If you don’t get excited about writing formulas in spreadsheets… good news: you don’t have to. But your business still needs the kind of clarity that only clean data can deliver.

That’s the message Shawn Van Dyke brought to our most recent episode of Builders, Budgets & Beers, and it hit home. From his engineering background to running a high-end millwork business and ultimately coaching contractors nationwide, Shawn has seen firsthand what separates businesses that scale profitably from those that scale themselves into the ground.

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And it all starts with knowing your numbers.

Building a Business (Not Just Beautiful Work)

Shawn’s career didn’t start in construction finance, but it’s where he ended up after years of hard-earned perspective. After degrees in civil and structural engineering, he moved through a series of roles: project management, real estate development, remodeling, and ultimately running operations for a growing cabinetry and millwork company.

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That last role is where the lightbulb went off.

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“I realized the product we were selling wasn’t cabinets or crown molding,” Shawn says. “We were selling labor. So we had to start tracking it… what we were charging, what we were paying, and where we were bleeding.”

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What followed was a deep dive into job costing, data systems, estimating accuracy, and operational discipline. The company grew from 6 employees to over 20 field staff. But growth wasn’t the only goal. Profitability was.

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And that’s where things got interesting.

The Sweet Spot (and How to Find Yours)

It’s a familiar trap: a business grows fast, and the owner assumes the only path forward is more: more projects, more staff, more revenue. But more doesn’t always mean better.

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“We found our sweet spot around $1.5M in revenue,” Shawn explains. “We could have chased $3M or more, but we were finally dialed in on cost control, labor margins, back-office systems. Letting that marinate was the smarter play.”

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Instead of growing top-line revenue, they focused on growing the middle: increasing labor efficiency, tightening COGS, and investing in scalable systems. When you know your true costs and margins by the hour, the crew, or even the SKU, you can make surgical adjustments without blowing up the business.

A Spreadsheet That Changed the Game

One of the most powerful stories from the episode? The moment Shawn told the company owner they were losing money on window trim installations, but making a killing on crown molding.

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“I expected him to panic,” Shawn says. “Instead, he said, ‘For the first time in the history of this company, we know where we’re making money and where we’re not.’ That changed everything.”

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Armed with that data, they adjusted their pricing, reworked estimates, and shifted their sales strategy, all because they finally had visibility into what was actually happening on the job.

You Don’t Have to Be the Numbers Person... But Someone Does

Not every builder is a spreadsheet nerd. That’s not the point. The point is: your business needs someone who is.

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“If you're not excited about finding patterns in the chaos, that's fine,” Shawn says. “But hire someone who is. Get systems, get staff, get support. Those three things don’t have to be you — but your business still needs them.”

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This message resonates hard with builders who feel stuck between the field and the office. Too often, owners try to do it all: managing the crew, selling the job, running payroll, and somehow building margin visibility into the mix. It doesn’t work.

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Shawn’s advice? Prioritize the data, assign ownership, and get the right systems in place.

Cost Codes, Commitment, and Blocking & Tackling

Cost codes might not sound sexy, but they’re the fundamentals. And just like great football teams, the best builders don’t win by running fancy plays. They win by executing the basics better than everyone else.

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“We printed the codes, laminated them, put them in trucks, job boxes everywhere,” Shawn says. “It wasn’t fancy, but it was consistent. And it worked.”

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Once the team started logging hours to the right codes, everything opened up: real-time job costing, smarter estimating, and clear visibility into which projects and scopes were profitable, and which weren’t.

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That kind of tracking might sound basic, but it’s exactly what separates the $20M builders who know their numbers from those who are just hoping their P&L tells a good story at year-end.

Growth Isn’t the Goal. Margin Is.

One of the biggest myths in construction? That if you’re not scaling, you’re dying.

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Shawn pushes back hard on that. “A lot of companies blow past their sweet spot because they don’t know their data. They think more revenue will solve their problems — when in reality, it just adds more risk.”

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In other words: If you’re doing $12M at 10% profit, you’re probably better off than running $20M at 5%. The revenue may feel exciting, but unless your systems are locked in, your risk-to-reward ratio is upside down.

Want Clean Data? Start at the Tip of the Spear.

When Adaptive talks about "field to finance," this is what we mean.

Shawn's golden rule: whoever swipes the card, tracks the cost. Don’t rely on your back office to decode mystery receipts days later. Set the expectation upfront — and train your team to own it.

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“Every cost should have a job code. If it doesn’t, it goes in the ‘I don’t know’ bucket,” he says. “And when that bucket fills up, it tells you exactly what’s broken.”

Takeaway: Make Data a Priority, Even If You’re Not the One Capturing It

Too many builders think they have to be the one managing the numbers. But the reality is: your business needs clean data more than it needs your time in Excel.

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Put someone in charge. Make the systems visible. Set the expectation that accurate, timely tracking is part of being a professional — whether it’s labor, materials, or daily logs.

Because when the data is right, the business becomes predictable. And when the business is predictable, the profit follows.

Want More from Shawn?

Follow him on Instagram @shawnvandyke, check out his book Profit First for Contractors, or learn more at shawnvandyke.com.

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For contractors who want to tighten up their back office and get real-time visibility into job costs, receipts, and margins — Adaptive helps you get there.

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