Checkgrowth Plan

Field Notes

Short entries from the notebook.

Not a blog. Not a newsletter. Just a handful of notes that are short enough to read standing at a parts counter. Updated when there's something worth saying.

Feb 26 2026

The WIP schedule is the plan.

Nine times out of ten, when an owner tells me they don't have a written plan, what they actually don't have is a clean WIP schedule. Fix that first. A current, reconciled WIP tells you what you're going to bill next month, what your real gross margin looks like before year-end surprises, and which project manager is routinely over-billing. You can build a three-year plan on a good WIP. You cannot build anything on a bad one.

Jan 14 2026

"Utilization" is not one number.

When a service shop tells me their techs are at 78% utilization, I ask three questions. Is drive time in or out? Is shop time — truck stocking, tool repair — in or out? Is the number hours-billed or hours-paid? I have seen the same company report 62%, 78%, and 91% utilization for the same quarter depending on which of those three they meant. Before you set a target, agree on the definition and put it in writing.

Dec 02 2025

On the second branch.

The second branch almost never fails because the second market is wrong. It fails because the first branch was not systemized and the owner was the system. If the answer to "who runs the second branch" is "I'll drive up three days a week," the answer to "what happens to branch one" is "it slips." Systemize the mothership first. The second location is a year-two decision, minimum.

Nov 08 2025

Raise T&M rates on January 1.

Not on your anniversary. Not on the fiscal year. January 1, every year, in the amount you've already decided by October. Put it in a one-paragraph letter, send it to every active service customer in early December, and stop apologizing for it. The shops that hold rates flat for two years in a row and then try to catch up in one move are the shops that lose customers over pricing. Steady beats heroic.

Oct 20 2025

The org chart for the company you'll be in two years.

Draw the org chart of the business at the revenue number in your plan. Not today's org chart. The future one. Then circle every box that is not filled. That is your hiring plan and, usually, your training plan. About a third of those boxes can be filled with people you already have, if you tell them what role they're growing into. Most owners have never told them.

Sep 15 2025

What "growth" means depends on who's reading.

Your banker reads growth as revenue and debt-service coverage. Your bonding agent reads it as working capital and backlog quality. Your GM reads it as headcount and payroll. Your spouse reads it as how many Saturdays you were home. A good growth plan answers all four of them on the same page, and doesn't pretend any one of them is the real one.

Aug 04 2025

The foreman test.

If your foreman can't read the growth plan and tell you, in his own words, what it means for his crew on Monday morning, the plan is too long. A plan that lives only in the owner's head was the problem. A plan that lives only in a binder on the owner's shelf is the same problem with extra steps.

A footnote

On the name.

"Checkgrowth Plan" reads a little clumsy and that is on purpose. Check as in the punch list item — the thing you tick off when it's done. Growth as in the direction, not the religion. Plan as in on paper, signed, and handed back. The whole idea fits in the name: check that your growth has a plan. Put it in writing. Move on.