The numbers that run a home service business

Why revenue is not enough

Revenue is a result. When it drops, it could be fewer calls, slower estimates, more lost bids, crews running behind, or customers who pay late. Each of those has a different fix, and revenue cannot tell you which one you have.

So track the path a job takes through the business, not just the money at the end of it. When one step slows down, its numbers move before revenue does.

The 10 Steps every job travels

From a stranger hearing your name to that customer sending you the next one, every job passes through these steps in order. Each one asks a single question of the business.

1. Brand & Market Awareness: Can the market find and trust the business?
2. Marketing: Which channels create leads, at what cost?
3. Lead Intake & Booking: Are leads reached and converted into appointments?
4. Estimating: Are estimates delivered quickly and consistently?
5. Sales: Are estimates converted into jobs and expanded appropriately?
6. Production: Can sold work be delivered on time?
7. Quality Assurance: Is work completed right the first time and on the promised date?
8. Collections: Does completed work turn into cash quickly?
9. Customer Feedback & Reviews: Does each job generate feedback and reputation growth?
10. Next Job & Referral: Does the customer create repeat, recurring, or referral demand?

What to track at each step

A few numbers per step is plenty to start. These are the three to begin with at each one; swap any that do not fit how you work.

1. Brand & Market Awareness

The question: Can the market find and trust the business?

Start with: Google reviews (total) · Google rating · Website visitors.

2. Marketing

The question: Which channels create leads, at what cost?

Start with: Leads · Cost per lead · Marketing spend.

3. Lead Intake & Booking

The question: Are leads reached and converted into appointments?

Start with: Booking rate · Minutes to first contact · Missed calls.

4. Estimating

The question: Are estimates delivered quickly and consistently?

Start with: Estimates delivered · Days to deliver an estimate · Average estimate value.

5. Sales

The question: Are estimates converted into jobs and expanded appropriately?

Start with: Close rate · Jobs sold · Average job value.

6. Production

The question: Can sold work be delivered on time?

Start with: Jobs completed · On-time starts · Backlog (weeks of sold work).

7. Quality Assurance

The question: Is work completed right the first time and on the promised date?

Start with: Callbacks / warranty visits · Right the first time · Punch-list items per job.

8. Collections

The question: Does completed work turn into cash quickly?

Start with: Days to collect · Outstanding receivables · Cash collected.

9. Customer Feedback & Reviews

The question: Does each job generate feedback and reputation growth?

Start with: Reviews collected · Jobs where we asked for a review · Average rating this month.

10. Next Job & Referral

The question: Does the customer create repeat, recurring, or referral demand?

Start with: Referrals received · Repeat customers · Service agreements active.

Find the one step that holds everything back

Some step is always the narrowest. Leads pile up waiting for estimates, or jobs are sold faster than the crews can build them, or work gets done and the cash takes two months to arrive. That step is your constraint, and it limits every step after it.

Fixing any other step while the constraint stays put mostly makes the pile in front of it bigger. Find the narrowest step, put most of your attention there until it is not the narrowest any more, then find the next one.

• Leads coming in but few booked appointments: the constraint is intake.
• Plenty of estimates but few sold: look at sales.
• Sold work waiting weeks to start: production.
• Jobs finished but money slow to arrive: collections.

A blank month is not a zero

Record each number once a month, for the month just closed. If you do not have a number for a month, leave it blank. A zero says nothing happened; a blank says you did not measure. Mixing the two makes every average and every trend wrong.

Monthly is deliberate. Daily numbers bounce around too much to act on. A month is a closed period you can compare with the one before it.

Start this month

1. Pick the three or four steps that worry you most.
2. Choose one number for each from the lists above.
3. Fill in last month, and the month before if you can find it.
4. Read them in your weekly meeting. An off-track number becomes a problem to work, with an owner and a date.
5. Add numbers only when you will act on them. A number nobody reads is a chore.

The weekly meeting guide shows where these numbers fit in the week.

Tracking it in GameTime OS

The Scoreboard in GameTime OS is built on these ten steps. Each step holds the numbers you choose from a catalog like the one above, with three starters set up on day one, recorded by the month, with a blank kept as a blank. You can mark the step that is holding you back, and its numbers come first on your week.