Advertise on podcast: Conquer Contractor Chaos

Cabinet maker Dean Rovedo, owner of Platinum Woodworking, joined business coaching 15 months ago feeling lost, overworked and stuck on the tools. In this episode, he sits down with cabinet shop business coach Lee Thomas Miller to walk through what changed and the numbers behind it. Dean's results after 15 months of coaching: Revenue up 72% year over yearAverage job size up more than $7,00025 jobs down to 12, for more total revenueGross margin up from about 35 to 42% to 51 to 52%Owner revenue per hour up from about $160 to $350In this episode: Why cabinet shops take every small job, and how to start saying noMarkup vs margin, and why cost plus 20% kept Dean's margins lowHiring Gen Z: training two 18 year olds instead of chasing experienced cabinet makersUsing Predictive Index and a culture first hiring processWhat the first 30 days look like for a new shop hireThe 50/30/20 goal: 50% gross margin, 30% fixed costs, 20% net profitGetting off the tools and into sales and networkingDean's advice to other cabinet shop owners: get out of the shop, and at the very least, start tracking your numbers. About the host: Lee Thomas Miller is a business coach for cabinet shops, closet companies and contractors, and the founder of Brave Academy. He took a painting franchise from $140K in debt to $3.25M at 20%+ net margins before exiting in 2021, and has since coached 150+ trades businesses. Join the free Conquer Contractor Chaos community on Skool: www.skool.com/conquer-contractor-chaos-free-7538

Phil Blumberg, president of Perris Woodworks in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, was busy but barely making money when he joined coaching 15 months ago. In this episode, he sits down with cabinet shop business coach Lee Thomas Miller to share what changed and the numbers behind it. Phil's results after 15 months of coaching: Gross margin up from an average of 40% to 54%Shop grew from 1,000 to 4,000 sq ftBiggest job ever booked: $130KPrices raised twice, now quoting on margin instead of markupFirst full time employee, Mark, promoted to run most of productionIn this episode: Why small jobs drain owner time, and how to start turning them downBack costing past jobs, and why highly custom work is often the least profitableTracking labor by job with Gusto and ordering materials per jobWhy a 33% margin feels fine but slows your growthSimplifying your product line so someone else can run productionSelling the experience, not the pricePhil's story: AmeriCorps rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina, a 500 sq ft basement shop in 2020, and a slowdown that nearly put his family on food stampsWhat's next: $1M in revenue, 50%+ margins, and six weeks off every summerPhil's advice to other shop owners: get help. There's only so much you can figure out on your own. About the host: Lee Thomas Miller is a business coach for cabinet shops, closet companies and contractors, and the founder of Brave Academy. He took a painting franchise from $140K in debt to $3.25M at 20%+ net margins before exiting in 2021, and has since coached 150+ trades businesses. Join the free Conquer Contractor Chaos community on Skool: www.skool.com/conquer-contractor-chaos-free-7538

Nick Hall spent eight years as a Marine Corps officer, including three years teaching organizational behavior and team leadership at the Naval Academy. When orders to Japan came through, he chose his cabinet business instead. In this episode, cabinet shop business coach Lee Thomas Miller talks with Nick about how he built Hall's Cabinetry Co. near Raleigh, North Carolina, on nights and weekends while still on active duty, so it was ready the day he got out. What Nick had in place on his first day as a civilian: A fully equipped shop with a CNC, edgebander and dust collectionA business plan, insurance, website and Google Business ProfileAbout four months of work already bookedReferral partners with GCs and interior designersIn this episode: Why Nick hired a business coach before his business needed oneBuilding a cabinet business from five hours away: cold calls on lunch breaks, designing in Mozaik, and outsourcing CNC cuttingCold calling, door hangers and Facebook groups, and why leads you plant today show up months laterNarrowing your product line, and charging more for work outside your systemsHiring your first employee and training him with recorded videosLeading civilians vs leading Marines, and why the rules are stricter for the bossLessons from wrestling at NC State: discipline, setbacks and keeping a white belt mindsetBuilding a business without losing your family along the wayNick's advice: if you're thinking of leaving a job to start a shop, build it on the side first. The best time to plant a tree was years ago. The second best time is today. About the host: Lee Thomas Miller is a business coach for cabinet shops, closet companies and contractors, and the founder of Brave Academy. He took a painting franchise from $140K in debt to $3.25M at 20%+ net margins before exiting in 2021, and has since coached 150+ trades businesses. Join the free Conquer Contractor Chaos community on Skool: www.skool.com/conquer-contractor-chaos-free-7538

Hiring the wrong person can set a contractor back months. In this episode, contractor business coach Lee Thomas Miller talks with Dr. Matt Poepsel, VP of Product at The Predictive Index, a Marine Corps veteran and author of Expand the Circle, about using people data to hire, lead and keep a great team. In this episode: What the Predictive Index is, and why Lee uses it with every one on one coaching clientWhy most construction businesses track every number except the one about their peopleThe profiles that tend to run construction companies vs the profiles of skilled tradespeopleMatching roles to people, and why stretching staff into the wrong role makes them quitThe difference between managing and leadingWhy complaining about Gen Z won't fill your open positionsHow a general contractor fixed infighting on its leadership team with PIWhere to start: take the assessment yourself in about six minutes, then use it in hiringThe simple phone call to an employee's spouse that keeps good people for yearsMatt's advice to business owners: every business is a people business. Get the people part right and the business results follow. Take the Predictive Index assessment at predictiveindex.com. About the host: Lee Thomas Miller is a business coach for cabinet shops, closet companies and contractors, and the founder of Brave Academy. He took a painting franchise from $140K in debt to $3.25M at 20%+ net margins before exiting in 2021, and has since coached 150+ trades businesses. Join the free Conquer Contractor Chaos community on Skool: www.skool.com/conquer-contractor-chaos-free-7538

If your contracting business is nearing seven figures and everything feels like it's on fire, it's not failure. You've outgrown the foundation you built as a $250K owner operator. In this solo episode, contractor and cabinet shop business coach Lee Thomas Miller uses a construction analogy to show what to reinforce before you scale any further. In this episode: Why growing pains are "settlement," not collapseWhy working more and hiring in a panic only patches the cracksThe five footings to underpin: written core values, an updated vision and mission, leadership that delegates, financial understanding (job costing, margins and forecasting), and a scaling mindsetFraming: the systems, KPIs and workflows that hold the business upThe roof: contracts, hiring standards and cash flow protectionWhy new trucks, offices and gear add weight without adding strengthWhat Carillion's collapse teaches about growing on a weak baseHow Starbucks slowed down in 2008 to rebuild its foundationWhy every business needs an outside inspection each year, and a yearly planning rhythmAbout the host: Lee Thomas Miller is a business coach for cabinet shops, closet companies and contractors, and the founder of Brave Academy. He took a painting franchise from $140K in debt to $3.25M at 20%+ net margins before exiting in 2021, and has since coached 150+ trades businesses. Join the free Conquer Contractor Chaos community on Skool: www.skool.com/conquer-contractor-chaos-free-7538

Kevin McCarthy grew up in Philadelphia's Kensington neighborhood, dropped out of school in ninth grade and spent years as a trades helper. Today he runs Legacy Wardrobes and Closets, a luxury closet company featured in Faces of Design Philadelphia 2025. In this episode, closet business coach Lee Thomas Miller sits down with Kevin to talk about how he built a multi seven figure closet company from a basement in a Philly row house. Where Kevin is today: A team of 12, with a sales lead, install manager, shop manager, design engineer and adminMoved from a 2,500 sq ft shop to 8,000 sq ft, with a new edgebander and a new showroomA team that texts him asking what the gross margin was on their last jobIn this episode: Why working hard alone stopped working, and why Kevin finally asked for helpHiring the wrong salesperson, and getting it right the second timeWhat an A player really is: ownership and core values, not technical skillCore values like "family first" and "pride in what we design and build," and how they make tough decisions easierWhy Legacy Wardrobes focuses on closets and wardrobes and refers out kitchensGetting your whole team bought in on gross profit marginLessons from moving shops: electrical upgrades, riggers and leaning on partnersWhy the owner's job becomes spotting the next bottleneck, not fixing every problemKevin's advice: hard work will get you far, but not all the way. You have to ask for help. About the host: Lee Thomas Miller is a business coach for cabinet shops, closet companies and contractors, and the founder of Brave Academy. He took a painting franchise from $140K in debt to $3.25M at 20%+ net margins before exiting in 2021, and has since coached 150+ trades businesses. Join the free Conquer Contractor Chaos community on Skool: www.skool.com/conquer-contractor-chaos-free-7538

Every contractor gets the same 24 hours. What separates average owners from high level operators is how they use them. In this short solo episode, contractor and cabinet shop business coach Lee Thomas Miller breaks your time into three buckets and shows which one grows your business. In this episode: Investing time: learning to price jobs, knowing your numbers, building systems, reading, planning, and surrounding yourself with people playing a bigger gameSpending time: answering calls, running job sites and putting out fires, the work that keeps the lights on but doesn't grow anythingDonating time: tire kicker clients, draining conversations and people who discourage your growth, and why this is the most dangerous bucketHow systems and a team let you move more of your week into investingAbout the host: Lee Thomas Miller is a business coach for cabinet shops, closet companies and contractors, and the founder of Brave Academy. He took a painting franchise from $140K in debt to $3.25M at 20%+ net margins before exiting in 2021, and has since coached 150+ trades businesses. Join the free Conquer Contractor Chaos community on Skool: www.skool.com/conquer-contractor-chaos-free-7538

Most contractors think a virtual assistant just answers email. In this live, in person sit down, contractor and cabinet shop business coach Lee Thomas Miller talks with returning guest Victor Kong, founder of Treantly Outsourcing, about what offshore team members can really do for a trades business, and what it means to be an entrepreneur. Victor moved from China to Canada at 10, worked in investment banking, then started Treantly during the pandemic. His company now places over 200 vetted professionals from the Philippines with businesses across North America. In this episode: Why "virtual assistant" undersells it: sales support, customer service, bookkeeping, project coordination and moreSpeed to lead, and why the contractor who answers first usually wins the jobWhy the Philippines is a hub for skilled, English speaking professionalsHow to build culture with a remote team, and why VAs work better with colleaguesPaying a salary vs hourly, and judging a VA by the hours they give back to youWhy healthcare and stability matter so much to keeping good peopleReal results from Brave Academy clients, including one who got back 20 hours a week and another whose gross margin rose more than 6%Using Loom to document training so your systems outlast any one hireWhy it's lonely at the top, and why business owners need to get out and connectFind Victor at treantlyoutsourcing.com. About the host: Lee Thomas Miller is a business coach for cabinet shops, closet companies and contractors, and the founder of Brave Academy. He took a painting franchise from $140K in debt to $3.25M at 20%+ net margins before exiting in 2021, and has since coached 150+ trades businesses. Join the free Conquer Contractor Chaos community on Skool: www.skool.com/conquer-contractor-chaos-free-7538

Most contractors start out as everything to everyone, with a list of services on the side of the van that reads like a grocery list. In this solo episode, contractor and cabinet shop business coach Lee Thomas Miller explains why that keeps you stuck in production, and how narrowing your product line makes your business more profitable and easier to scale. In this episode: Why saying yes to everything keeps the owner tied to the shop floorIf you wing every project, you wing the profit on every projectThe McDonald's lesson: master a few products and build systems around themWhy your most beautiful, custom work is often your least profitableHow to use back costing to find the jobs that actually make moneyWhy cabinet shops often make more on simple, standard jobs like white melamineBuilding a detailed ideal client profile, not just an age rangeWhy fewer finish and material options can make selling easierThe owner's real job: sell, sell, sell, until you can hire a salespersonAbout the host: Lee Thomas Miller is a business coach for cabinet shops, closet companies and contractors, and the founder of Brave Academy. He took a painting franchise from $140K in debt to $3.25M at 20%+ net margins before exiting in 2021, and has since coached 150+ trades businesses. Join the free Conquer Contractor Chaos community on Skool: www.skool.com/conquer-contractor-chaos-free-7538

Laurent Pichette is a red seal carpenter, a competition level CrossFit athlete and the owner of Cutting Edge Construction in Ottawa, which has grown from a small carpentry company into a commercial contractor running seven figure projects. Laurent is now also a coach on the Brave Academy team, working with general contractors. In this episode, contractor business coach Lee Thomas Miller talks with Laurent about the athlete's mindset, staying healthy in a tough trade, and what it really takes to move from residential into commercial work. In this episode: Finding a mentor by calling companies out of the Yellow Pages, and later going into business with himWhy you have to run a one person company like a real business from day oneSetting up systems and software for the company you want to be, not the one you are todayWhy a contractor needs a coach just like an athlete doesStaying healthy on the job: start small, pack your lunch, sleep better, and get a life outside workHow Cutting Edge landed its first commercial work, and adding 4,000 sq ft to a busy bar without it closing for a single dayResidential vs commercial: inspectors, engineers, paperwork, and why one mistake costs far more on a big jobTreating your subcontractors well, and planning jobs with them instead of for themManaging expectations with clients, subs and your own teamWhy your contract has a clause for every bad client you've ever hadLaurent's advice: run your business like the company you want to become. Clients will treat you at the level you show up. About the host: Lee Thomas Miller is a business coach for cabinet shops, closet companies and contractors, and the founder of Brave Academy. He took a painting franchise from $140K in debt to $3.25M at 20%+ net margins before exiting in 2021, and has since coached 150+ trades businesses. Join the free Conquer Contractor Chaos community on Skool: www.skool.com/conquer-contractor-chaos-free-7538

Most contractors only hire when they're already drowning, and that's when the talent pool is at its shallowest. In this solo episode, contractor and cabinet shop business coach Lee Thomas Miller explains why project based hiring is like duct tape, and how to build a recruitment engine that runs all year so you can land A players before you need them. In this episode: Why "I'll fire them later" backfires, usually at your busiest timeTreating recruitment like marketing: keep it running even when you're fullWhy your business is a sports team, not a familyThe Always Be Recruiting ruleReferral bonuses that turn your best people into recruitersAsking GCs, site supers and designers who the best tradespeople they've worked with areUsing your suppliers and their stores to find your next hirePosting three to five ads for related trades, like furniture makers and finishing carpenters for a cabinet shopBuilding relationships with trade school instructors to get first pick of their best studentsHiring for attitude and training for skill, and why team captains make great apprenticesWhy none of it works without orientation, onboarding and training systemsAbout the host: Lee Thomas Miller is a business coach for cabinet shops, closet companies and contractors, and the founder of Brave Academy. He took a painting franchise from $140K in debt to $3.25M at 20%+ net margins before exiting in 2021, and has since coached 150+ trades businesses. Join the free Conquer Contractor Chaos community on Skool: www.skool.com/conquer-contractor-chaos-free-7538

Matt Pierce spent 20 years in custom stairs, trim carpentry and remodeling, working nights and weekends and missing family vacations, before buying a friend's cabinet shop in Illinois. In this episode, cabinet shop business coach Lee Thomas Miller sits down with Matt and his operations manager, Grace, to talk about how Matthew James Co. went from chaos to control in about two years of coaching, without rushing to scale. Where the shop is today: Matt spends about an hour a week on the shop floor, down from full time on the toolsA team of four in the shop, with Grace running operations, estimating and SOPsMore volume than Matt thought possible from a 4,700 sq ft shopWork for designers and architects, including projects shipped to FloridaRegular hours, and time home with his familyIn this episode: The first changes that moved the needle: core values and a mission statementThe consumables charge that Matt says could pay for coaching on its ownLean in a small shop: walkie talkies, a shop fridge and a weekly clean outWhy bringing in an outside set of eyes shows you what you can't seeWriting SOPs so you can hire for attitude and train for skillOutsourcing CNC cutting instead of buying a machineBuilding relationships with designers and protecting them once you have themDaily huddles, and leading without yellingMatt's advice: charge for your consumables, and watch where your money goes, not just how much comes in. About the host: Lee Thomas Miller is a business coach for cabinet shops, closet companies and contractors, and the founder of Brave Academy. He took a painting franchise from $140K in debt to $3.25M at 20%+ net margins before exiting in 2021, and has since coached 150+ trades businesses. Join the free Conquer Contractor Chaos community on Skool: www.skool.com/conquer-contractor-chaos-free-7538

More homeowners now ask ChatGPT or read Google's AI summary to decide which contractor to hire, and that summary shows up above the map and the websites. In this solo episode, contractor and cabinet shop business coach Lee Thomas Miller explains how AI search picks who to recommend, and the practical steps contractors can take now to get named before their competitors catch on. In this episode: Why AI referred leads arrive already trusting you, and convert at a much higher rateHow AI search differs from old keyword SEO: it looks for clarity, not repeated phrasesWhy being specific about your ideal client and your products matters more than everWriting in your own voice, because AI and customers can both spot generic AI content"Best fit" blog posts: who to hire for your service in each town you serve, and whyWhy sharing price ranges and what affects cost builds trust with AI and filters out bad fit leadsGetting detailed reviews that AI can quoteWhy mentions now matter more than backlinks: Google, Yelp, Facebook, Reddit, Quora, the Better Business Bureau and home builders associationsWhy keeping your current Google profile strong still matters during the transitionLee's test: if AI had to explain why someone should hire you, could it do it clearly? If not, that's a clarity problem, not an SEO problem. About the host: Lee Thomas Miller is a business coach for cabinet shops, closet companies and contractors, and the founder of Brave Academy. He took a painting franchise from $140K in debt to $3.25M at 20%+ net margins before exiting in 2021, and has since coached 150+ trades businesses. Join the free Conquer Contractor Chaos community on Skool: www.skool.com/conquer-contractor-chaos-free-7538

Jeremy Lott ran a high end landscape design build company for 15 years and never understood his money, until 2008 put him into bankruptcy and his own accountant admitted he'd seen it coming for years. Jeremy went back to school at 35, became an accountant, and now runs Foundation Accounting & Consulting for contractors across the US. In this episode, contractor and cabinet shop business coach Lee Thomas Miller talks with Jeremy about job costing, cash flow and why so many busy contractors are still broke. In this episode: Why profit isn't the same as money in the bankParkinson's law: why you spend whatever is in the account, and how paying yourself first fixes itProcess based bidding: listing every step of a job so no labor gets missedLabor and material overhead (burden): why a dollar of labor really costs more than a dollarRewarding your crew for beating the gross profit budget on a jobWhy raising prices 3% is easier than cutting 3% of your costsPaying each job's bills from that job's moneyDeposits, taking a card on the last day of the job, and keeping your mechanics lien rightsBuilding a weekly cash flow projection so you can see a dip coming weeks aheadHow to be a good client to your accountant, and when a fractional CFO makes senseUsing debt as a tool, and why buying a truck in December is a lazy tax strategyFind Jeremy at foundationacs.com. About the host: Lee Thomas Miller is a business coach for cabinet shops, closet companies and contractors, and the founder of Brave Academy. He took a painting franchise from $140K in debt to $3.25M at 20%+ net margins before exiting in 2021, and has since coached 150+ trades businesses. Join the free Conquer Contractor Chaos community on Skool: www.skool.com/conquer-contractor-chaos-free-7538

The best leads a contractor can get come from referral partners: interior designers, general contractors, realtors and builders who send you the right jobs again and again. In this solo episode, contractor and cabinet shop business coach Lee Thomas Miller walks through the process he used with Sean Livingston, a cabinet maker who went from about $160K to close to $1M in revenue in under a year, with most of his work coming from three interior designers. In this episode: Upstream vs downstream referral partners, and how to map who your client works with before they need youGetting clear on your ideal client, product and profit margin before you start callingWhy closets and wardrobes can carry very different margins, and how to coach partners to send the right workBuilding a target list of 20 to 50 partners, and why someone else can build it for youTwo to five calls a day: why consistency beats bursts of effortThe one question to ask on your first call: what would you need to see from us to feel comfortable referring to us?Turning the answers into fixes, then into coffee meetings and showroom visitsA 90 day plan to turn first calls into first referralsWhite glove service that makes your partner look great to their clientThanking partners, and staying in touch with useful monthly emailsAbout the host: Lee Thomas Miller is a business coach for cabinet shops, closet companies and contractors, and the founder of Brave Academy. He took a painting franchise from $140K in debt to $3.25M at 20%+ net margins before exiting in 2021, and has since coached 150+ trades businesses. Join the free Conquer Contractor Chaos community on Skool: www.skool.com/conquer-contractor-chaos-free-7538