Ryan Chenier, MBA

Your revenue went up. Your net margin didn't. Here's where it went. Construction owners can build $10M, $20M, even $50M businesses and still feel financially stressed. The problem is rarely revenue itself. It is growth that outpaces the financial discipline, systems, and operating leverage required to manage it. THE MID-MARKET MARGIN TRAP At the $10M-$50M revenue level, a familiar pattern emerges: a contractor grows from $15M to $35M over four years, while net margin falls from 4.2% to 2.1%....

A useful financial forecast should do more than tell a business owner what might happen. It should help answer: “What can we do now to improve what happens next?” That distinction came through clearly in a recent Mastery CFO client meeting. We had already worked with the company to improve WIP (work in progress) reporting, gross margin visibility, sales forecasting, expense control, seasonality planning, and cash-flow forecasting. The next step was turning that information into action. Once...

Practical weekly scorecard for protecting project margin, cash flow, & business health. When you’re approaching $3 million in annual revenue, looking at five key performance indicators on a Monday morning may be enough to determine if your business is on track. When you’re at $10 million to $70 million, it’s not. Projects are larger. Financing is more complex. A single underperforming job can materially affect overall profitability. The challenge is knowing which financial signals require...