. It is not guaranteed salary, tax advice, or owner distribution advice.
Want the six DCV income drivers?
1
Qualified Pipeline
$5.7M
More retrofit wins lift revenue from $1.2M in Year 1 to $5.7M in Year 5.
2
Contract Value
$280/hr
Higher hourly pricing on installs and consulting raises revenue without the same jump in jobs.
3
Gross Margin
75%
Keeping hardware, subcontract labor, commissions, and fuel in line protects take-home on every sale.
4
Labor Utilization
8 FTE
Eight field technicians by Year 5 set the ceiling on billable work, so schedule control matters.
5
Recurring Revenue
85%
Maintenance agreements reach 85% of mix, which steadies cash flow and smooths earnings.
6
Overhead Reserve
$141K
Fixed overhead runs about $141K a year, and reserves are user-set, so owner cash depends on what stays in the business.
How do you check owner income in the Demand Controlled Ventilation Systems model?
How much revenue can a demand controlled ventilation crew generate?
Demand Controlled Ventilation Systems can generate about $182M in mature-year booked revenue across installation, maintenance, and consulting, based on the provided model; see How Increase Profitability Of Demand Controlled Ventilation Systems? for the profit-side view. That revenue depends on crew size, job duration, commissioning time, equipment lead times, and subcontractor coordination.
Revenue drivers
Start with 2 field technicians
Scale to 8 technicians
Bill $185/hour early
Reach $215/hour mature-year
Capacity limits
Cut install time from 85 to 75 hours
Manage commissioning time tightly
Plan around equipment lead times
Watch $1075M payroll and $141K overhead
How much should a demand controlled ventilation business owner pay themselves?
If you run Demand Controlled Ventilation Systems as the general manager, $115K is a solid owner-operator pay benchmark. Salary is not the same as draws, though, and the model shows only about $31K of mature-year pre-tax operating profit after payroll, fixed overhead, and marketing. So if you pay yourself like a manager, keep reserves and debt service in the cash plan too.
Owner pay
$115K matches GM pay
Use it if you do that role
Salary is not a profit draw
Replace labor before paying extras
Cash left
$31K mature-year pre-tax profit
After payroll, overhead, marketing
Reserves still reduce spendable cash
Debt service cuts it further
Is a demand controlled ventilation business profitable?
Yes—Demand Controlled Ventilation Systems can be profitable in the mature-year case, but the margin is tight. In year 5, revenue is about $182M, contribution is about $136M, fixed overhead is $141K, marketing is $110K, and pre-tax operating profit is only about $31K. Retrofit-led installation can lift revenue, subcontracting can reduce sales effort but may squeeze margin, and service-contract revenue can smooth cash flow.
Best revenue lever
Retrofit installs drive larger jobs
$182M year 5 revenue base
$136M contribution before overhead
Sales-heavy model needs tight control
Margin and cash flow
$141K fixed overhead
$110K marketing spend
$31K pre-tax profit
Service contracts smooth cash flow
Key Takeaways
Qualified pipeline must outpace the Year 1 cost base.
Higher contract mix only works with stronger gross profit.
Crew productivity protects margin when labor hours fall.
Overhead and reserves cap safe owner take-home.
Scenario objective: compare low, base, and high DCV owner income cases
Owner income scenarios
Owner income depends on how fast revenue grows versus payroll, fixed overhead, and marketing. The low case supports no distributions; the high case leaves about $31K after the GM salary.
A quick read on when the owner can take cash out.
Scenario
Low CaseLow case
Base CaseBase case
High CaseHigh case
Launch model
This is the downside path where Year 1 economics stay tight and owner distributions are not supported.
This is the modeled middle path where Year 3 volume still leaves no supported owner distributions.
This is the stronger path where mature-year volume produces a small pre-tax profit after the GM salary.
Typical setup
About $199K revenue, 70.0% contribution margin, $465K payroll, $141K fixed overhead, and $45K marketing.
About $794K revenue, 72.4% contribution margin, $670K payroll, $141K fixed overhead, and $75K marketing.
About $1.82M revenue, 74.6% contribution margin, $1.075M payroll, $141K fixed overhead, and $110K marketing, with about $31K pre-tax operating profit after the $115K GM salary.
Cost drivers
70.0% contribution margin
$465K payroll
$141K fixed overhead
$45K marketing
72.4% contribution margin
$670K payroll
$141K fixed overhead
$75K marketing
74.6% contribution margin
$1.075M payroll
$141K fixed overhead
$110K marketing
Owner income rangeBefore owner reserves
$0No distributions
$0Still no distributions
$31KSmall upside
Best fit
Use this to stress-test launch-year cash strain and owner take-home.
Use this for a realistic middle-case budget and staffing plan.
Use this to test what mature-volume upside can pay the owner.
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Planning note: These scenario ranges are researched planning assumptions, not guaranteed earnings, salary promises, tax advice, or distribution targets.
Demand Controlled Ventilation Systems Core Six Income Drivers
Qualified Commercial Retrofit Pipeline
Qualified Retrofit Pipeline
Qualified projects matter because they keep crews booked and turn marketing into cash. Here’s the quick math: marketing spend rises from $45K to $110K, CAC improves from $2,500 to $1,900, and implied annual new customers rise from 18 to about 58. But the pipeline has to stay tight; early revenue of about $199K still won’t cover the Year 1 cost base if close rates slip.
For the owner, this driver changes pay through volume and timing. More qualified deals mean steadier installs, faster billing, and less idle crew time, so gross profit shows up sooner. Weak qualification does the opposite: sales spend climbs, jobs stall, and cash gets tied up before the service base matures.
Track CAC and close rate weekly
Measure qualified leads, proposal-to-close rate, CAC, and starts from booked jobs. If spend is rising but CAC is not near $1,900, the pipeline is getting noisy. The goal is simple: keep crews busy without buying low-quality leads.
Count only decision-ready projects.
Track close rate by segment.
Cut weak channels fast.
Forecast starts, not just leads.
If close rates weaken, the same marketing dollars can still produce fewer starts, so cash gets tight before recurring service revenue builds.
Labor Utilization And Crew Capacity
Crew Capacity
This driver is about how much installed work the team can actually turn into paid, billable time. Here the crew scales from 2 field technician FTEs to 8 and 1 lead engineer to 2, while installation hours per smart system fall from 85 to 75. That is a real productivity gain, but only if idle time, travel, scheduling gaps, and commissioning delays stay low.
Here’s the quick math: billable hours per active customer rise from 125 to 150, a 20% lift. If those hours are lost to waiting on parts or site access, project revenue takes longer to turn into gross profit, and owner take-home pay gets squeezed by payroll before the job is fully closed.
Protect Billable Output
Track billable hours per tech, installation hours per system, and active customer hours every week. Use the job plan to spot where the crew is burning time in travel, rework, or commissioning. A tighter schedule can move output closer to 150 billable hours per active customer instead of 125.
Measure nonbillable time by job.
Bundle sites to cut travel.
Clear parts before crew dispatch.
Track commissioning delay days.
If lead engineers are waiting on sign-off or equipment, the whole crew’s margin slips. One clean handoff can protect more profit than adding another sale, because the same labor base can support more revenue without pushing payroll up first.
Average Contract Value And Project Mix
Average Contract Value And Project Mix
Average contract value rises when a job includes more zones, more install hours, and more follow-on service. Here’s the quick math: installation billing shifts from 85 hours at $185/hour to 75 hours at $215/hour, so the install ticket can stay meaningful even with fewer hours. But the owner only wins if gross profit per job rises, not just sales dollars.
The mix matters because recurring work carries different rates: maintenance agreements grow from 300% to 850% of customers, and IAQ consulting from 200% to 350%. Consulting can reach $280/hour, while maintenance is $175/hour. If the team sells more consulting but loads too many low-rate service hours, cash flow looks busy while owner draw stays flat.
Track Mix by Margin, Not Just Revenue
Track average contract value by job type, then split it into install, maintenance, and consulting. The useful inputs are customers, hours billed, billing rate, and attach rate for service agreements. Watch whether larger multi-zone projects lift gross margin after labor, callbacks, and commissioning time. A bigger sale that burns extra tech hours can still reduce take-home pay.
Test pricing and staffing by mix. Push high-rate consulting where the building needs it, and price maintenance so it covers field time at $175/hour. Forecast mature-year revenue using the higher service attachment rates, then check capacity before booking more work. If scheduling slips, the contract may look larger on paper but turn into slower cash and more overtime.
Overhead, Warranty, And Cash Reserves
Overhead and reserve discipline
Owner pay gets filtered last, after fixed costs, warranty risk, and cash held back for the next job. Here, fixed overhead is $11,750 per month or $141K per year across lease, insurance, software, fleet maintenance, memberships, utilities, and telecom, so take-home has to clear that before it feels real.
Cash gets tight fast when service calls, rework, or delayed collections hit the same month as payroll and marketing. The main inputs are project margin, repair and callback spend, monthly overhead, and cash reserves; reserve-adjusted take-home should stay below optimistic operating profit so the owner does not pull cash the business still needs.
Track warranty and cash weekly
Set a monthly reserve target before paying yourself. Use the disclosed fixed-cost base of $141K per year, then add a buffer for warranty work, slow-paying customers, and capex tied to vans, diagnostic equipment, build-out, IT setup, and initial inventory. One clean rule: if cash can’t cover the next 60 days of overhead, owner draws wait.
Track overhead by cost bucket.
Log warranty calls separately.
Hold cash before owner draws.
Review reserves before new hires.
Recurring Service And Calibration Revenue
Recurring Service Revenue
Recurring service matters because it turns one install into a steadier cash stream. At 40 maintenance hours per customer and $150/hour, that is about $6,000 per customer; at 50 hours and $175/hour, it rises to $8,750. That steadier billing can help cover payroll and fixed costs between projects.
The catch is capacity. Service work still uses technician time, so every contract has to be scheduled and priced like real production. If response times slip or calibration gets sloppy, retention falls and the recurring base stops protecting owner pay.
Protect Service Margin
Track maintenance agreement allocation, billable hours per customer, and realized hourly rate. Here’s the quick math: moving from 40 to 50 hours and from $150 to $175 adds $2,750 of service revenue per customer, before travel, callbacks, and admin. That only helps if tech time stays billable.
Use a tight service calendar, document calibration steps, and set fast response rules. The goal is to grow recurring work from 300% in Year 1 to 850% in a mature year without draining install crews or letting rework eat the margin.
Gross Margin Across Equipment And Labor
Gross Margin on Installed Jobs
Gross margin is the first filter between revenue and owner income. To estimate it, track project price against hardware, subcontract labor, fuel, and commissions. In the disclosed model, hardware source cost moves from 180% to 150%, subcontract labor from 70% to 50%, and fuel from 20% to 14%, while commissions rise from 30% to 40%.
That mix can lift contribution, but only if install work is clean. The mature-year benchmark shows 746% contribution margin, so the owner’s take-home depends on protecting each job from rework, missed commissioning hours, and warranty callbacks. One bad return visit can wipe out the margin gain before overhead and pay are covered.
Protect Margin Before Payroll
Track margin by job, not just by month. Compare sold revenue to actual hardware invoices, crew hours, fuel, and sales commissions, then flag any job where labor or material drift pushes gross margin down. If commissions rise to 40%, sales productivity has to improve enough to keep net profit intact.
Use a commissioning checklist and get sign-off the same day. Measure rework hours, callback rate, and missed commissioning time weekly, because those are the fastest ways to turn a strong quote into weak cash flow. Tight scopes, clear handoffs, and fewer return visits protect owner pay more than chasing extra volume.
