Lesson 61 — Understanding Overhead: The Silent Profit Killer in Dog Waste Removal Businesses

Your overhead is stealing profit every month. You may not see it, but it’s happening. Most service business owners underestimate overhead, ignore it, or lump everything into a single category. When you don’t break overhead down clearly, you have no idea where money is leaking or which expenses actually matter. And in a simple business model like dog waste removal, overhead can quietly erase profit faster than most owners realize.

Overhead is everything that isn’t directly tied to a single job. For a dog waste removal business, that includes software, routing tools, insurance, marketing, vehicle wear and tear, and even your own time. The problem is that these small expenses add up quickly. If your revenues are $3,000 per month but your overhead is $2,000, you’re not running a $3,000 business. You’re running a $1,000 business. The numbers you tell yourself matter less than the numbers that are actually happening.

Most owners look at revenue and assume things are going fine. But when you don’t track overhead by category, you can’t see which expenses are producing returns and which are dead weight. You can’t price your services correctly. You can’t forecast. You can’t grow confidently. You’re operating in the dark.

When you start tracking overhead monthly — and by category — everything becomes clearer. You see where profit is leaking. You see what you can cut. You see what you must keep. You see what needs to be built into your pricing. And most importantly, you see opportunities to increase net profit without adding more clients.

Even a ten-to-fifteen percent price increase, when supported by clean overhead tracking, can significantly increase profit without losing customers. But you can only raise prices confidently when you understand exactly where your money is going.

If you want a twenty percent net profit boost next year, start with overhead clarity. If you want help mapping out your overhead and identifying the fastest ways to increase net profit, book a call by clicking the button above.