Modern Craftsman The Wrong Jobs Are Killing Your Margins
Mar 12, 2026
They dig into how P&L and payroll should steer the work you accept. They explore why small jobs add hidden costs and crush margins. They discuss shifting toward fewer, larger projects to improve efficiency. They cover using realistic salaries and financial baselines to decide when to scale and when to trim overhead.
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Structure Dictates How Big Your Pie Must Be
- Your company structure must align with revenue so ownership and long-tenured employees get appropriate slices of the pie.
- Tyler Grace found a client's P&L showed the pie was too small for multiple owners and high payouts, forcing unsustainable concessions.
Run A Lean Shop Or Aim For Higher Margins
- If you're a one-person or lean shop, target sub-$1M scale and aim for high net margins (30–40%).
- Tyler Grace recommends keeping overhead low or increasing revenue when adding employees to avoid margin compression.
Put Real Salaries On The P&L
- Use realistic salaries and truthful P&L numbers rather than inflated margins from owner concessions.
- Tyler Grace told his client to plug realistic owner and payroll figures into the P&L to see true net margins and plan job types accordingly.