I Can’t Get 20% Margins in My Market: Why This Excuse Is Costing You $100K+ Per Year

This mistake costs builders over $100K each in lost profits – and most don’t even realize they’re making it. Lou thought he was profitable until he learned how to read his numbers correctly and discovered he was actually losing money on most of his projects.

Join Marti as he breaks down Chapter 4 of The Profitable Builder’s Playbook: Knowing the Numbers That Drive Your Business. Discover why over half the businesses we see have their profit and loss set up incorrectly, leading to decisions based on false information.

Learn the critical difference between markup and margin that’s costing builders hundreds of thousands of dollars, the golden ratios every residential builder must hit, and the Four Levers Profit Calculator that shows exactly which area will give you the biggest bang for your buck.

Key Points

• 00:00:00 Introduction: The costly mistake builders make with their numbers
• 00:03:20 Why builders avoid their numbers and the real cost of ignorance
• 00:06:40 How to set up your profit and loss correctly
• 00:09:15 The golden ratios: Your success benchmarks for profitability
• 00:12:30 Markup vs. margin: The confusion costing builders $100K+ 00:15:45 The Four Levers Profit Calculator explained
• 00:18:20 How to reverse engineer your profit goals
• 00:21:40 Why “I can’t get 20% margins in my market” is a myth
• 00:24:10 Controlling work in progress with real-time job costing
• 00:26:30 Implementation: Calculate your actual gross margin this week

Discover why 20% gross margin minimum is non-negotiable to run a real business, how small improvements in the four levers create exponential profit growth, and why numbers are the language of business – ignore them at your peril.