2020 VS 2021

cody willard · Aug 2, 2021

We are having a pretty good season after 2.5 years in business, 4-5 days a week since April, but after running the numbers, we are only up 20% since last year. $147k and am projecting 175k for this year with me and 1-2 other guys.(80% of the year it has been only me and a ground hand).

Was Covid 2020 just a really good year for this industry and it kinda is distorted my reality on a normal years sales? I feel like we should be up by at least 40%. We are getting less calls but selling bigger jobs. We have had almost no equipment expenses this year so profit is better.

Given the average years in business, what percent of gross should be expected or set as a goal?

Sfoppema · Aug 2, 2021

Being up 20% as a relative figure sounds pretty damn good to me.

I had my best year (5th year) in 2020 by a fair bit (up ~35% from 2019-2020). This year we are blowing that number out of the water. Partly because of equipment investment near the end of 2020, plus the backlog of work we had going into winter, and a few time management changes. Was busy all winter when normally would be sort of taking it easy. Upped prices as well and haven't noticed any lack of work.

What percent of gross should be expected or set as a goal? Meaning percentage increase in gross from prior year? Expectations and goals would depend on you and what aspects you improved on from prior year. Without increase in productivity by way of additional employees/more efficient equipment, your only options for increasing your gross would be working more (or faster), or charging more/marketing/selling better.

All of those things are pretty dependent on you. Especially if you are pretty much a one man show with a ground guy. Sounds like you are doing pretty good considering your overhead.