Get Roasted. Learn Your Numbers

Published: March 24, 2026 | Restoration Advisers Blog

If someone sat across from you right now and asked you to explain your overhead rate, your gross profit per job, and your net margin...

could you do it without pulling up a spreadsheet and stalling for ten minutes?

If the answer is no, you're not alone.

But you are leaving money on the table every single week.

We've helped many restoration buiness ownes achieve 7+ multiples on their buy outs. We've watched smart, hardworking restoration owners run themselves ragged. They are doing great work, staying busy, keeping crews employed yet still wondering at the end of the year why there's nothing left.

The answer, almost every time, is the same: they don't actually know their numbers.

They think they do.

They have a rough sense.

They know what Xactimate spits out.

But they don't own their numbers from the inside out.

Why "Just Use the Software" Is a Trap

I cannot over emphisize this.

No estimating software, no industry benchmark, and no consultant who's never run your specific business can tell you what your numbers should be.

Business in a box is bogus. Don't listen to anyone who says they have all your SOPs... or they know what numbers you need to hit.

I know that's not what the vendors want you to hear.

But it's a fact.

Your overhead is not the same as the guy down the street running a similar-sized operation.

Your job costs depend on your market, your crew structure, your equipment mix, your geographic footprint.

The idea that there's a universal overhead rate you can plug in and call it a day is one of the most dangerous myths in this industry.

We've seen overhead rates in restoration businesses range from roughly 15% all the way to 54%, and both of those companies were doing real volume. The difference wasn't incompetence. It was structure, geography, team size, and a dozen other variables that are unique to each business.

When you outsource your financial understanding to a software platform or a third-party opinion, you're flying blind with someone else's instruments. That's a recipe for getting roasted... and not in a fun way.

The Three Numbers You Actually Need to Own

You don't need an MBA.

You need clarity on three things: overhead, job costs, and profit. Get these right and everything else starts to make sense.

1. Overhead — The Number Most Owners Get Wrong

Overhead is every expense that can't be cleanly tied to a single job. Your office rent, your admin staff, your insurance, your truck payments, your owner's salary — all overhead. If an expense touches two or more jobs, it's overhead.

Here's where owners get tripped up: they either undercount their overhead (forgetting to include their own salary, for example) or they don't track it at all and just hope the margin covers it. Neither works.

Your overhead rate is a percentage of your revenue. If you're doing $1M in revenue and your overhead is $250K, your overhead rate is 25%. That number needs to be baked into every job you price. It should not be guessed at, not borrowed from an industry average.

2. Job Costs — What Actually Goes Into Each Job

Job costs are the direct expenses tied to a specific project: materials, direct labor, equipment rented for that job, PPE, chemicals, containment poly. If you can point to a job and say "this expense exists because of this job," it's a job cost.

The distinction matters because job costs drive your gross profit calculation. Gross profit is what's left after you pay all job costs, before overhead hits. You can calculate gross profit per job, which gives you a real-time read on whether individual jobs are performing.

One nuance worth knowing: a project manager who works one job at a time is a job cost. The same person managing multiple jobs simultaneously becomes overhead. The line matters for your numbers.

3. Net Profit — The Only Number That Tells the Truth

Gross profit is useful. Net profit is the truth. Net profit is what remains after every expense — job costs and overhead — has been paid. It's the annual measure of whether your business is actually working.

And here's something a lot of owners miss: your salary is an overhead expense. Net profit is what's left after you've paid yourself. If your net profit is zero but you paid yourself a salary, that's not the same as breaking even — but it's also not the same as thriving. Know the difference.

Confidence Comes From Knowing, Not Guessing

Here's what changes when you actually own your numbers: you stop second-guessing your pricing.

One of the most common things I hear from restoration owners is that they feel uncomfortable quoting jobs... especially larger ones. They worry they're too high. They worry they're leaving money on the table. They discount when they shouldn't. They take jobs they shouldn't.

That uncertainty almost always traces back to not knowing their numbers. When you know your overhead rate, your job cost structure, and the margin you need to hit your net profit target, pricing becomes a math problem — not a gut-feel exercise. You quote with confidence because you know what the job needs to cost for your business to work.

That confidence also changes how you handle pushback. When an adjuster or a property manager questions your pricing, you're not defending a number you pulled from software. You're defending a number you built from the inside out. That's a completely different conversation.

How to Start: The "Get Roasted" Exercise

Here's a practical starting point.

It's uncomfortable, but it's the fastest way to find out where you stand.

Sit down with your last 12 months of financials. Pull your P&L. Then answer these questions honestly:

• What was my total overhead for the year? (Include your salary.)

• What was my total job cost for the year?

• What was my gross profit margin?

• What was my net profit margin?

• Do those numbers match what I thought they were?

Most owners who do this exercise for the first time are surprised, and not in a good way. But that surprise is valuable. It's the moment you stop guessing and start managing.

If you want a structured resource to work through this, Michael C. Stone's book Markup & Profit is one of the best foundational reads in the industry. It's not restoration-specific, but the principles are directly applicable.

The Bottom Line

You can be the best technician in your market.

You can have the best crew, the best equipment, the best reputation.

And you can still run a business that doesn't work financially if you don't know your numbers.

This isn't about becoming an accountant.

It's about being the owner of your business, not just the operator of it.

Owners know their numbers. Operators hope the numbers work out.

The restoration industry is too competitive to leave this to chance. Get roasted now ... on your own terms ... so the market doesn't do it for you later.

Ready to go deeper? The Restoration Business Academy (RBA) is where restoration owners build the systems, financial clarity, and leadership skills to run a business that actually works. If this resonated, learn more about RBA here or reach out directly to explore coaching options.