Travis County · Central Texas
Business coach in Austin, Texas
My home market. High costs, high expectations, and a lot of businesses growing broke.
Austin is where I live and work, and it's the market I know down to the block. It's also the market that punishes weak pricing faster than anywhere else in Texas. Rent, wages, insurance and land costs all climbed hard, and plenty of good companies never repriced to match. They're busier than ever and thinner than ever.
The other Austin problem is customer mix. Tech money and relocation money raised what parts of this market will pay, while other parts got tighter. Owners who serve everyone end up with a price built for nobody. Pick the customer, build the offer around them, and this city pays well.
What actually drives money here.
Austin's economy is anchored by technology and semiconductors, state government and the University of Texas, healthcare, and a construction and real-estate sector that shaped the last decade of growth. Two consequences hit small businesses directly: your cost structure looks more like a coastal city than a Texas one, and your customers' expectations for responsiveness and polish are high. That combination is fatal to any business still charging what it charged before the boom.
Industries I work in around Austin
- Residential and commercial trades
- Technology and professional services
- Restaurants, bars and food concepts
- Healthcare, dental and wellness
- Construction, remodel and design-build
- Retail and consumer brands
Areas served
- Central Austin, Downtown and East Austin
- Westlake and Barton Creek
- Cedar Park and Leander
- Round Rock and Pflugerville
- Lakeway and Bee Cave
- Dripping Springs and Buda
- Kyle and San Marcos
- Georgetown and Hutto
The problems specific to Austin owners.
These aren't generic coaching topics. They're local operating patterns worth testing against the numbers in a Austin business with real revenue and real crews.
01
Your cost structure moved and your prices didn't
Commercial rent, wages, insurance and materials all moved up sharply across the Austin metro. Businesses that held prices to stay competitive quietly converted margin into volume. We rebuild pricing from actual cost of delivery — including the labor you'd have to pay to replace yourself — and set a number that funds the company.
02
Serving everyone from Westlake to Kyle with one offer
Price tolerance and service expectations swing hard across this metro. One offer for all of it means you're overqualified and underpaid on one end and outclassed on the other. Choosing the customer is the single highest-leverage move most Austin owners can make.
03
The owner is still the best employee
In a high-wage market, owners hire cheap and then absorb the difference personally. It looks like frugality; it's a growth cap and a burnout schedule. We build the pay plan and the standards that let you hire someone who can actually carry the work.
04
Permits, inspections and schedule risk in Travis County
Timeline risk is real here, and businesses that don't price it eat it. Deposits, change-order process, scheduling buffers and clear customer communication turn permitting delays from a margin event into an inconvenience.
03 · Hiring in Austin
Your labor market is the one you have, not the one you want.
Austin has one of the tightest small-business labor markets in the state because technology, construction and hospitality all bid for the same people. You will not win on wage alone against a semiconductor build or a well-funded startup. What you can win on is clarity: a defined role, real training, a visible path, and a manager who holds standards. That's what keeps good people in a market where they always have another option.
Businesses this is built for in Austin
- HVAC, plumbing, electrical and roofing companies
- Remodel, custom build and design-build firms
- Restaurants, bars and food trucks scaling up
- Med spas, dental and wellness practices
- Landscape, pool and outdoor living companies
- Professional service firms and agencies
- Auto repair and specialty shops
- Retail and local product brands
Assess. Identify. Prescribe. Execute.
I don't sell a package off a shelf. We start with a Growth Assessment of your Austin business, put numbers on what's broken, then decide what level of support the situation actually calls for.
Growth Advisory
From $2,500/mo
For owner-led Austin businesses with a solid foundation that need coaching to sharpen pricing, margins, sales and leadership. The business works — it just isn't paying you what it should.
Scale Advisory
From $4,500/mo
For owner-led businesses tangled across marketing, operations, sales and people at once — lost in the weeds and needing heavier lifting on multiple fronts at the same time.
Engagements typically run six months · Pay monthly or in full
The local detail that moves money.
What Austin's cost curve actually did to your margins
Between commercial rent on the east side, wage floors set by tech-adjacent employers, general liability and auto insurance renewals, and vehicle and equipment replacement costs, most Austin service businesses are carrying 20-35% more cost than they were five years ago while still quoting off a price list built in the old market. When I rebuild pricing here, we start from current cost-per-hour and current overhead recovery, not last year's numbers with a percentage tacked on. That one correction is usually worth more than every marketing idea combined.
Where the money actually is by submarket
Austin is not one customer base. Westlake, Barton Creek, Tarrytown and Lake Travis will pay for responsiveness, clean communication and warranty, and they judge you on the estimate experience before they judge the work. Round Rock, Pflugerville, Cedar Park and Leander are volume markets where scheduling density and route efficiency decide profitability. Downtown and East Austin commercial work pays well but carries access, parking and after-hours labor costs most owners never bill for. The right answer is to choose two of those, price each properly, and stop pretending one price list serves all of them.
Hiring against tech wages and a brutal commute
Austin owners lose good field and shop employees to slightly better pay, or to a job with fifteen fewer minutes of driving. The businesses that keep people here do three unglamorous things: publish a wage ladder so a good employee can see the next raise, run a real weekly rhythm so nobody's guessing what's expected, and train supervisors to handle problems before they become resignations. We build all three, and it is usually cheaper than the raise you were about to hand out.
Austin lead flow, and what it costs when you handle it badly
Search demand in this market is strong and expensive. Google Local Service Ads, Google Ads and organic all produce here, but Austin owners routinely pay for leads and then lose 40% of them to slow callbacks, no follow-up on unsold estimates, and no review request after the job. Before spending another dollar on ads, we fix speed to lead, quote follow-up and the review engine — the three things that make Austin advertising profitable instead of expensive.
Selling an Austin business, and what buyers pay for
Austin has active buyers for well-run service businesses, and they price on transferability, not on how hard you work. Recurring or contracted revenue, documented process, a manager who runs the day, clean books and customer concentration under control are what raise the multiple. If exit is anywhere in your five-year plan, the work to raise the number is the same work that makes the business easier to own right now.
Straight answers, no pitch.
Are you actually based in Austin?
Yes. Austin is home, my Google Business Profile is here, and Austin clients get the most in-person time — shop visits, ride-alongs, and working sessions in the room instead of over a screen.
My costs went up but I'm scared to raise prices in this market. Now what?
We start with numbers, not nerve. Once you know your true cost per job and your gross margin by service, the increase stops being a guess and becomes arithmetic you can defend to any customer who asks.
What size Austin businesses do you work with?
Established owner-led companies, generally $500K to $3M in revenue, with real customers and a real team. Growth Advisory starts at $2,500/month for businesses with a solid foundation; Scale Advisory starts at $4,500/month when the problems span marketing, ops, sales and people at once.
Run the numbers
Free tools for Austin business owners
Business Health Score
Score your business 0–100 across profit, margin, labor, cash, growth, customer risk and owner load.
Labor Cost Percentage Calculator
Total labor as a percentage of revenue, against the benchmark for your business.
Gross Margin Calculator
Revenue minus the cost of delivering it — the number that funds your entire business.
Price Increase Impact Calculator
See what a 5% increase actually does — and how many customers you can afford to lose.
Missed Lead Revenue Calculator
What unanswered calls, slow callbacks and dead follow-up cost you every year.
Cash Runway Calculator
How many months you can operate at your current burn — and what breaks first.
Let's find out what your Austin business is actually losing.
Or call (737) 888-0415