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In the early days, the Owner was deeply tied to the tools - painting alongside a small crew, juggling every jobsite, and trying to manage operations from memory. With no formal systems in place, growth quickly outpaced his ability to control it - leaving him exhausted and underpaid compared to his own employees.
At a pivotal point along the way, this Owner recognized that his role had to change. And instead of remaining tied to production, he set a clear strategic direction. He determined to step out of the field and focus on running sales and business development. This shift established the long-term vision for his leadership - moving from being a producer of work to being the driver of growth.
The real transformation occurred by working through the business - using daily operations as a way to connect field execution with strategic direction. With the assistance of T-suite frameworks, this Owner:
moving critical knowledge out of his head and into systems that allowed crews to operate independently and consistently.
trusting employees to execute within clear expectations, which freed him to focus on growth and profitability.
ensuring field staffing supported revenue growth while preserving quality.
creating a smoother pipeline that balanced incoming work with field execution.
In fewer than two years, revenue more than doubled from $225K to $475K, and net income tripled from $35K to over $100K. Today, the company produces $1.3M annually with net income approaching $400K. While the next stage of growth requires adding sales support, the foundation is solidly in place - making the coming transition faster, smoother, and more sustainable.
Many contracting businesses have the same origin story. Owners worked for someone else, have an idea of how they can make things better, but haven’t had that chance working for their current employer. They go out on their own and start their own business. They work in the field with one or two helpers. They are not charging enough, so they quickly have more work than they can handle. More field employees are added, and the company grows. About as quickly things get out of control. These owners can no longer be on every jobsite and cannot oversee what’s going on all the time – and this is really difficult for those who like to maintain control. Sound familiar? This may also be how you started.
This particular painting contractor was at a point where he felt stuck and didn’t know what to do next. The business had more work than they could control, there were no processes, the Owner worked all the time, and his painters were making more than he did in a year. Something had to change.
He was at a critical point in his business. The point where he needed to get out of the field, get off the tools, and run the business. When an Owner stops producing work, his or her effort must be replaced. You can’t just wake up one day and pull yourself out of the field when you have yourself + 4 employees producing all the work. 20-25% of production ceases when owners like this one put down their tools and become the full-time salesperson and business owner. In general, an owner producing the work needs to be replaced by two field employees in order to increase revenue enough to justify laying down the tools.
This Owner got out of the field and began running the business. He realized all the company’s processes were in his head. And since he was the only one with the access code to his brain, he could no longer run 6 field employees out of his head. With the help of T-suite tools, he developed processes. He became more and more comfortable letting go of hands-on control. The business more than doubled in size from $225K to over $475K in revenue in under two years, and his net income tripled from $35K (less than his crew leaders) to well over $100K.
Now he runs a $1.3M company with a net income approaching $400K per year. Now, he has a great life – both in and out of the business. While the business has grown, and he has been incredibly successful to this point, periodically, that feeling of “it’s all on me” has catches up with him again; and he needs to shift the business. Today, this Owner is at the next phase of his business - where he needs to add someone to assist him with sales so the business must grow again. But this time, growth will take less time and be less painful because he’s already got those foundational T-suite processes in place!
