NPMCA — National Pavement Maintenance Contractors Association
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Free NPMCA course · 9 lessons

Business 100: Start Right

Free lessons on starting a pavement maintenance business: the honest math, proving demand, startup costs, paying for the start, setup, insurance and a go/no-go check.

Aerial view of a curving road and a freshly striped parking lot

Photo: Jack Taggiasco / Pexels, Pexels License

Lessons

  1. B100.1
    Should you start? The honest math of working for yourself

    7-minute read

  2. B100.2
    Start, buy or join?

    6-minute read

  3. B100.3
    Prove the demand before you buy the equipment

    4-minute read

  4. B100.4
    Startup costs: build a real budget

    6-minute read

  5. B100.5
    Paying for the start without betting the house

    5-minute read

  6. B100.6
    Set up the business: structure, EIN, licenses, permits and sales tax

    5-minute read

  7. B100.7
    Insurance before the first job

    5-minute read

  8. B100.8
    Your first season plan

    5-minute read

  9. B100.9
    Launch or wait: your go/no-go check

    4-minute read

Course final

Take the course final

Up to 20 questions from this course's lesson checks, scored when you finish. Pass with 80% to earn the course badge and a certificate of completion. Retakes are unlimited. It needs a free NPMCA account.

Go to the course final →

Course wrap-up

Your capstone Move

Build your Launch-Ready file: the checklist from lesson B100.9, with the work from each Move behind it. That means your work-choice numbers, your start, buy or join page, your prospect list and paid jobs, your startup budget with quotes, your funding plan, your setup checklist, two insurance quotes and your first-season plan. On top goes one written sentence: go, go small on the side, or wait until a date you choose. A wait with a date and a fix list completes the capstone too. Before you call it done, check that:

  • Every number in the file is your own, or marked as a guess to confirm.
  • The budget includes three months of working capital and a 10% contingency as well as the equipment.
  • The money plan uses no merchant cash advance, card cash advance or retirement money, and any loan passes all five Borrowing Rules.
  • Your prices start from your own pricing floor.
  • The people you share bills with have read your decision.

What's next

Business Finance 101: Run It Clean. It sets up the books, job costing, pricing floor, owner taxes and payroll you'll run once the business is open.

Listen next

Pave It Forward Podcast for the paving and sealcoating trade, The Wash Bros Podcast for growing past one truck, and Snow Talk with SIMA for winter work.