20 - If I Asked You What Your Most Profitable Job Type Is... Would You Actually Know?

If I Asked You What Your Most Profitable Job Type Is... Would You Actually Know?

Most tradies know what keeps them busy.

Far fewer know what actually makes them money.

In this episode, Amanda walks through one of the most powerful questions you can ask yourself as a trade business owner:

What is your most profitable type of job?

Not the biggest invoice.

Not the job that takes the longest.

Not the work that keeps the team busy.

The work that consistently delivers strong margins, gets completed efficiently, gets invoiced quickly, and puts money in the bank.

Using Fergus as an example, Amanda explains how to start identifying patterns in your business, uncover your most profitable work, and use systems to do more of it.

In this episode:

• Why bigger revenue doesn't always mean bigger profit
• The difference between staying busy and running a profitable business
• How to use the Fergus WIP Report to identify patterns
• Using Groups in Fergus to categorise different job types
• Comparing maintenance work, project work, callouts, and recurring jobs
• Why some jobs create more stress than profit
• Understanding the difference between job gross profit and business profit
• Why labour rates need to recover overheads
• The hidden costs many tradies forget to include
• How repeatable work becomes more efficient over time
• Using Fergus Templates to reduce admin and improve consistency
• Why specialisation can improve profitability and referrals
• The real cost of callbacks and rework
• How to start making decisions based on data rather than gut feel

Key takeaway

You probably don't need more jobs.

You need more of the right jobs.

The businesses that understand which work creates the best margins, runs smoothly, and can be systemised are often the businesses that grow faster with less stress.

Because when you know what makes you money, you can intentionally do more of it.

Action Step

This week:

✔ Pull up your Fergus WIP Report for the last month

✔ Look for patterns in your job types

✔ Start categorising jobs using Fergus Groups

✔ Identify which jobs:

• Make the best margins
• Get invoiced quickly
• Get paid quickly
• Create the least stress
• Have the fewest callbacks

Remember:

You can't improve what you're not tracking.

Free Profitability Calculator

Amanda is currently building a free profitability calculator to help tradies better understand:

• Labour recovery
• Gross profit margins
• Overhead recovery
• Profitable job types
• Where the real money is being made

Download the calculator using the link here.