Growing, but bleeding margin
Revenue is up, net margin is down, and dispatch feels chaotic. You suspect pricing, parts markup, or unbilled hours are the leak — you just don't have the scorecard to prove it.
For Home Services Business Owners
Stop Running Calls.
Stop Running Calls.
Start Running a Business.
I work directly with home services business owners in the United States and Australia doing $1M–$15M in revenue — GM coaching, operator coaching, and hands-on ServiceTitan implementation help. Not a network. Not a franchise. One operator at a time.
Coaching retainer capacity-limited to 10 clients at a time, so it stays genuinely hands-on.
3Coaching angles — GM coaching, operator coaching, ServiceTitan help
$750ServiceTitan Operating Audit, credited toward month one of coaching
10Retainer clients at a time — capacity-limited, not artificially scarce
7EBITDA leak categories in the free field guide
What is IronMargin?
IronMargin is coaching for home services business owners — lawn care, garage door, pest control, and beyond — who know their vocabulary but don't have the playbook. It's not a conference. It's not a motivational programme. It's the gap between knowing what EBITDA means and knowing what to do with yours.
Who IronMargin is for.
Preparing for a sale
An LOI is sitting in your inbox, or you're 12–24 months out from wanting one. You need to know which EBITDA add-backs are defensible before a buyer's diligence team does the math for you.
Post-close, or PE-backed
You've taken outside capital or sold a stake, and now face quarterly board expectations. You need repeatable systems, not another motivational call.
What changes in your business.
Find and recover margin
The calculator, the benchmarks, and 1:1 coaching exist to answer one question: where specifically is your margin leaking, and what is it worth to fix.
Install repeatable operating systems
Dispatch protocols, flat-rate pricing, tech scorecards, and maintenance-agreement programmes — the actual systems a running trades company uses, not a generic template.
Build a less owner-dependent company
Clean systems, documented processes, and a normalised P&L are what make a business easier to run today and more valuable to sell later.
You're leaving money on the table. Here's exactly where.
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1
18–22%labour cost drift
Your flat-rate pricing is two years old.
Labour costs are up 18–22% since you last updated the book. Your part margins have eroded at the supply house without a formal review. You're running every call at the same price you charged when diesel was cheaper, wages were lower, and you had fewer techs to manage. Every ticket you close at an outdated price is a loss you can't see on any report.
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2
$150Kunbilled capacity / yr
Your best tech is your most expensive operational problem.
If your top technician is running 65% billable efficiency on an 8-hour day, they're generating revenue on 5.2 hours and you're absorbing the overhead on the other 2.8. On a four-tech shop doing $1.5M, a 10-point improvement in average tech efficiency is worth $120,000 to $150,000 in additional billed revenue annually. You don't have a scorecard for this. Neither does most of your peer group.
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3
Genericadvice, no P&L review
You're paying a premium for a membership where nobody knows your numbers.
Other trade associations and peer networks deliver good conferences and decent benchmarks. They do not give you a monthly review of your specific P&L. They do not help configure ServiceTitan for your specific dispatch setup. The value is real — but it's generic, and generic advice at a premium monthly price is expensive.
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4
+$450Krecurring revenue left on the table
You have a maintenance agreement programme that isn't growing.
Maintenance agreements are the highest-margin, most predictable revenue a trades company can generate. A company doing $3M in revenue with a 15% attachment rate is generating roughly $450,000 in recurring revenue. Move that to 30% and you're at $900,000 — and buyers typically pay a premium for recurring revenue over one-time transactions at exit (see the methodology for how we frame exit-multiple estimates). You don't have a scripted conversion process. Your techs aren't trained to offer it consistently. And it's not tracked anywhere.
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5
4x→6xthe preparation gap
You're not ready for the conversation you're about to have.
Whether it's a PE group calling, a strategic buyer reaching out, or a bank asking for three years of adjusted financials, the moment comes faster than anyone expects. The trades owners who get 6x EBITDA at exit are not smarter than you. They prepared for 24 months before the call. They had clean add-backs documented. They had a normalised owner compensation schedule. They had a tech stack that showed process, not chaos. You have time to prepare. The question is whether you're using it.
These figures are IronMargin operator estimates, not a formal industry study — actual results vary by market, trade, and execution. See how we calculate them.
A 3-truck shop is typically leaking $40,000–$90,000/year across seven categories. Get the estimate for your numbers in two minutes.
Coaching built from real P&Ls, not theory.
The coaching comes from operators, not career coaches.
The playbooks come from real dispatch boards and real income statements, not case studies or conference decks.
GM coaching, not generic advice.
Dispatch discipline, technician accountability, the weekly rhythm that keeps a shop from drifting — the way a strong general manager would actually run it, applied to your specific business.
ServiceTitan configured to match how you run, not the reverse.
Pricebook, dispatch boards, reporting — set up around your actual operation instead of fighting a system nobody configured right the first time.
PE language, explained in field terms.
Coaching assumes you know what EBITDA means but may not know what a quality of earnings review looks like, which add-backs are defensible, or how to structure your org chart to reduce key-man risk before a sale.
Capacity-limited on purpose.
The coaching retainer is capped at 10 clients at a time — real hours, not manufactured scarcity — so it stays genuinely 1:1 instead of turning into a group program.
Two ways to work together.
1:1 Coaching
GM coaching, operator coaching, and ServiceTitan help — direct and capacity-limited.
$750 ServiceTitan Operating Audit, credited toward the retainer- Start with the ServiceTitan Operating Audit, or go straight to the retainer
- Coaching retainer at $2,000/month, capacity-limited to 10 clients
- Month-to-month — cancel anytime
The Margin Room
A community for home services operators — a free front door, and a paid room for the full toolkit.
- Free: the Numbers Primer, a diagnostic, a monthly live session, general discussion
- Paid room: the full toolkit, weekly office hours, a template vault, scorecard reviews
- Not open yet — join the waitlist to hear first
A fractional COO or GM typically runs $8,000–$15,000/month. This is 1:1 coaching at a fraction of that, or the free community front door if you're not ready for 1:1 yet.
Coaching from someone who's run the business you're running.
I've spent years in the field and on the P&L side of home services businesses — running dispatch boards, managing crews, and working through the day-to-day realities of growing a trades company. Backgrounds in the field, not a classroom.
The coaching options available to trades operators tend to fall into three categories: too expensive (PE-level consulting firms that don't work with sub-$50M companies), too generic (membership networks built on conference content and benchmarks), or taught by people who have never actually run a dispatch board.
IronMargin exists for the owner who knows their numbers, has heard the vocabulary, and needs the specific operating playbook — not the theory.
This is coaching, not a system you buy once and run on autopilot. The specific decision you're stuck on this month is the actual work.
Fair questions. Straight answers.
"I already pay for another trade association or peer network."
Good. Keep it. IronMargin coaching is not a replacement for peer benchmarking and conference access — it's the layer those networks typically don't provide: someone reviewing your specific numbers and helping with the exact decision in front of you, whether that's pricing, a hire, or getting ServiceTitan actually configured right.
What does IronMargin coaching actually cover?
Three things in practice: GM coaching (running the business day to day like a general manager would), operator coaching (the specific decisions an owner is stuck on), and ServiceTitan implementation help (getting the software actually configured to match how the business runs).
What does IronMargin coaching cost?
The ServiceTitan Operating Audit is $750, one-time. An ongoing coaching retainer is $2,000/month, capacity-limited to 10 clients at a time. If you do the audit first and move into the retainer, the fee credits toward month one — see coaching options for details.
Who is IronMargin for?
Home services business owners running $1M to $15M in annual revenue with three to 30 employees. Members are typically in one of three situations: the growing-but-bleeding owner whose revenue is up while net margin is down and dispatch is chaotic; the pre-sale owner with an LOI in their inbox who needs to know which EBITDA adjustments are defensible before signing; or the post-close owner who has taken PE money and faces quarterly board expectations.
Is there a community, not just 1:1 coaching?
Yes — The Margin Room, a community with a free front door (the Numbers Primer, a diagnostic, a monthly live session) and a paid room for owners who want the toolkit and office hours without a 1:1 price tag.
Is IronMargin a franchise?
No. IronMargin is coaching, not a franchise. You keep full ownership of your business and your brand, pay no franchise fees or royalties, and there are no territories.
What revenue range is IronMargin built for?
Home services businesses doing $1M to $15M in annual revenue with three to 30 employees.
Do you work with businesses outside the US?
Yes — IronMargin coaches home services operators in the United States and Australia. Pricing is in USD everywhere, billed the same way regardless of where you're based.
Do you work with solo operators?
The coaching applies best once you have a crew to manage — dispatch discipline, technician accountability, and org-chart questions assume there's a team. A solo operator gets more out of the free community front door and the Numbers Primer first.
Do I need ServiceTitan to work with IronMargin?
No. ServiceTitan implementation help is one of three coaching angles, not a requirement — GM coaching and operator coaching apply regardless of what field-service software you run.
Is my P&L data kept private?
Yes. Financial statements you submit for a review are used only to prepare your analysis and are never shared.
Capacity-limited. Hands-on by design.
The coaching retainer is capped at 10 clients at a time — real hours, not manufactured scarcity. If you'd rather start smaller, the ServiceTitan Operating Audit has no ongoing commitment and its fee credits toward month one if you continue.
If you run a trades business and you are serious about your margin, this is the call to make.
See Coaching OptionsNot ready for 1:1? Join The Margin Room waitlist instead.