Why the Best Construction Entrepreneurs Work Less; And Make More

The Growth Paradox: Why Letting Go of Control is the Key to Scaling Your Construction Business

Growing a construction company isn’t just about getting more jobs or hiring more people. It’s about navigating a fundamental shift in how you operate as a leader. Every construction business moves through predictable stages, and at each one, your ability to let go of control determines whether you’ll thrive or stagnate.

The $1-3 Million Stage: Chaos is Profitable

This is where most construction entrepreneurs start hitting their stride. You’re in demand, making good money, and feeling the rush of building something real. At this stage, success is often driven by the owner’s hard work, relationships, and sheer force of will.

But it’s chaotic. You’re wearing every hat—sales, project management, accounting (sort of), hiring, and sometimes even swinging a hammer. You work long hours, but your margins can be great because overhead is low, and you have direct control over almost every detail.

Many entrepreneurs stay in this stage for years because it’s familiar. You can make a good living, but it’s also a trap. Eventually, you hit a ceiling—not because of the market, but because you run out of personal bandwidth.

The $3-10 Million Stage: Growth Without Systems = No More Profit

At this stage, chaos stops being profitable. You start adding staff—maybe a project manager, an estimator, or a bookkeeper. You think hiring will reduce your stress, but instead, it creates new problems. Suddenly, things slip through the cracks. Margins tighten. Mistakes happen. You might even make less money than before.

This is the breaking point for many businesses. If you don’t put systems in place, you’ll bleed profit. The key here is organization and delegation. Without structure, your company becomes a bigger version of your old chaotic self, but now with higher expenses.

Entrepreneurs who don’t adapt get stuck here, often blaming employees for not doing things “the right way” (which usually means their way). The successful ones realize that the business needs to evolve beyond their personal control.

The $10-20 Million Stage: A Real Business

Once you cross $10 million in revenue, you’re no longer just a construction company—you’re a business that does construction. At this level, you are no longer involved in every job or decision. You have to trust your team, because even if you wanted to, you simply can’t do it all anymore.

At this level, waste is inevitable. There will be inefficiencies, mistakes, and lost dollars. And this is where most entrepreneurs struggle—because entrepreneurship (and life) is about control.

But here’s the paradox: The more you let go, the faster you grow.

The hardest thing for any founder is watching employees make mistakes that cost money. But if you never let them fail, they will never learn. If you step in every time, you create a bottleneck, and the business will never grow beyond your personal capacity.

Personal Experience: My Shift Back to a Mid-Cap Company

For the last five years, I intentionally stuck with small-cap businesses because I could leverage time for quick results. In a small company, I can use what I know about marketing and operations to increase leads and efficiencies fast, leading to bottom-line impact in just 2-3 months.

Now, as Co-CEO of Alliance Global Solutions, a last-mile fiber optic installer in Nashville, TN, with about 200 employees and $20 million in annual revenue, I’ve had to shift back to relying on a very large team. Unlike in a small company, I can’t personally fix a problem overnight. Instead, I have to trust my team, give them room to work, and focus on long-term strategy rather than immediate execution.

Luckily, my co-workers are amazing. They know their stuff. And as a side note, every one of my companies—including AGS—runs on EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System). EOS provides a common language and structure that keeps me organized across AGS, where I spend 85% of my time, and the balance of my portfolio. Without a shared system like EOS, managing multiple businesses at different stages of growth would be infinitely harder.

The Key to Scaling: Letting Go of Control (The Right Way)

1. Hire Good People (and Accept That They’re Not You)

   No one will ever run your business exactly like you do. That’s a fact. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be great at what they do. The key is finding people who are competent, reliable, and able to grow—not clones of yourself.

2.  Expect Mistakes—But Make Them Productive

   Good employees will screw up. The question is, do they learn from it? The best people will make a mistake once, own it, and never make it again. The worst will repeat the same errors and blame others. Your job is to separate the two.

3. Build Systems, Not Just People

   If your entire business relies on individuals making the right decisions without guidance, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Systems—SOPs, checklists, software, defined processes—are what make a company scalable.

4. Stop Measuring Success by How Much You Control

   Entrepreneurs often equate control with effectiveness. But in a real business, the less you have to control, the better it’s running. Success is when things operate smoothly without your constant input.

Final Thoughts: The Path to True Growth

The biggest challenge in scaling a construction business isn’t finding more work, hiring more people, or even managing cash flow—it’s letting go of control in a way that allows the business to run without being dependent on you.

The faster you embrace this, the faster your company will grow.

And the best part? When you finally reach that stage, your business becomes something even more valuable: a machine that runs whether you’re there or not.

That’s the difference between a job and a true business.