Custom Builder Business Diagnostic

Find the real constraint in 30 days, and know what to do next.

The work is there. The jobs are getting built. And the bank balance still tells you a different story every month.

A 30-day structured commercial review will tell you which jobs are actually paying you, what is quietly costing you the most, and which 3 things to fix first.

Jake went from just under $1m to a projected $1.2m, works less than he did, and pays himself a monthly salary out of $200,000 a year.

Some builders run it on their own. Plenty have someone alongside them: a wife or husband, a brother or sister, a son or daughter, or an in-law. In my experience that person is never far from the decisions, so if that's how yours works, they're in the Diagnostic too, at no extra cost.

Book a 15-minute fit call 0487 923 056

No pitch. Just 15 minutes to work out whether this is the right thing for your business right now.

30 Days

Structured commercial review

2 to 4 Hours

Of your time, in total

$1,750 + GST

Fixed fee. No retainer, no lock-in.

The Problem

You're not short of work. You're short of answers.

Most builders can tell me their turnover to the dollar and cannot tell me their margin by job type. That's not a failure of effort. It's what happens when the business grows faster than the information inside it.

If a few of these are true, the Diagnostic is built for you:

You couldn't say, this week, which of your current jobs is making money and which is not

Your pay is whatever is left over after everyone else is paid

Quotes, variations and job decisions still funnel through you, and they stack up while you're on site

You have priced work in the last year that you now suspect you lost money on, and you've never gone back and checked

You're considering something significant, another supervisor, a bigger job, a step up in volume, and you're making that call on feel

None of those are unusual. All of them are measurable. That's the point of the 30 days.

Fit

Who this is built for

It's built for you if: you're an owner-operated custom residential builder running a small team or a supervisor, and you're either about to scale or you've already grown past the systems you started with. Solo owners and builders running the business with a spouse or family member both fit.

It's not for you if: you're a volume or spec builder, you're looking for someone to run your business for you, or you want reassurance rather than an honest read on your numbers. The Diagnostic will tell you things you'd rather not hear. That's what you're paying for.

The Process

How the 30 days run

4 stages, in order. Each one builds on the evidence from the last, so the plan at the end is grounded in your numbers rather than a hunch.

Stage 01

Find the North Star

Paul and his wife Chrissy were exhausted. Paul was up early 6 days a week, carrying client and trade calls. Chrissy was keeping the office, accounts and family commitments moving, with important business decisions pushed into late nights. They were both asking whether it was still worth it. We began by clarifying what each of them wanted the business to provide and the roles they wanted to play. That gave every later decision a shared direction.

By the end of the Diagnostic they had agreed Paul would step out of client calls after 4pm and Chrissy would hand the accounts to a bookkeeper. Both changes were in place within 6 weeks.

Diagnostic focus

Shared purpose, desired income and time, type of work, risk appetite, responsibilities and decision-making.

Stage 02

Establish the Real Position

Matt was busy and had cash in the bank, but he couldn't confidently say which projects were paying him. One delayed start had absorbed a price rise. Another job was 60% complete but had used 75% of its cost budget. We rebuilt the picture so the pressure became measurable instead of vague.

The rebuild showed one contract type was running roughly 8% below the margin he had assumed. He repriced it before quoting his next 3 jobs.

Diagnostic focus

Margin, work in progress, cash commitments, overhead recovery and owner pay.

Stage 03

Identify the Main Constraint

Ben thought he needed more leads and another supervisor. The evidence showed the immediate problem was different: too much work was being priced and controlled through him, quotes were consuming unpaid time, and project information arrived too late to act on. Instead of chasing growth, we identified the bottleneck costing him margin and capacity.

He didn't hire the supervisor. He moved estimating off his own desk instead, which cost a fraction of a wage and gave him back roughly a day a week.

Diagnostic focus

Pricing, estimating, project control, systems, people, pipeline, capacity and leadership.

Stage 04

Build the 90-Day Way Forward

Daniel and his sister Beth were starting to build momentum. But between them they had a long list: new software, better job costing, a leading hand, paid pre-construction and a stronger pipeline. They were both working hard, but had no agreed sequence and no clear ownership. We chose the first 3 actions, clarified what Daniel would lead and what Beth would lead, and set measures and review dates.

They started with paid pre-construction and job costing, and left the software and the leading hand for the following quarter. Both were still on the plan at their 90-day review.

Diagnostic focus

A shared, prioritised plan to stabilise, strengthen or grow, based on the evidence.

Examples are de-identified composites. Your Diagnostic is based on your numbers, decisions and situation.

A Real Client

Jake, Central Coast

Turnover up. Hours down. A $200,000 salary.

“All we were getting was dud leads. The jobs we were getting were stressful and didn't even make good money. I was working my way towards burnout.”
“I'm not scared of visiting the accountant anymore.”
Jake, custom residential builder, Central Coast

BeforeNow

Turnover

Before

Just under $1m

Now

On track for $1.2m

Owner's pay

Before

Whatever was left over

Now

A monthly salary, drawn from $200,000 a year, from month 3

The work

Before

Dud leads, stressful jobs, heading for burnout

Now

“Good jobs, good clients, and got my weekends back”

Jake is turning over more, working less, and paying himself a real salary. The salary started in month 3.

The Outcome

What is different at the end of 30 days

You know which jobs and contract types actually make money, and which ones have been quietly subsidised by the others

You know the one constraint costing you the most right now, with a dollar figure attached to it

You know what you can afford to pay yourself, and what has to change for that number to go up

You have 3 actions for the next 90 days, in order, with a name against each one and a date to review them

You have a clear answer on whether to stabilise, strengthen or grow, and the evidence behind that answer

You have a baseline you can measure against, so next quarter is a comparison instead of another guess

The underlying evidence, a verified commercial baseline and a Diagnostic Dashboard across 8 areas of the business, comes with the plan.

What It Costs You

2 to 4 hours of your time, and $1,750

Your time

It takes 2 to 4 hours in total across the 30 days, plus sending me your financials and your current job list. I do the analysis between sessions.

The fee

$1,750 + GST. One fixed fee for the 30 days. No retainer. No lock-in. Ongoing advisory is not presumed and is never required.

The guarantee

At the end of Stage 2 you will have seen your real commercial position, rebuilt from your own numbers. If at that point you don't believe the remaining 2 stages are worth your time, we stop and you pay nothing.

I'm comfortable making that offer because Stage 2 is where most builders find out something they didn't know about their own business.

Book a 15-minute fit call Already decided? Book and start the Diagnostic

No Strings

The plan is yours, whether or not we ever work together again

At the end of the 30 days you receive an evidence-based 90-Day Action Plan showing what to address first, how progress will be measured and what support may be required. It's written to work without me.

Some builders take it and run it themselves. Some come back for monthly advisory to implement it and adapt it as the business develops. Both are fine outcomes. The Diagnostic establishes what needs to change and why. What you do next is your call.

See the monthly advisory

Before You Book

The questions I usually get

“I don't have time for this.”

It's 2 to 4 hours over 30 days. If you can't find that, the constraint is almost certainly you, and that's precisely what the Diagnostic is for.

“My accountant already does this.”

Your accountant reports on the year that has finished, for tax. This looks at the jobs you're building now, the ones you're about to price, and what your business needs to do next. Different question, different timeframe.

“Is this just a way to sell me ongoing coaching?”

No. The fee is fixed, the plan is written to work without me, and the guarantee means you can stop after Stage 2. If ongoing advisory suits you afterwards, you can ask.

“I've done a business coaching programme before and it went nowhere.”

Most of those start with what the coach knows. This one starts with your numbers. Nothing is recommended in Stage 4 that hasn't been evidenced in Stage 2.

“What if my books are a mess?”

That's common and it's useful information in itself. Bring what you have. Part of Stage 2 is establishing what you can and cannot currently see.

“I've grown before and it just meant more hours and no more money.”

That's the most common pattern I see, and it's exactly what the Diagnostic is built to stop. Jake grew from just under $1m to a projected $1.2m while working less, because the work he took on was chosen on evidence instead of whatever came through the door. Growth is only useful if some of it reaches you.

Start with 15 minutes

A short call to work out whether the Diagnostic is the right thing for your business right now. If it isn't, I'll say so.

Book a 15-minute fit call 0487 923 056

In Writing

Request your Diagnostic

Prefer to put it in writing? Send me the details and I'll come back to confirm whether the Diagnostic is the right starting point.

Or call me

0487 923 056

One fixed fee, no ongoing commitment
Steve runs the Diagnostic himself
Built for owner-operated custom builders

Tell me where the business is at

A few details to start. Nothing here commits you to anything.