Problems › Growing But Losing Money › Construction & Trades
Growth that consumes cash is either an investment or a leak, and the arithmetic tells you which within one page. This page works through it for construction and trade contractors specifically — including an unedited excerpt from a real analysis of a contractor.
Growth that consumes cash is either an investment or a leak, and the arithmetic tells you which within one page. The version of this question that applies to construction and trade contractors is not the generic one. Service work earns double the margin of projects and loses every staffing argument to liquidated-damages clauses — so an answer that ignores job gross margin will be confidently wrong. The analysis has to start from backlog cover and change-order capture rather than from revenue.
Growing while losing money is normal if each new customer eventually pays back more than they cost. It is fatal if they do not, and the two look identical for as long as growth continues — which is why the failure is usually discovered at the point where growth stops.
The test is per-unit and it is simple: what does one more customer cost to acquire and serve, what do they return, and over what period. If that is positive and the loss is fixed-cost absorption, growth solves it. If it is negative, growth accelerates the problem and every additional sale makes the position worse.
The second thing to check is working capital. A business can be profitable per unit and still run out of cash because the money goes out months before it comes in — and the faster it grows, the wider that gap becomes.
These three together are the signature. One on its own usually points somewhere else.
✓ Revenue rises, cash falls, and the two are explained separately
✓ Nobody can state contribution margin per customer without a project
✓ Funding requirements keep arriving earlier than forecast
The move that usually makes it worse. Treating the loss as a scale problem when the unit economics are negative, which turns a fixable model into a larger one.
It is for you if you run or finance a contractor and revenue rises, cash falls, and the two are explained separately. It is the situation where the numbers are available but nobody has put them in an order that produces a decision.
It is not for you if Percision is the wrong tool if you already know the answer and only need execution capacity, or if the business is pre-revenue — then the constraint is evidence about the market, not analysis of your own figures. Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library. Also wrong if you need facilitation, politics, or someone to sit with a lender or buyer. Those are human jobs.
Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library.
Below is an excerpt from a real run of this analysis on a contractor. It is a sample profile rather than a customer, and it is unedited engine output — this is the format you get, on your own numbers.
The subject is Halloway Mechanical, a sample company profile used for testing rather than a customer — $180M revenue, mechanical contracting.
Excerpt from a real Percision run · Cost Reduction & Efficiency · sample company profile
The move. Convert sole-source hospital service contracts into shared-savings performance contracts that extend durability from 36-48 months to 48+ months while adding 15-25% performance-fee revenue.
The leak it closes. Plugs $5.4M annual change-order leakage by shifting from construction margin (14.9% gross) to service margin (32% gross) plus performance fees
The assumption it rests on. Hospital systems will convert existing sole-source service contracts to shared-savings structure within 12 months — the engine put the probability at 0.75.
| Investment required | $2.1M Phase 1 (existing cash) + $1.8M Phase 2 (reinvested service margin) + $3.2M Phase 3 (ESOP-compliant revolver draw) = $7.1M total over 36 months |
| Expected return | 5.3× on $7.1M total investment yielding $12.1M incremental Year 3 revenue at 32% gross margin plus 15-25% performance fees |
| Revenue, year 1 | $0.8M performance-fee revenue from 3 pilot contracts |
| Revenue, year 2 | $4.8M performance-fee revenue plus $1.2M incremental service renewals |
| Revenue, year 3 | $12.1M total incremental revenue (performance fees + service renewals + franchise fees) |
| Exit criteria | Exit this move if (a) fewer than 2 of 3 pilot hospitals convert to performance contracts by Month 12, OR (b) net margin on performance contracts falls below 12% for two consecutive quarters, OR (c) unfilled journeyman positions exceed 30 by Month 18 despite $720K recruiting investment |
This is one move out of a full analysis. Read a complete report — every page, no email required.
This question routes to Proprietary EFF Methodology, one of 29 engagements the platform runs. For construction and trade contractors it works through job gross margin, backlog cover, change-order capture and service attach rate, then produces the sequence rather than a list of options — which move first, what it funds, and the observation that would say the sequence is wrong.
You watch the analysis get built before paying anything. Read a complete report here if you would rather see the depth first.
Yes when the loss is fixed cost being absorbed and unit economics are positive. No when each additional customer loses money, which is a different situation wearing the same clothes.
Project the current unit economics at the volume you expect and see whether the line crosses. If it does not cross at a volume you can plausibly reach, growth is not the answer.
If unit economics are negative, yes and immediately. If they are positive and the constraint is working capital, the problem is financing rather than strategy and should be solved as such.
Materially, yes. Service work earns double the margin of projects and loses every staffing argument to liquidated-damages clauses — which changes both the diagnosis and the order of the fixes. The metrics that decide it here are job gross margin, backlog cover, change-order capture, and an answer built on industry-general benchmarks will usually point at the wrong one first.
Less than most people expect. Your last twelve months of revenue and cost split the way you already split it, plus whatever you hold on job gross margin and backlog cover. The analysis is explicit about what it is assuming where your data stops, which is more useful than waiting for numbers you may never have.
Percision is the wrong tool if you already know the answer and only need execution capacity, or if the business is pre-revenue — then the constraint is evidence about the market, not analysis of your own figures. Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library. Also wrong if you need facilitation, politics, or someone to sit with a lender or buyer. Those are human jobs.
Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library.
Describe the situation in your own words and we will tell you which analysis answers it — before you sign up for anything.
Describe my situation →Prefer to skip ahead? Go straight to the free diagnostic.