Scaling a restoration company isn't adding revenue, it's removing yourself as the system the revenue runs through. The whole map: find the leak, build the fix, train the team to scale.
An owner-dependent shop feels like success until you want to step back or sell. Owner-optional is the opposite, and it's the same work that lets the company scale and the thing a buyer actually pays for.
Revenue is the vanity metric. These seven KPIs, recon margin, AR aging, supplement hit rate, first-pass acceptance, cycle time, revenue per seat, and owner-dependence, tell you whether your restoration company scales or stalls.
Recovered · 60 days
$214K
Aged AR isn't a cost of doing carrier work, it's a choice. How restoration companies stop financing the delay, why DSO trend is the number that matters, and how disciplined automated follow-up recovers money you've already written off.
Enterprise value · same revenue
Buyers pay for the business, not the operator.
PE is buying restoration shops, but they pay for the business, not the operator. What actually sets your multiple, the four things a buyer checks, and why growing revenue can lower your sale price.
Where the dollar goes
52% recon margin
Margin rarely leaks in one dramatic place, it seeps across hundreds of files until a $6M shop takes home like it's doing $3M. The five places it goes, in order of cost, and the one leak under all the others.
Live · from your books
Quarter close · 15 minRecon margin
52%
AR aging
↓ 31d
Supplement
78%
First-pass
84%
Your numbers live in three places that don't talk. By the time the month-end spreadsheet exists, every decision is a post-mortem. What restoration business intelligence actually means, and why visibility changes how the team operates.
Restoration shops don’t grow linearly, they stall at five predictable ceilings, and each one breaks a different part of the business. The ceilings are real, they’re predictable, and they’re not where most owners think they are.