Profit Defended: How Project-Driven Companies Kill the 45-Day Lag, Stop Erosion, and Command Real-Time Cash Flow

If your construction or trades company is busier than ever but the money never quite adds up - this book is for you.Profit Defended is the operating playbook for $1M-$20M project-driven companies - electrical contractors, fabrication shops, HVAC companies, sandblasting and coating operations, plumbing contractors, and any trade business running multiple crews across multiple jobs.It answers one question most business books never ask:Why does a busy, well-run contracting company keep losing margin it can't explain?The answer isn't bad estimating. It isn't lazy crews. It isn't bad luck.It's a 45-day blind spot - the gap between when profit disappears and when you finally see it on a report. By then, the job is over. The crew has moved on. And the best you can do is explain what went wrong.Profit Defended shows you how to close that gap - while the work is still alive.What You'll Learn:The True Cost Trap - Why your shop rate is lying to you and how to calculate what an hour of work actually costs across six hidden cost layersThe Scheduling Multiplier - Why one delay becomes five problems by Friday, and how task-level scheduling stops the cascade before it costs youThe Consumables Black Hole - How materials that "don't matter much" quietly drain margin on every job - and the simple burden rate formula that stops itThe Fragmentation Trap - Why five systems give you five half-truths, and how to get one version of reality your whole team can trustThe Billing Delay Trap - How to stop financing your own jobs by turning finished work into invoices before the week is overThe Profit Defense System - How to build a structure that intercepts margin-killing decisions before they become permanent lossesThis Is Not a Theory Book.Every chapter follows real companies through the same transformation - from reactive, after-the-fact management to a system that protects profit while work is still in motion. You'll follow Sarah Mitchell at Summit Electrical Contractors from a $28,000 job loss that nobody could explain... to a business that recovered $120,000-$150,000 in margin in a single quarter - without winning a single extra job.The frameworks are practical. The checklists are usable the same week you finish reading. The 30-Day Profit Defense Plan at the back of the book gives you a week-by-week installation guide with exact steps, real numbers, and no fluff.Profit isn't found in reports. It's defended in real time.Profit Defended shows you exactly how.

Pagina's: 334, Paperback, John Anthony McCabe