The Construction Business Blueprint #036 - Why Your Construction Business Feels Stuck

Do you feel like your construction business keeps repeating the same month over and over again?

Different jobs.

Different clients.

Same problems.

Same revenue.

Same stress.

Same feeling that you can’t quite get ahead.

In this episode of the Construction Business Blueprint, Marc breaks down why so many trade and construction business owners get stuck at the same monthly revenue figure, and why the number you need to “cover all bases” can quietly become the ceiling your business never breaks through.

Marc shares a real client example of a business owner who kept hovering around £20k per month. On paper, he wanted more. But subconsciously, £20k had become the safety number, the point where the pressure came off and the business stopped pushing.

The lesson is simple: if your baseline never changes, your results won’t either.

You’ll learn how to identify your real monthly safety number, why that number should become your “new zero”, and how to start building a proper financial buffer so you can make better decisions, avoid panic, stop taking on bad work, and grow with more control.

This episode is for construction business owners who want more time, more profit, and more control but feel stuck at the same level month after month.

If this hits home, comment below or reach out to Marc directly.

Chapters

00:00 — Marc introduces the idea that “if nothing changes, nothing changes” and how it applies directly to construction business owners.

00:35 — He asks whether your business feels like the same month repeating itself with different jobs but the same problems.

01:06 — Marc explains why goals alone do not create progress unless they are backed by a clear plan and regular check-ins.

01:50 — He shares a client story about being stuck around the same monthly revenue figure and unable to break past it.

02:39 — Marc highlights the key phrase that revealed the real issue: the client only needed £20k to cover all bases.

02:51 — He explains how your safety number can become your comfort ceiling without you realising it.

03:32 — Marc introduces the idea that your survival number should become your “new zero,” not your target.

03:43 — He explains why having three months of overheads set aside creates a stronger financial safety net.

04:49 — Marc breaks down why changing what “zero” looks like is essential if you want the business to grow.

05:11 — He shows how to work out your real baseline number by reviewing your monthly business costs.

05:33 — Marc gives a simple action step: print your last three months of bank statements and identify recurring overheads.

06:13 — He explains what costs should be included in your baseline, such as wages, salaries, admin, loans, vehicles, tax, and subscriptions.

07:17 — Marc explains why having three months of baseline costs in the bank helps remove fear from decision-making.

07:23 — He shows how financial pressure can cause business owners to take on bad projects or make reactive choices.

07:55 — Marc challenges listeners to find their new baseline and start building their new zero.

Transcript

Why Nothing Changes Without Change

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to another episode of the Construction Business Blueprint YouTube channel. The only channel where training construction business owners can come to get more time, more profit, and more control over their business and life. This week we're going to talk about if nothing changes, nothing changes. And it's probably a sentence you've heard or a phrase you've heard time and time again. But again, I want to talk about it in terms of the business. Again, another challenge that I hear time and time again from new clients coming on board, or the many hundreds of people that I speak to every single month that sometimes you know just come across my channel and have conversations with and help on a regular basis.

The Cycle Of Same Problems

SPEAKER_00 0:34

The question is this do you ever feel like you're just repeating the same month time and time again? You know, maybe you've got different jobs, different clans, maybe the same clans, but it's all the same issues, same challenges, same thing over and over again, and nothing ever really seems to change. You can never really seem to get ahead. And you know, things are busy, not really making any progress. And that comes down to the same habits, same decisions, same way of running things. So of course it's going to be the same results because you haven't actually made the change for anything to happen. People often write down several goals, several things that they want to achieve. But what's missing from a goal or a target is a plan on how to get there and a regular check-in on whether those plans are actually getting ticked off or those things are actually getting actually getting achieved. So what happens is you can put down as many goals or tasks or whatever each month as you want, but unless you're mapping out exactly how to do that, changing the habits, changing the decisions that you're making, changing the way things are running, then nothing's gonna change.

The 20K Revenue Ceiling Story

SPEAKER_00 1:36

So I want to talk about a story here, like I always do. I want to bring it into reality and something that you can actually understand rather than me just telling you what you should know or what should happen. I want to bring it to a real life scenario, like I always try to do. And I want to talk about something that me and a client had a conversation. This was probably about a year ago, and it was about a 20k ceiling that he had. He came to me with the issue again, he was only sort of new to the programme. We'd fixed a lot of stuff, maybe a couple months in, but he said, Look, in terms of revenue, I'm kind of stuck. I I can't seem to get past the same number every month. What I asked of him was, you know, what is your target? Like, what target are you trying to sit at? So he was sitting at say around 20k every month, month on month, 22k, 18k. It was in and around that 20k all the time. And I said, Well, look, first of all, what's the target you're trying to achieve here? And whatever it may be, let's say it was 30k, but it was the line that he said next, which just rang alarm bells to me. The penny dropped with me straight away, and I had highlighted the issue straight away as soon as the words came out of his mouth. He said, My target is X, however, I only need 20k every month to cover all bases. So that for me, again, alarm bells rang. And guess what the number was that he couldn't get past? Yes, again, like I said, 20k. And that was because realistically, that was his safety net. That was his number that he needed to hit every single month, and that was his comfort zone. So, subconsciously, what was happening was when he reached or got near that 20k point or achieved that 20k point, he not intentionally, but it happened, he took his foot off the gas, he went, oof, that's us. We're safe now, we're okay, you know. If we just do this this month, that's us, we're fine. Anything else is a bonus, and that's why he never passed it. He felt safe, it was his comfort zone, like I said, and and your comfort zone is a is not is not a good zone to be in. So instead of it being a growth ceiling, it was a comfort ceiling, and until that changes, then nothing changes.

Make Your Safety Number Zero

SPEAKER_00 3:33

So, what I explained to him was that 20k had to become his new zero. And I say this to every client, not just in this scenario. Your new zero needs to be, say, for example, as a rule of thumb, three months of what your business overheads need to be. Whatever you need to keep your business running, to keep the lights on, to keep the lads paid, to keep suppliers paid, say that number is 20k. You would need to have, say, for example, three months of that 20k number. So you would need to have 60k in the bank as a safety net, they're put to the side that never gets touched, and that is your new baseline. That is your new zero. If you're not in a position to do that, and you know that number, whatever that number needs to be to cover all bases, say in this case, like my clients was it was 20k, that becomes your new zero. So you need to get to that 20k and then say, right, now we need to put the foot down and we need to achieve that 30k. So you need to constantly be moving the goalposts. When you get to the 30k and you're constantly and consistently achieving the 30k, then you need to move it again if that's what you want in business, if scale is what you're after, you know. But obviously, it's not just revenue that we're talking about here. We obviously want to focus on the profit margin, but we're just talking about this this specific scenario for now. You know, say for example, no matter what revenue you're getting, you're consistently hitting between 20 and 40% profit margin. Let's just talk about the revenue for now, like focusing on this one scenario. Until you move that safety net, until you change what zero looks like, then it'll it'll always consistently hit the same thing. You know, you need to remove the comfort ceiling. So essentially, again, you need to change what zero looks like. If 20k is your safety number, then that becomes your new baseline. 20k becomes the new zero, not your target, and now you then have to build beyond that or build above

Find Your Baseline From Bank Statements

SPEAKER_00 5:11

it. So if you're listening to this and you're thinking to yourself, I don't know my safety number, I don't know what my baseline should be. Well, it's quite simple. You can look at it in in several different ways. You could take this as what your overheads are. So, literally, the most simple way to do this is to, and again, this is I'm gonna make it in the most simple way possible to suit everybody. Everybody can do this no matter what size of business, no matter what scale, without any software or anything. Literally print off the last three months of bank statements. This is the most like there's obviously smarter ways to do this, more efficient ways, but I'm talking about this is something that everybody can do and has really no excuse not to do. I would print off the last three business bank account statements and I would go through every one of those costs that's not a specific, you know, project cost, like you know, not labor, not materials. I would look at that and say, you know, maybe your wages, your salary, admin, any subscriptions, any loans, any vehicle finance, tax, whatever it may be. I would look at the average over the three months and say, for example, you know, that's 10 grand a month. That would be your baseline figure. That would be 10k every month, is what you need to keep the lights on in your business. That 10k is what you need to make sure you're paid, whether you're physically working on the tools or not. So that is becomes your new baseline. It's a really simple way of doing that. You could look at it even deeper again, and you could see, you know, not that most people in this industry would be in this scenario, but what you could actually do is you could look at any of the guys you have, you know, on the books or on the cards that is physically employed by you. You could look at their wages, you could look at everybody's wages and every kind of what consistently consistently is the number that you need to hit to cover all bases. So, say for example, something happened, which again, this is would be very, very alien in this industry that there's a month where nothing happens whatsoever. You need to know that if nothing happens, no revenue is generated for that month. What money do you need in the bank to be able to cover to pay everybody that leaves nobody disappointed? You know, cover all your labour, all your staff, everything, whatever it may be. You kind of come up with that number, and again, that's your new baseline.

Decisions Improve When Fear Drops

SPEAKER_00 7:05

That becomes a number that you can never go below in your bank account. And if you even come close to it, then panic stations. Any of my clients, I would always have them to be in a position where they have three months of that baseline figure in the bank put aside to a pot at any point in time as like an emergency fund. And what that does is then several things. You know, it removes the fear, it removes taking on bad projects in case you know we need to cover all base here, we need to get something in here. You know, you've got that safety net there, which makes you be able to make better decisions, it makes you, you know, take maybe more calculated risks and not be afraid to, you know, underperform or something that happened that month, or take on a bad project or whatever it may be. Because fear and a financial fear will always muddy the waters in any decision or action that you'll take as a business owner in your business. What I would challenge everybody to do after listening to this episode is go and find your new baseline. Simple as that. Go away, look at your bank statement, physically highlight everything that is at a direct related cost to your business every single month, get that total for the month, and work towards making that your new baseline, building that money up as a pot in the bank to become your new zero and then never go anywhere near, you know, keep at least 30-40% above that figure every single time. And if you get close, something needs to change. You need to take action. Don't wait until there's nothing left and then wonder what you should do next. If you've got a type of business where you can't build up those kind of funds, those excess funds to be able to do that, then you've got a whole other issue. And again, that's something that I can help with. So if you're listening to this thinking, I have no way of building up that pot, I don't even know where to start, then look, please feel free to comment below, reach out if there's ever any help you need.