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What we believe

The business exists to fund your life.
Not the other way around.

You know the work. Nobody showed you the numbers. Here they are, in plain words, from a contractor who has run them for 25 years. Your life comes first. The business is designed to pay for it.

  1. 01

    Your life is your first business.

    Fund it first. Everything else gets built on top of it.

  2. 02

    Find your level and live there.

    BASE is the fully funded life you live on while the business grows. Wealth by contentment.

  3. 03

    Never work below your floor.

    Your floor rate is the hourly that funds your life. A job under it costs you money.

  4. 04

    Profit is planned, not hoped for.

    In all labor there is profit. You decide where it goes before the job starts.

  5. 05

    Earn your raise.

    Hit the milestones and BASE goes up. That’s the BALL. Four in five years is a homerun.

  6. 06

    Grow from revenue, not debt.

    Build two assets: your home and your business. Borrow for neither.

Find your number — free → Starting out or starting over? Free account, no card. Your numbers save as you go.
Two doors

Starting out or starting over?

Two kinds of people land here. Both need the same thing: a business built to fund your life. Pick the door that’s yours.

Door one

Starting out

You’re still on a paycheck. You want your own thing. You don’t have the capital.

Good. You don’t need it. The first business you build is a part-time, zero-capital solo launch, and it’s a classroom, not a gamble. You keep your job, cover your life, and learn how a business operates while someone else still signs your check.

Here’s what you do first, and it costs nothing:

  1. Figure out your BASE, the number your life actually costs, fully funded.
  2. Find your floor rate, the hourly you can never work below.
  3. Price your first job with both numbers in front of you.
Jake is three years into HVAC making $26 an hour. His BASE works out to $63.50 an hour on the tools. That’s not a reason to quit. It’s the number every side job has to clear until the business banks three months of his life and his calendar is full. Then he goes full-time, and not before.

Start here, free: six lessons and the tools to get your numbers. When you’ve got jobs to run, Command Center runs them on your numbers for $49 a month.

Get your numbers → See the six lessons
Door two

Starting over

You’ve been in business a while. You’re busy. You’re broke anyway.

That’s not a work problem. You’ve got plenty of work. It’s a numbers problem: you never set a BASE, so you’ve been pricing from the market instead of from your life, and the business has been eating what should have been yours.

Starting over doesn’t mean closing the doors. It means rebuilding the business under you while it keeps running:

  1. Set your BASE at what a good job would pay. If the business can’t fund that, that’s the first thing to fix.
  2. Reprice every estimate from your floor, and stop taking jobs under it.
  3. Split profit on purpose: taxes, reserves, and the rest, every single job.
A remodeler doing $280,000 a year took home $41,000 and owed the IRS in April. Same work, repriced from a $120,000 BASE with the split in place, pays the life first, funds the tax bill, and keeps reserves. The revenue barely moved. Where it went did.

Start here: run your real numbers in the free lessons. Then put the whole business on them. The bundle at $99 a month puts your site, your proposals and your books on your BASE from day one.

Run my numbers → See the bundle
The system

BASE/BALL, the two-part financial system for contractors and home service businesses.

Part one sets the number. Part two raises it.

Part I: BASE — the fully funded life

Add up what your household really spends, including healthcare and retirement. Multiply by 1.25 so savings, giving and debt payoff are in there. Take off a partner’s income. Then double it: that’s the self-employment responsibility. About half funds the life, about 30% pays every tax, about 20% stays in the business as reserves. Every dollar of BASE is profit; this is how it gets deployed.

Part II: BALL — the raise you earn

Each year you hit the milestones, BASE goes up 3 to 5%: revenue target met, BASE covered ten or more months, crews running themselves, your own hours trending down. Four BALLs in five years is a homerun, about a 17% raise, compounded, earned by a business that grew with you.

Your floor rate

Annual BASE divided by the hours you can really bill. Weekends, holidays, sick days, vacation and weather come off first. Your own labor goes on every estimate at the floor, no markup, because BASE already carries the profit.

$120,000Annual BASE
236 × 8Billable days × hours
$63.50/hrAbout $508 a day
Free

Six lessons. In order. Before the first call.

Short videos with the tools that go with them, built on your own numbers. All six are free with a free account, and your numbers save as you go.

Lesson 1: Find your numberA 45-second preview. Make a free account to watch the whole lesson and save your numbers.
Lesson 1

Find your number

What it really takes to fund your whole life.
Lesson 2

Time off, billable days & your floor rate

Schedule your days off first. Then find the rate you never work under.
Lesson 3

Overhead: keep it small

What it really costs to run your business — and why small keeps more of every job.
Lesson 4

Pricing: the money is in the margin

Check your prices against your floor. Charge full market value.
Lesson 5

Profit buckets & reserves

Split what you make before you spend it — and be ready for injury, sickness and weather.
Lesson 6

Your price book: price × pace

Estimate by the steps, then turn your work into prices you can quote fast.
Who’s teaching

Delmar Barber. 25 years of doing this kind of work, for real money.

I’ve earned blue-collar money both ways — on union jobs and in my own business. This is the system I run my own life and work on, and it’s the same order every time: take care of your life first, plan everything before anyone knows you’re going out, and never trade your stability for the business.

Your life is your first business. Your character is your brand in the community, and your community is your market. Get the numbers right and you go out on your own with your family covered.

More about Del →

Real photos: the work and the money it made.
Command Center

The lessons give you the numbers. Command Center holds you to them.

A spreadsheet doesn’t say a word when you price a job under your floor. Command Center does. Your BASE and your floor rate sit under every price you send, every payment that comes in and every job you close out. The rules stop being something you have to remember.

Start the day

Your numbers are the first thing you see.

Monthly BASE, daily floor, jobs a year and open leads, every morning. Plus the hours you’re still on the tools, so you can watch yourself get off them.

Command Center home screen showing monthly BASE, daily floor, jobs per year, open leads and owner hours on tools
Send the price

A proposal that looks like a real company sent it.

Your logo, your scope, your allowances, priced from your floor. The customer signs it online. Change orders, invoices and receipts come out on the same letterhead, and they pay from their own portal.

A customer proposal under the contractor’s own name, with scope of work and allowances
Close the job

Know what every job actually made.

Your labor at your floor rate, crew, materials, subs, and what’s left. No guessing in April where the money went.

Job books for a finished kitchen remodel showing revenue, cost of the job and gross profit
Split the profit

Every dollar of profit gets a job before you spend it.

Tax reserve, business reserves, marketing and audit funds, split on every job. The tax money was never yours. Now it never gets spent.

Money handling screen splitting a job’s profit into tax reserve, business reserves and funds
Bought piece by piece
$480–680/mo

Job software, QuickBooks, payroll, e-signature, hosting and email. Plus $1,000–15,000 up front for a website.

The bundle
$99/mo

Website, domain, hosting, business email and Command Center with Jack, all under your name. No build fee.

See everything that’s included and the full price comparison →

All of your numbers are free. When you’re ready to run work, consider Command Center.

$99/mo · The bundle

Run the work and look like a real business

Command Center plus your website, domain, hosting and business email, under your own name. One bill.

Start the bundle → $49/mo · Just the app

Command Center by itself

Leads, job walks, proposals, invoices, books and what every job actually made. Cancel anytime.

See Command Center → Free

Learn it and run your numbers

All six lessons and their tools, with a free account. Your numbers save as you go.

Start the lessons →
Straight answers

What people ask before they start.

Do I have to quit my job?

No. Most people should start part-time. Keep your paycheck, take your own jobs on the side, and let the business put three months of living expenses in the bank. Go full-time when you’re booking steady work and have a backlog. If you’re part-time and struggling with jobs or money, stay put; you’re missing something basic.

Do I need money to start?

Little to none. With 3–5 years in the trade you already have the skills and the basic tools. Work out of your house and use your own phone. The real costs are your insurance — general liability, and workers’ comp if you use help — and a website when you’re ready.

I’m already in business. Is this for me?

Yes, if you’re busy and not keeping the money. Run your real numbers in lesson 1, set your BASE at what a good job would pay, and reprice from your floor. Nothing about the work changes. Where the money goes does.

I’m not a numbers person.

You don’t have to be. Put in what your household spends and the calculator does the math: what your work has to bring in, and the rate you never work under. The lessons walk through every step on video.

Why not just use Jobber and QuickBooks?

You can. Bought piece by piece, job software, books, payroll, e-signature, hosting and email run $480–680 a month, before anybody builds you a website. And none of them know what your life costs. Command Center starts every price from your BASE and your floor rate, and the bundle puts the website, email and books in with it for $99 a month.

Do I need Command Center to use the lessons?

No. Every lesson and every tool is free. Make a free account and your numbers save as you go. Command Center is for when you’re running work and want those numbers inside every estimate, every invoice and every job you close out.

What do I pay for?

All of your numbers are free. When you’re ready to run work, please consider Command Center. It’s $49 a month, or $99 a month with your website, domain, hosting and email under your own name.

Start with one number.

Seven minutes of video and your household bills. You’ll know what your work has to bring in to fund your whole life — whether you’re starting out or starting over.

Find your number — free →