I’ve spent years watching skilled builders go under while completing profitable projects.
Here’s the brutal reality of construction cash flow that rarely gets discussed:
You can be making a loss for the ENTIRE first half of a project.
Why?
Because critical structural work often happens early, but doesn’t visually represent significant
progress, making it hard to claim payment.
Add standard 10% retentions held during the first half, and you’ve got a perfect cash flow
storm.
I witnessed a project where a contractor did extensive in-wall electrical work – critical
infrastructure that would later disappear behind drywall.
Despite representing 30% of the project value, they could only claim a fraction because
there was “nothing to see.”
Many financial systems don’t show you this temporary imbalance, leaving contractors
panicking unnecessarily or, worse, underbidding future work to generate quick cash.
What if you could see that while you’re down $50K on this project today, your profit will
recover in month 4 when retention percentages drop?
What if you could track precisely when your cash flow bottlenecks will occur and plan for
them?
This level of visibility doesn’t just save businesses – it lets you sleep at night knowing exactly
where you stand.
The most successful contractors I know don’t just track whether a project is profitable overall.
They track the WHEN of profitability, timing their projects and resources to maintain
consistent cash flow through the inevitable peaks and valleys.
At Contractable, that’s exactly the intelligence we’re determined to provide.
Have you experienced the early-project cash squeeze?
What strategies helped you navigate it?
