Online business coaching for contractors who already have a business.
You are one person in a truck, or the owner with one to three people in trucks and nobody in the office. Work is coming in, things are falling through, and you do not know what to fix first. Operator is an online mentor: it audits where you are, checks that the foundation is right, finds what is actually stopping you, and gives you the next steps in order. Built for owners from the first truck to about $5 million.
$79/month, cancel anytime, in any state. One price, no contract, no territory limit.
Start Operator: $79/month Start with the free Business Audit Operator checkout opens shortly; your audit results carry over.
Who Operator is for
One person in a truck
You do the calls, the work, the invoices and the books. You need to know which office jobs matter, when to do them, and how to stop losing jobs while you are under a sink.
Owner plus one to three in trucks, no office
You are still the office. Calls get missed, estimates go cold, invoices go out late, and every question comes back to you.
Stuck at $1 million to $3 million
Revenue went up, profit did not. Something in the foundation or the system is holding the business at the same number every year.
Growing toward $5 million
You have people. Now you need seats, numbers for each seat, training, and a weekly rhythm that runs without you in every decision.
Not set up yet? Operator is for a running business. If you are still getting licensed, start with the Startup Roadmap instead.
How it works
- Find where you are. Take the Business Audit. It scores operations, sales, money and compliance and names your gaps.
- Check the foundation first. A business stuck at $2 million is often stuck because something underneath was never set up right. Operator walks the foundation before it lets you spend on growth.
- Find what is stopping you. Price, average ticket, booking rate, visibility, marketing spend, callbacks, the owner doing everything. One bottleneck at a time.
- Work the list. Each gap becomes a step with a reason, an owner and a review date, in the operating panel.
- Train the people who touch it. If booking rate is the problem, the person answering the phone goes through the booking training. If callbacks are the problem, the technician does.
The foundations it checks before anything else
- Is the business registered and filed correctly, with the right licenses, bond and insurance current?
- Are the tax accounts open and the filings on a calendar?
- Are the books set up so you can actually see money: a chart of accounts that separates jobs, overhead and owner pay, and a cash model you understand?
- Do you know your break-even, your true hourly labor cost and your margin on a finished job?
- Can you pull the whole file on a job, a hire or a subcontractor when you need it?
If something here is missing, it goes to the top of your list. Growth on a cracked foundation is how a busy shop ends up with no money.
What is usually stopping you, and what Operator does about it
You are underpriced
Rebuild prices from real cost and margin. See building a price book and markup vs margin.
Average ticket is too low
Options at the job, maintenance agreements, and the conversation techs are trained to have instead of the one they avoid.
The phone rings, the job never books
Booking rate, call handling and follow-up. The CSR or the owner goes through the booking training. See close rate vs booking rate.
Customers cannot find you
Google Business Profile, reviews, and a site that answers questions. See getting found on Google and Bing.
Too much going to marketing
Which lead sources produce profitable jobs, and which ones just make the phone ring.
You are the bottleneck
Owner-only decisions written down and handed off. See getting the owner out of the field.
What is inside your Operator account
- The operating panel, in ten sections: foundation check, audit action plan, pricing and profitability, marketing and growth, hiring and team, day-to-day operations, records and subcontractors, safety and risk, owner cadence, and business recovery.
- An AI coach that answers from Contractor Lane's own playbooks and training, not from the open internet, so the advice matches the system you are working.
- Role training modules with comprehension checks, for the people who answer phones, dispatch, run calls, install and manage. Booking the call, call control, dispatch board ownership, change-order control, capacity planning, closing the job with a clean handoff, and more.
- The owner cadence: the weekly review, the monthly snapshot and the 90-day plan, so the business gets looked at on purpose.
- Deadline reminders for your filings, included.
- A 30-day trial of the Contractor Vault, the SOP and script library. After 30 days the Vault closes unless you add the Vault membership. Most Operator members do not need more.
Who does the office work when there is no office
Every contracting business has office work: answering and booking calls, dispatching, checking jobs, invoicing, collecting, bookkeeping, payroll, filings, social posts, reviews, thank-you notes, truck stock and parts runs. The question is who does each one at your size.
Nobody in the office
The owner takes an office day. Early in the week but not Monday, which is catch-up: Tuesday or Wednesday, so Thursday and Friday stay open for installs. If there is one other person, they run calls or restock trucks and the warehouse while you do the office. A part day can work. So can a weekend, if that is where you are.
One person in the office
They book calls, dispatch, check jobs after everyone, and collect receipts. Ten transactions at the end of the day is a quick job on a phone app. Matching receipts into the books stays with the owner until you trust the process and there is time.
Two people in the office
Front of house and back of house. One owns the phone and the customer; the other runs parts, helps, and covers everything that is not the phone.
What the owner keeps
Anything that moves money with no second set of eyes: approving payroll, bank reconciliation, and the accounts review. You hand those off when a real check exists, not before.
Your first month
- Week 1: take the audit, work the foundation check, and fix anything missing underneath.
- Week 2: know your numbers: break-even, labor cost, margin, and where the leads come from.
- Week 3: pick the one bottleneck that matters most and start its steps. Assign the matching training to whoever touches it.
- Week 4: run your first weekly owner review and set the 90-day plan.
Operator vs a contractor coaching group
Coaching groups and peer networks give you a coach, events and a room of other owners, and most ask you to call for pricing. Operator is different on purpose: it is an online mentor, the same system for everyone, open to every contractor in every state, for $79 a month with no contract. There is no territory limit, because we would rather raise the standard for every contractor than for two per area. If you want a one-to-one coach and a peer room, a coaching group may suit you better. If you want the system, the training and the next step, at your own pace, Operator is built for that.
What Operator is not
Operator is not a lead marketplace, an advertising agency, a payroll or bookkeeping service, or one-to-one human coaching. Training covers the roles available today and is deepest for plumbing and Washington; it does not replace supervised experience, credentials, or a CPA or attorney. Results depend on doing the work.
Read free first
The free operating guides cover leads, people, pricing and owner routines with real worked examples. Start with: why a busy month can have no money in it, how much to charge per hour, stuck between $2M and $4M, and the weekly owner meeting.
Questions owners ask
How much does Operator cost?
$79 a month, in any state. Cancel anytime. No contract.
Is there a free trial?
Not yet. The free Business Audit is the place to start: it names your gaps at no cost, and the results carry over if you join.
Is this one-to-one coaching?
No. Operator is an online mentor, the same system for everyone. It finds where you are and gives you the next steps. The AI coach answers questions from Contractor Lane's own playbooks.
I am one person in a truck. Is this for me?
Yes. Operator starts with the foundation and the office work you are doing yourself, and helps you decide what to do on your office day and what to hand off first.
Does it work in my state?
Yes. Operator works in all 50 states. The business systems are the same everywhere; deadline reminders use your state's own dates.
Do I need the Contractor Vault too?
Usually not. Operator includes a 30-day trial of the Vault, then it closes. The full Vault membership is for established companies that want the complete SOP and script library all the time.
How is this different from the Startup Roadmap?
The Startup Roadmap is a one-time purchase for someone getting licensed and set up. Operator is monthly help for a business that is already running.
Can my employees use it?
Yes. You assign role training to your team from your account, and each person works through their own modules.