House Leveling Owner Take-Home: $110K Role Plus EBITDA Upside

Track ticket quality, not just size

Measure ticket by service line and by crew day. Use a job sheet that captures hours sold, hours used, direct materials, and warranty reserve. Then compare gross margin by job type, because revenue per crew day only helps if margin holds. If a larger job needs more steel or excavation than quoted, the ticket was too low.

• Track quoted hours vs. actual hours.
• Track steel, excavation, and warranty cost.
• Track EBITDA by job type.
• Raise price on complex sites.

Test pricing on the hardest homes first: steep access, bad soil, or extra engineering. If those jobs miss margin, tighten scope or add a complexity fee before they hit payroll. That protects cash flow and keeps owner pay tied to real profit, not just a bigger invoice.

Track Billable Hours Hard

Measure paid hours, billable hours, overtime, and idle days by crew. The key inputs are crew wages, job days, inspection delays, backlog quality, and handoff quality from estimator to crew. If billable hours rise without more trucks, EBITDA improves before fixed overhead grows.

• Track billable hours per paid hour.
• Flag overtime by job and crew.
• Log rework and missed inspections.
• Review estimator-to-crew handoffs.

The quick math is simple: if labor stays near 12% in Year 1 and drops to 10% by Year 5, more gross profit survives each job. What this hides is waste from callbacks and delays, so job costing has to separate productive labor from fix-it time.

Measure the funnel, not just spend

Track cost per booked inspection first, then track estimate-to-sale conversion. That shows whether the problem is lead quality, estimator skill, or pricing. If booked inspections are cheap but closes are weak, the ad spend is not the issue.

• Count booked inspections weekly
• Log estimates sent and won
• Match commissions to gross margin

What this estimate hides: one bad sales process can make $350 CAC look fine while profit still shrinks. Tight follow-up, clear pricing, and no discounting protect take-home income better than just buying more leads.

Protect cash before you pay yourself

Track monthly fixed burn against contribution from completed jobs, not just booked sales. If jobs slow or collections slip, the $17,750 overhead still hits the bank account. One clean rule: don’t release owner draws until the cash balance stays above the $619K Month 2 reserve floor.

Watch equipment use and insurance costs together. The rig, pier system, trucks, and mini-equipment only help income if they stay busy enough to justify the $4,500 monthly lease and the cash tied up in assets. If overhead rises faster than job volume, owner pay falls even when top-line revenue holds.

Protect Job Margin

Job-cost every estimate and every change order. Track material %, field labor %, fuel, commissions, and rework by job type so you can see which repair wins and which one bleeds cash. A one-point swing in gross margin matters because it changes the money left for overhead and the owner’s draw.

• Compare estimate to actual weekly
• Approve overtime before it happens
• Price extra excavation separately
• Track callbacks by crew and soil type
• Use subs only with fixed scope

Here’s the quick math: if the same job sells for more but labor, steel, and rework rise too, the owner still ends up with less cash. The cleanest jobs are the ones where the crew finishes once, the invoice matches the estimate, and the margin stays inside plan.

Track completions, not just bookings

Measure completed jobs, backlog age, and crew days used each week. Break out delays by permit, inspection, weather, materials, and equipment so you can see what cuts output. If completion rate slips while booked work rises, cash flow usually tightens before sales notices it.

• Track booked vs. completed jobs
• Review backlog age weekly
• Log delay reasons by job
• Schedule ready-to-start jobs first
• Protect crew days from idle time

Use pre-start checks for access, permits, materials, and inspection timing before dispatch. That keeps field labor on revenue work, protects gross margin, and makes owner pay safer because finished jobs turn into billable cash instead of stranded payroll.