How to Run a $2M Hardscape Business with 5 People

Here's a number that surprises people: a 5-person hardscape crew can comfortably run $2M in annual revenue.

That's 2 install crews (2-3 people each), one owner/estimator, and maybe a part-time office person. No project managers. No warehouse staff. No IT department. Just people who know how to lay pavers, pour concrete, and build retaining walls.

The math works: average 40-50 install weeks per year, average job size of $15-25K, running 2-3 jobs concurrently. At 20% net margin, that's $400K in profit. Not revenue — profit.

But here's the catch: getting from $500K to $2M is where most hardscape businesses break. Not because the work dries up, but because the systems break. This guide is about building the systems that don't.

The Reality of a Small Hardscape Operation

Let's be honest about what running a small hardscape business looks like in 2025:

• You're the estimator, the project manager, the salesperson, and sometimes you're still laying pavers
• Your “CRM” is your text messages
• Your “estimating software” is an Excel spreadsheet you built 4 years ago
• Your “procurement system” is calling your supplier from the truck
• Your “accounting” is handing receipts to your bookkeeper every month
• Your “project tracking” is driving to the jobsite to see what happened

This works. At $500K, it works fine. You know every job, every client, every dollar because you're touching all of it. The problem isn't that these systems are bad — it's that they don't scale.

The 5 Systems Every Hardscape Business Needs

Whether you use software, spreadsheets, or stone tablets, you need these 5 systems working. The question is whether they work together or create work for you.

1. Estimating

Your estimate is the foundation of everything. Get it wrong and no amount of good field work saves you. A real estimating system needs:

• Up-to-date material rates (not what pavers cost 2 years ago)
• Accurate labor rates by installation type
• Waste factors by pattern and complexity
• Overhead and profit as line items, not afterthoughts
• Professional proposals that win work

Read our complete paver estimating guide →

2. Procurement

Material ordering sounds simple until you realize you're spending 3-5 hours a week on it: checking prices, calling suppliers, coordinating deliveries, tracking what arrived and what didn't. A good system lets you:

• Generate material lists directly from estimates
• Compare vendor pricing
• Place orders without phone calls
• Track delivery schedules
• Reconcile what was ordered vs. what was delivered vs. what was used

3. Field Tracking

Once work starts, you need to know what's happening without being on every jobsite. That means:

• Daily reports that take seconds, not minutes
• Photo documentation (before, during, after)
• Crew time tracking (who was where, for how long)
• Material usage tracking
• Progress against estimate (are we on budget?)

4. Accounting and Job Costing

Most small hardscape contractors know their revenue. Very few know their profit by job. Real job costing means:

• Tracking actual material cost against estimated
• Tracking actual labor hours against estimated
• Knowing your real overhead rate
• Understanding margin by job type, crew, and season
• Invoicing from completed work, not manual entry

If you don't know which jobs made money and which didn't, you can't fix your pricing.

5. Client Communication

The hardscape contractors who charge premium prices and get referrals are the ones who communicate like professionals:

• Branded proposals (not a PDF of your spreadsheet)
• Change order documentation (signed before work starts)
• Progress updates with photos
• Clear payment schedules and invoices
• Post-project documentation (warranty info, care instructions)

How Most Hardscape Contractors Actually Work Today

Be honest — does this sound familiar?

• Estimating: Excel spreadsheet, maybe a template someone shared on a forum
• Proposals: PDF generated from Excel, or worse, a text message with a number
• Procurement: Call the supplier, place the order by phone, hope it shows up on time
• Field communication: WhatsApp group chat with your crews
• Daily reports: What daily reports?
• Time tracking: The foreman tells you who was there
• Invoicing: QuickBooks, entered manually from your notebook
• Job costing: “I think we made money on that one”

This isn't a criticism. It's the reality for 90% of hardscape businesses under $1M. And it works until it doesn't.

What Breaks When You Grow from $500K to $2M

The transition from a $500K operation to a $2M operation isn't just “more of the same.” It's a fundamentally different business:

You Can't Be on Every Jobsite

At $500K, you're probably running one job at a time and you're on site most days. At $2M, you have 2-3 concurrent jobs. You physically cannot be everywhere. Without field tracking, you're blind.

Estimating Errors Multiply

At $500K, you do maybe 30-40 estimates a year. At $2M, you're doing 100+. Every shortcut in your estimating process — outdated rates, forgotten waste factors, missing overhead — happens 3x as often. A 5% estimating error across 80 jobs at $20K average is $80,000 in lost margin.

Cash Flow Gets Complex

More concurrent jobs means more material deposits, more labor payroll, and more accounts receivable to track. The contractor who ran everything from one bank account and a gut feeling now needs real financial visibility.

Communication Breaks Down

When it was you and 2 guys, everyone knew everything. With 5 people across multiple jobsites, information gets lost. “I thought you ordered the pavers” becomes a $2,000 emergency delivery upcharge. “I didn't know the client changed the layout” becomes a $3,000 rework.

You Become the Bottleneck

Every question comes to you. Every decision waits for you. Every estimate, every vendor call, every client meeting. You're working 70-hour weeks and the business still can't function without you. This is the $1M trap, and most contractors never escape it.

How Technology Bridges the Gap

The solution isn't hiring a back office. At $2M, you can't justify a full-time estimator, a procurement manager, and an office admin. But you can use tools that do 80% of what those people would do.

The key is finding tools built for your business — not downsized enterprise software. You don't need Procore. You need something that understands:

• You estimate in square feet, not CSI divisions
• Your “project team” is 3 guys and a skid steer
• Your field workers need something simpler than a spreadsheet, not more complex
• You need answers in seconds, not after a 12-week implementation

A Day in the Life: Before and After

Before: Tuesday, 6:30 AM

You're up early, checking texts. Your foreman sent 3 photos from yesterday's job — no context, just photos. A client emailed at 11 PM asking when their project starts. Your supplier left a voicemail about a price increase on travertine. You need to finish two estimates before your 10 AM site visit, but first you need to check if the material delivery for the Johnson job is on schedule, because nobody confirmed it.

You spend 45 minutes on your laptop updating your estimate spreadsheet, manually looking up current paver prices because your rates are from last quarter. You text your foreman asking about crew assignments. He responds at 8:15. You make 3 calls: supplier to confirm delivery, client to set start date, another client to follow up on an unpaid invoice. Your site visit runs long because the homeowner wants to add a fire pit. You promise to “send over updated numbers tonight.”

By 7 PM, you still haven't sent the revised estimate. You'll do it “after dinner.”

After: Tuesday, 6:30 AM (with BRIKT)

You check the crew board on your phone. Yesterday's daily report from the Harper job is there: photos tagged by area, hours logged, materials used. You're 2% under budget on labor — good.

The material delivery for the Johnson job shows confirmed for Thursday, 7 AM. No call needed.

You open the two pending estimates. Rate data is current. You build the first estimate in 12 minutes, generate a branded proposal, and email it before breakfast. Second estimate takes 15 minutes because it's a complex multi-phase project.

At the site visit, the homeowner asks about adding a fire pit. You open BRIKT on your phone, add the fire pit scope to the existing estimate, and show them the updated price on site. They approve it. You send the revised proposal from the driveway.

By 5 PM, you've sent 3 proposals, reviewed 2 job reports, and confirmed next week's material orders. Your evening is yours.

The Compounding Effect

The difference isn't any single feature. It's the compound effect of small time savings across every part of your business:

That's nearly 9 hours a week. Over a year, it's 450+ hours — the equivalent of 11 extra work weeks. That's time you can spend selling more work, being on jobsites, or having dinner with your family.

Start Where It Matters Most

You don't have to change everything at once. The single highest-impact system for most hardscape businesses is estimating. If you're estimating faster and more accurately, everything downstream improves: you win better jobs, your margins are real, and your materials are right.

Try BRIKT's free estimating engine →

No signup. No credit card. Just build an estimate and see the difference.

When you're ready to connect the rest of your operation — procurement, field tracking, job costing, invoicing — check out our plans. They start at $79/month, which is less than what most contractors spend on polymeric sand in a week.