From $250K/Month to $350K Months (And a Plan to Sell for $15M by Age 32)
How a 28-Year-Old High School Dropout Built a Multi-Million Dollar Contracting Business in 7 Months
I hope you enjoy reading this blog post.
Author: Brady Carlson | Co-Founder of Dirt2Dollars
Published Date: 21 January, 2026
Results at a Glance
$350,000 in a Single Month
First time ever hitting this revenue mark – bookkeeper called to tell him to pay off a truck
$150-250K/Month → Adding $1-1.5M This Year
Revenue jumped dramatically in just 7 months
3-5 Estimates/Week → 15-20 Estimates/Week
From comfortable referral pace to aggressive growth volume
$10K Bathroom Turned Into $300K Job
One Facebook lead turned into $100K in guaranteed profit
Hired First Estimator
Finally able to work ON the business instead of FOR the business
Bought 2 Houses Since Starting
First summer able to leave the business and actually trust it
28 Years Old, Planning $10-15M Exit by Age 32
Building a business worth selling, not just operating
The Company
Jared is 28 years old and runs a general contracting business in Austin, Texas, mainly roofing, bathrooms, additions, and remodels. He dropped out of high school at 16, started sweeping job sites, and built a business from the ground up.
When he met Dirt2Dollars, he’d been in business for five years. He had just rebranded, new website, fancy polos, expensive trucks, the whole package. And then he looked at the bill and thought, “All right, well how are we gonna pay for all this stuff?”
That’s when he realized he needed more business.
Before working with Dirt2Dollars, Jared’s marketing consisted of Instagram boosted posts (spent a couple hundred bucks, never got a return), yard signs, and the typical contractor approach. 90% of his leads were referrals. The other 10% came from flyers or someone seeing a sign on his truck.
For five years, he was comfortable. He was going to 3-5 estimates per week, almost all referrals. He was closing most of them because they already knew him or knew someone who had worked with him. It was easy. Comfortable. Not growing.
The Challenge: Comfortable But Not Scaling
Jared’s situation before Dirt2Dollars is one of the most common traps in the contracting industry. He wasn’t struggling. He was making money. He had steady work. But he was stuck at a ceiling.
“A good week for me would be going to maybe three estimates because you’re going to John’s house who’s friends with a client Peter that you’ve already worked for. So you know you’re already getting John’s job. So to me I was kind of comfortable with those three to five estimates a week and not really worried about growing my business at the time.”
For five years, Jared was the only one going on estimates. He was working for the business, not on it. He couldn’t take a vacation. He couldn’t hire an estimator. He couldn’t scale beyond what he personally could handle in a week.
And the problem wasn’t just volume. It was predictability.
“What we were lacking is the clients that didn’t know about us.”
Referrals are great. They close at high rates. But you can’t control them. You can’t turn them up when you need more work. You can’t scale them systematically. And if you’re relying on them for 90% of your leads, you’re not building a business, you’re building a hustle.
Problem vs. Solution
Before Dirt2Dollars | After 7 Months |
3-5 estimates per week | 15-20 estimates per week |
90% referrals, 10% yard signs/truck wraps | Consistent flow of Facebook leads |
$150-250K per month revenue | $350K month, adding $1-1.5M this year |
Jared going on all estimates | Hired first estimator |
Working FOR the business | Working ON the business |
Couldn’t take vacations | First summer able to leave and trust the business |
Comfortable but not growing | Planning $10-15M exit by age 32 |
Worried about slow winters | “I don’t think we’re ever going to have a hard winter again” |
Tried magazines, golf ads – nothing worked | Exclusive lead generation that actually works |
The Results: The First $350K Month
Seven months after starting with Dirt2Dollars, Jared had his first $350,000 month.
Not $350K in bids given out. $350,000 in revenue. In labor alone, clients pay for materials separately.
He didn’t even know it happened until his bookkeeper called him.
“I had a $350,000 month. It was the first month I have for my bookkeepers. It was the first month they called me. They were like, ‘Hey dude, you’re gonna need to pay off a truck.’ Yeah, it was $350,000. We don’t do that.”
Before working with Dirt2Dollars, Jared was doing $150-250K per month. Comfortable. Steady. Not spectacular.
“We were doing between $160 to $250 before we met you, would be about where we were a month. And honestly, I’m so damn busy I didn’t even know what we were doing a month until I sent them my bank statements for buying this past house. I had to send it over to my tax guys too, they had to write up something for the lender, and they’re like, ‘You had a $350,000 month.'”
His tax guys told him most of that was profit and he needed to pay off the $90,000 truck he’d just bought. Otherwise, he’d be paying too much in taxes.
That’s the kind of problem you want to have.
The $10K Bathroom That Became a $300K Job
One of the most powerful examples of how Facebook leads can turn into massive projects is the bathroom job.
A woman named Dedra opted in through a Facebook ad for a bathroom remodel. Small job. $10,000-$11,000 bathroom.
Then it turned into flooring. Then paint. Then fixing another bathroom that a different contractor had done a horrible job on.
Then she wanted to do an addition on her home.
“I have a $300,000 job starting around my birthday in October because of a bathroom. A $10,000, $11,000 bathroom turned into a $300,000 job. Just crazy.”
That $300,000 job is $100,000 in guaranteed profit.
And the best part? Dedra told Jared exactly where she found him.
“It was funny because that lady did say, ‘I’m so glad I met you on Facebook.’ It was so funny the way she said it. I was in the kitchen with her and she had a brand new remodeled kitchen from another contractor, so made me feel really good that she wanted to hire us obviously. But it was so funny that she said, ‘I’m so glad I met you off Facebook.'”
One Facebook lead. $100,000 in profit. That one job paid for almost two years of marketing.
“Let’s say I’m spending five grand with you a month. That $300,000 job, that’s $100,000 in profit guaranteed, that paid for you almost for two years. Almost for two years. And that’s not including the $35,000 that customer has already spent with me where we’ve made $10,000.”
Volume, Pipeline, and Long-Term Conversions
Jared isn’t just closing jobs immediately. He’s building a pipeline.
Some leads convert right away. Some sit in the pipeline for months before they’re ready to move forward. One roof campaign they ran back in April didn’t convert much initially. Then three months later, a lead from that campaign converted. The client wants to do more business on other projects and left a good review.
That’s how Facebook marketing works when it’s done right. You’re not just chasing immediate conversions. You’re building a pipeline of people who know who you are, have seen your work, and will come back when they’re ready.
And when you’re putting out 15-20 estimates per week instead of 3-5, the math starts to work in your favor.
“It’s pretty crazy because everybody’s like, ‘Oh winter, we’re gonna slow down.’ I had so many phone calls today I just don’t see it. I don’t see it slowing down for us because of the way we do things. It’s a numbers game. We’re showing so many numbers and we’re putting our brand in front of so many people that it’s like fishing, somebody’s bound to bite. I don’t think we’re ever going to have a hard winter again. I don’t have to worry about saving up for the winter.”
Hiring an Estimator: Working ON the Business, Not FOR It
The lead volume got so high that Jared hired his first estimator.
“We have a person starting this week. She’s kind of taking over what I’m doing with all these estimates and I’m going to start training her. That way I can go back to watching all these jobs. My whole job is basically being a project manager for the company, and I’m not able to do much project managing right now because I’m so busy with the amount of leads that are coming in. So we’re going to hire somebody to take that over, and we wouldn’t have done that before obviously.”
This is the shift from working for the business to working on the business. For five years, Jared was the only one going on estimates. Now he’s hiring someone to do that so he can focus on managing projects, growing the company, and building something worth selling.
“Yeah, and honestly, probably the first summer I’ve actually, every time you call me I’m on vacation, it’s the first summer I’ve been able to leave my business and actually kind of trust it. So yeah, it’s been good.”
That’s freedom. And it only became possible when the lead flow was consistent and predictable enough to support hiring help.
The ROI Reality: Spending $5K, Adding $1.5M
Jared spends $2,000 per month with Dirt2Dollars for lead calling and appointment setting, plus about $100 per day in ad spend (roughly $3,000/month). Total: $5,000 per month.
And he’s adding $1-1.5 million in revenue this year because of it.
“I think we’re going to add between $1 and $1.5 million because of you. And it could be more than that, we’ll see. Especially because that $300,000 one’s going to land within this past year, so it might be more like $1.5 to $2 million.”
When asked how long someone should expect before they see a profitable return on their marketing investment, Jared didn’t hesitate.
“You should see returns immediately. Immediately. Yeah. I mean if you’re a decent salesperson and it’s a numbers game, you’re going to shell out at least 15 estimates in the first month, if not more. If you can’t get one job out of those 15, then it’s not a marketing problem.”
He’s closing more than one job out of 15. He’s closing enough that he’s going from $150-250K months to $350K months. Enough that he’s hiring estimators. Enough that he’s buying houses and planning to sell the business for $10-15 million.
Previous Marketing Attempts Didn’t Work
Before Dirt2Dollars, Jared tried everything.
Magazines. Golf course advertising. Instagram boosted posts. Yard signs. Truck wraps.
“I’m in magazines. I got these things everywhere. Yeah, I don’t think anybody’s ever called me from a magazine. I did a lot of golf course advertising, don’t do advertising just because you like the sport. It just doesn’t work. Nobody gives a shit. Everybody’s golfing, they’re drinking beer, and they’re not looking at the scorecard going, ‘Oh, I want to call this guy to remodel my house.'”
None of it worked. And he tried it all.
“I did this thing and I gave everybody a shot. And I probably can’t name names or we’ll get sued, but it didn’t work for most of them. Or it would work a little bit and you’re just kind of like, ‘Should I be in or out?’ But with you, it just works. And I mean, I wouldn’t be paying you $2,000 a month if it didn’t work.”
We hear this all too often. Most contractors have tried something. Most of it didn’t work. And when you find something that does work, the ROI speaks for itself.
The Partnership Difference: Calling Leads and Feedback Loops
One of the biggest differentiators Jared highlighted is that Dirt2Dollars calls his leads and books appointments for him.
“I really don’t like even setting the appointments for myself. Just talking to somebody is just kind of annoying because I’m in the middle of something always when somebody calls. Somebody’s got to come to me and they’re like, ‘Hey, this person wants to talk to you about the project,’ and they want to talk to me and they’re like, ‘Oh, you want to do this garage addition, how much is that going to cost?’ I’m like, ‘I have no idea. I have to literally go out there. Sometimes we have to bring trades out there to know.'”
He hated doing it. So having a team that calls the leads, warms them up, vets them, and books qualified appointments directly to his calendar is a game-changer.
But the other piece that Jared emphasized is the feedback loop.
“My advice to anybody wanting to work with you would be to really let you know: ‘Hey, these are the clients I want. This is the area I want to work in.’ Because you can do it, and it’s proven results for me. The more feedback I give you, the better estimates I’m going to get. If I don’t give you any feedback, then there’s just no way for you to know that I didn’t want to go to that one city or down south. So I gave you feedback, now I’m not going down there, now I’m going up north and I’m landing jobs up north.”
The targeting got better because he gave feedback. The lead quality improved because he told the team what he wanted and what he didn’t want. That’s how the system improves over time.
“If you’re sending people into an area where they don’t want to work, we’re not going to do a good job during the estimate and we’re just going to waste our time during the day. So I think you constantly asking for feedback is great because I gave you the feedback and then you narrowed down the search area to where I do want to go to those estimates. I’m excited to go to those estimates, and I’m excited that if we get the job, I know for a fact my guys can get to that job no problem.”
What This Means for Other Contractors
Referrals Are Great, But They Don’t Scale
Jared was doing fine on referrals. 90% of his leads. High close rates. Comfortable income. But he couldn’t scale. He couldn’t hire. He couldn’t take vacations. He couldn’t plan an exit. Referrals keep you busy. They don’t build a business worth selling.
Volume Solves Most Problems
When you go from 3-5 estimates per week to 15-20, the math changes. You don’t need to close every job. You just need to close enough. And when enough is 3-5 jobs per week instead of 3-5 jobs total, you can hire people, buy equipment, and grow systematically.
Immediate ROI Is Possible
Jared’s advice: “You should see returns immediately.” If you’re going out on 15 estimates in the first month and can’t close one job, it’s not a marketing problem, it’s a sales problem. When the leads are qualified and the volume is there, results come fast.
One Big Job Can Pay for Years of Marketing
The $10K bathroom that turned into a $300K job with $100K in profit paid for almost two years of marketing. That’s the kind of ROI that changes a business’s trajectory. You don’t need every lead to turn into a $300K job. You just need one or two per year.
The Exit Becomes Realistic
Jared is 28 years old. He’s planning to sell the business for $10-15 million by age 32 or 33. That exit strategy only works because the business doesn’t depend on his going on every estimate. He’s building systems, hiring people, and creating a company that runs without him. That’s what makes it sellable.
The First Summer You Can Actually Leave
For five years, Jared couldn’t leave his business. Now he’s on vacation every time Eli calls. That freedom doesn’t come from working harder. It comes from having a predictable lead generation system that keeps the business running when you’re not there.
The Bottom Line
Jared’s story demonstrates what happens when a contractor commits to scaling beyond referrals and builds a predictable lead generation system.
He went from $150-250K per month to a $350K month in seven months. He’s adding $1-1.5 million in revenue this year. He hired his first estimator so he could work on the business instead of for it. He bought two houses. He’s taking a vacation for the first time in 5 years. And he’s on track to sell the business for $10-15 million by age 32.
This isn’t a story about getting lucky with one big job. Jared is doing 15-20 estimates per week. He’s building a pipeline. He’s closing jobs immediately and closing jobs months after they first opted in. He’s spending $5,000 per month and getting $100,000 in profit from a single bathroom that turned into an addition.
As he puts it: “I wouldn’t be paying you $2,000 a month if it didn’t work. Everybody’s gonna be skeptical at the beginning, and if you are skeptical, it’s just something that I think everybody should try it out.”
When the ROI is $100,000 in profit from a single job, the skepticism goes away. When you’re doing $350,000 months for the first time ever, you stop questioning whether it works. And when you’re planning a $10-15 million exit by age 32, you realize the investment was the best decision you made.
Jared isn’t hoping this works out over time. He already knows it’s working. And he’s already planning what comes next.
Ready to Build a Business Worth Selling?
If you’re stuck in the referral trap with an unpredictable calendar and ready to build a systematic lead-generation system that scales, Jared’s story shows what’s possible in 7 months.
Book a call with our team to see if we’re a good fit to help you add $1-1.5 million to your business this year.
