Contractor KPI & Margin Blog
18 straight answers on gross margin, job costing, technician utilization, lead cost, and running a weekly scorecard — organized so you can find the one you need.
Latest · Operations
Healthy technician billable utilization is 60 to 75 percent or higher; it is the share of paid hours that actually earn revenue, and it drives your labor cost.
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Margin, markup, labor cost, and the numbers behind profit.
Financial Intelligence
A healthy net profit margin for a home services business runs 8 to 15 percent; sitting below about 5 percent is a warning sign.
July 25, 2026 7 min read
Financial Intelligence
A healthy gross margin for an HVAC, plumbing, or electrical business runs 50 to 60 percent, and dropping below 42 percent is your warning floor.
July 24, 2026 7 min read
Financial Intelligence
The wage on the paycheck is the smallest part of what an employee costs. Loaded labor cost adds every employer cost and divides by the hours you can actually bill.
July 22, 2026 6 min read
Financial Intelligence
To hit a 50 percent gross margin you charge two times true cost, a 100 percent markup; markup on cost and margin on price are not the same number.
July 10, 2026 9 min read
Financial Intelligence
It's not your bookkeeper. Profitability blindness is a systems gap — here's the four-step sequence that fixes it.
May 24, 2026 7 min read
Utilization, callbacks, technician output, and service agreements.
Operations
Healthy technician billable utilization is 60 to 75 percent or higher; it is the share of paid hours that actually earn revenue, and it drives your labor cost.
July 25, 2026 8 min read
Operations
Two desks, one business: the storm of scattered numbers before M1COS, and the calm of one reconciled dashboard after. Here is exactly what changes.
July 25, 2026 8 min read
Operations
A good revenue per technician for home services commonly runs $250,000 to $350,000 or more per year, depending on trade and service-vs-install mix.
July 25, 2026 7 min read
Operations
A good maintenance agreement penetration rate is 30 percent or more of your customer base on a recurring plan — members are the backbone of predictable revenue.
July 25, 2026 8 min read
Operations
A good callback and rework rate is under 5 percent of jobs; every point above that is roughly one percent of your jobs redone for free.
July 14, 2026 7 min read
Lead cost, close rate, marketing spend, and customer value.
Growth
Most home services contractors should spend about 5 to 10 percent of revenue on marketing, adjusted for how fast they want to grow.
July 25, 2026 7 min read
Growth
A healthy cost per lead for HVAC, plumbing, and electrical runs $50 to $150 depending on trade and channel, and the math is simpler than most owners think.
July 20, 2026 8 min read
Growth
A good estimate close rate for contractors is 50 percent or better; below that, marketing spend is filling your board with work that never books.
July 18, 2026 7 min read
Growth
A healthy customer acquisition cost is about $200 to $350 per new customer, and a good lifetime-value-to-CAC ratio is above 3 to 1.
July 12, 2026 7 min read
Scorecards, the weekly meeting, and how an operator runs the business.
Leadership & Accountability
The exact 60-minute Monday agenda we run with clients: five timed sections, one scorecard, and actions that survive the week.
June 8, 2026 7 min read
Leadership & Accountability
Revenue is a lagging indicator. These five weekly numbers move first — and tell you exactly where HVAC margin is leaking.
June 7, 2026 7 min read
Leadership & Accountability
How tenant isolation, role-based access, and one operating model help protect contractor data without creating a separate application for every company.
May 24, 2026 7 min read
Leadership & Accountability
Advice is cheap and execution is scarce. How to choose between a coach, a consultant, a full-time COO, and a fractional operator.
May 10, 2026 7 min read
Book a 30-minute strategy call with Margin One. We will look at your systems, your KPIs, and the decisions costing you margin.
Pick a time that works for you.
A working conversation about your numbers with an operator who has run the trucks — not a sales pitch.
