Business Planning & Setting Targets

Welcome

Hello, and welcome. This is Super Structures General Contractors — a national general contractor headquartered in Powhatan, Virginia — here to help you and your clients build something that lasts. We're glad you're with us, and we look forward to connecting with you.

Let me tell you why Business Planning & Setting Targets pays off down the road. Cut through everything, and it's this: Decide your profit on purpose, then build the plan that produces it. Nail it, and it pays you back on every job you ever run.

You can't hit a target you never set. A simple plan beats a fancy one you never use.

The essentials

• Vision — what you want the company to become (size, type of work, your role).
• Revenue target — how much work you intend to do this year.
• Profit target — not just revenue; the profit you need (set it on purpose, don't hope for leftovers).
• The few priorities — the 3–5 things that will move the business this year (hire a PM, fix estimating, add a service).

Make it real with numbers

Work backward:

1. Profit you want →
2. Overhead you must cover →
3. Revenue and margin required to produce both →
4. The volume of jobs (and win rate) to get there.

Keep score

Review your targets monthly. What gets measured gets managed.

Going Deeper (Intermediate)

A simple plan beats no plan: set a revenue and profit target, know your break-even, and work backward to the backlog you need. Then build a budget and review against it. Without targets you're just reacting.

Advanced / Pro-Level

The bid funnel math every owner should run:

• Start with the profit goal → required revenue → required backlog.
• Break-even volume = overhead ÷ gross-margin % (e.g., $300k overhead ÷ 20% = $1.5M just to break even).
• Work the funnel: revenue ÷ average job size = jobs to win; ÷ win rate = bids to submit; that drives your estimating capacity.
• Add a cash plan alongside the profit plan, and review on a cadence (annual plan, quarterly check, monthly numbers). Targets you don't review are wishes.

Practice Challenge

Overhead is $400k and your gross margin is 25%. What revenue just breaks you even, and what's the next number you'd want? (Answer: $400k ÷ 0.25 = $1.6M to break even; above that, each dollar of revenue contributes 25% toward profit — so you'd set a target above $1.6M and back into the backlog and bid volume to reach it.)

In Practice

A contractor 'hopes' for profit and ends the year wondering where it went. One who sets a profit target and works backward to the revenue and margin needed actually hits it.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Hoping for profit instead of targeting it
• No written goals or priorities
• Never reviewing the numbers

Takeaway: Decide your profit on purpose, then build the plan that produces it.

Educational content — not legal, financial, or accounting advice. Run your numbers with your CPA.