If your direct labor is running over 23%, your business is quietly bleeding out. Most owners don’t even know it’s happening. In home services, labor should sit in the 20 to 23% range. It varies by trade (HVAC install runs lower, maintenance runs higher), but that band is the health check. When it creeps past that, it’s usually a comp plan that’s off or efficiency that’s slipping. Watch the number before it eats your margin.

Here’s the fastest way to know if you’re making money or just staying busy: know your three numbers. 50% gross profit. 35% overhead. 15% profit. If you can’t say where you stand on each right now, that’s the first problem to fix.

If I could only track five numbers in my HVAC sales department, it would be: revenue per lead, close rate, average install revenue, discount rate, and revenue to budget. Most owners track none of them daily and then wonder why the month got away from them. Measure every day and the numbers stop surprising you.

If your tech left for $2 more an hour, money wasn't the problem. The problem is there was nothing else keeping them. Techs spend most days working on their own. If the money's right, it's the one-on-ones, the organizational support, the daily encouragement that keeps them here. A small raise can't outbid a place people actually want to work and feel supported.

This is where we build technicians from scratch. Zero experience walks in, and electricians, plumbers, and HVAC pros walk out. Everything in this lab is functional. They can tear it apart, we can plant faults, and they can fail safely here instead of in a customer’s home.