Work with us through a one-day workshop or Talk to an Expert to discuss our full coaching program, depending on where you are in your business.
True Cost of Production and Loaded Labor Rates
Problem
Utah's labor market is tight, wages keep climbing, and the rate you pay your guys on paper is rarely what they actually cost the company. Once you add in vehicles, taxes, benefits, vacation, year-end bonuses, and the hours you bought but didn't sell, the gap between wage and true cost is wider than most owners realize.
Outcome
At the workshop, you will learn how to build a fully loaded labor rate for every person on your crew, not a national average, not a flat percentage tacked onto wages, but the real number tied to your operation.
Aspire Difference
The Labor Burden Calculator is a tool that calculates a loaded rate for each employee using your actual costs, benefits, taxes, vehicle and vacation load, and productivity factors. Once you learn this rate, you bid using the true rate you pay and stop losing money on crew.
Markup vs. Margin and What Your Estimate Is Producing
Problem
A 20% markup is not a 20% margin. It is a 16.7% margin before any production inefficiency or profit leak touches it. Most GCs along the Wasatch Front price jobs to win them and finish the year wondering why the bank account doesn't match the estimates. The math is doing exactly what the math will do. The math just isn't doing what most owners assume it's doing.
Outcome
At the workshop, you will see the difference between markup and margin, and you will leave with a pricing approach that produces the gross profit you actually need to improve construction profits.
Aspire Difference
The workshop walks through the divide-by-reciprocal method and a matrix pricing approach, so different job types in your mix carry different margins; kitchens, additions, custom builds, and change orders are all priced for the risk and complexity they actually carry.
Boom and Bust Cycles and Protecting Margin Through Both
Problem
The Wasatch Front ran hot for several years. Things are starting to shift. Leads are slower in some markets, conversions are tighter, and clients are more thoughtful about every dollar they commit. The residential construction industry trails the broader economy by six to eighteen months, which means the changes you are starting to feel now tend to last longer than the headlines suggest.
Outcome
At the workshop, you will see exactly what to tighten before a softer market reaches your pipeline, pricing, job mix, sales process, and the cost visibility that lets you make decisions instead of guessing.
Aspire Difference:
The workshop covers how the boom-and-bust cycle actually moves through residential construction and the specific operational changes that protect margin through both halves of it, not generic "save money during the good times" advice, but the moves that keep a business profitable when leads slow and sharper when they pick back up.
Job Mix and Taking the Wrong Work
Problem
The Salt Lake market gives you options, high-end remodels in the Avenues and Holladay, additions across Sandy and Draper, mountain custom builds in Park City and the canyons, plus the smaller jobs that come through referrals you don't want to turn down. When everything looks like good work, it is hard to see which jobs are actually paying you and which ones are quietly draining your profit.
Outcome
At the workshop, you will look at the work you have been taking and see which job types your business is built to make money on, and which ones you have been carrying.
Aspire Difference
Aspire builds job mix targets around your specific revenue goal, your overhead structure, and the margin each job category needs to hit so the calendar you fill is the calendar that pays you.
Cash Flow vs. Profit on Paper
Problem:
The years through and just after the pandemic kept the Wasatch Front busy. Most builders and remodelers ran their schedules tight, cleared more work than they expected, and still felt cash-poor through it. Profit on the year-end statement and cash in the operating account are two different conversations, and most owners only look at one of them.
Outcome:
At the workshop, you will see how to project cash flow forward across your active jobs and your pipeline so you know what is coming six to eight months out.
Aspire Difference:
Aspire builds cash flow projections around your actual job schedule and payment terms, not a generic spreadsheet, so the picture reflects the work in your pipeline and the months you are most exposed.
