A contractor business plan should fit on 3-5 pages. Nobody reads a 50-page plan, and you won't update it. A practical plan covers four things: what you do, how you'll get customers, how much money you'll make, and what you need to invest.
Section 1: Business Overview (Half Page)
- Trade and service types
- Service area
- Target customer (residential, commercial, or both)
- Competitive advantage (what you do better than competitors)
- Legal structure (LLC, S-Corp)
Section 2: Financial Projections (One Page)
Build projections from the bottom up, not top down.
Calculate based on:
- Number of technicians x revenue per tech per year
- Average ticket size x jobs per day x working days
- Closing rate on estimates
- Cost per lead x number of leads needed
Example for a 3-tech HVAC company:
- 3 techs x $175K revenue per tech = $525K revenue
- Cost of goods (materials, labor): $210K (40%)
- Overhead (truck, insurance, office, tools): $105K (20%)
- Marketing: $42K (8%)
- Owner salary: $85K
- Net profit: $83K (16%)
Section 3: Marketing Plan (One Page)
Specify exact channels, budgets, and expected results:
| Channel | Monthly Budget | Expected CPL | Monthly Leads |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Ads | $2,000 | $45 | 44 |
| Google LSA | $1,000 | $30 | 33 |
| GBP + Reviews | $0 | Free | 15 |
| Referrals | $200 | $25 | 8 |
| Total | $3,200 | $32 avg | 100 |
Build your business plan
Get StartedSection 4: Growth Milestones (Half Page)
Set quarterly milestones:
- Q1: [specific metric target]
- Q2: [specific metric target]
- Q3: [specific metric target]
- Q4: [specific metric target]
Review and update your plan quarterly. It's a working document. If your cost per lead is higher than projected, adjust. If a marketing channel isn't working, reallocate.
Don't write a business plan to impress a bank. Write it to give yourself a clear target and a way to measure progress.
Worked Example: Business Plan Financial Projection
3-tech HVAC company. Revenue target: 3 techs × 4 jobs/day × $400 avg × 22 days × 12 months = $1,267,200. Conservative at 80% utilization: $1,013,760. Expenses: labor $354,816 (35%), materials $152,064 (15%), overhead $152,064 (15%), marketing $101,376 (10%), insurance $25,000, vehicle costs $36,000. Total expenses: $821,320. Net profit: $192,440 (19%). Break-even: $68,443/month = 8 jobs/day across 3 techs. This bottom-up approach is 3x more accurate than "the HVAC market is $X billion, we'll capture 0.01%."
What Not to Do
- Don't write a 50-page plan nobody reads. 3-5 pages with real numbers. If you can't explain your business model in 5 pages, you don't understand it well enough.
- Don't use top-down market estimates. "The HVAC market is $25 billion" tells you nothing. Bottom-up projections (techs × jobs × ticket size) give you actionable targets.
- Don't write the plan once and forget it. Review quarterly. If your cost per lead is $60 instead of $45, adjust your marketing budget or your channel mix. The plan is a living document.
- Don't skip the marketing section. "We'll get customers through word of mouth" isn't a plan. Specify channels, budgets, expected CPL, and monthly lead targets.