skills/cim-teardown/references/overlay-local-field-services.md

# Overlay: Local / Field Services

Use for home services, repair, installation, route-based services, field labor, local trades, and roll-ups where demand generation, dispatch, technician productivity, licenses, and owner dependence drive value.

## Table of contents
1. Decision lens
2. Driver tree
3. Mandatory denominators
4. Typical gating items
5. Kill criteria examples
6. Evidence asks
7. Owner mapping
8. External triangulation when thin
9. Red flags

## Decision lens
- Is demand repeatable, or dependent on paid leads, owner relationships, or short-term storm / emergency volume?
- Do jobs convert from calls to booked work to collected invoices at attractive contribution margin?
- Are technician, truck, license, and dispatch capacity enough to support the claimed revenue and margin?
- Does the business transfer cleanly: phone numbers, websites, reviews, licenses, crews, customer lists, brands, leases, fleet, and warranties?

## Driver tree
Default equation:

`calls/leads x booking rate x completion rate x average ticket x gross margin - lead costs - technician labor - dispatch/CSR - fleet - warranty/rework - owner replacement cost`

## Mandatory denominators
- call volume, lead volume, and lead source by period
- booked jobs, completed jobs, cancellation rate, and close rate
- average ticket and gross margin by job type
- lead cost, CAC, ROAS, and organic vs paid mix
- revenue per technician, truck, crew, or licensed operator
- utilization, overtime, callbacks, warranty/rework, and first-time-fix rate
- customer concentration and repeat/referral rate
- licenses, permits, certifications, and transferability by entity or geography
- owner/seller role, field supervisor depth, and replacement labor cost
- fleet/equipment age, maintenance, leases, and capex burden

## Typical gating items
- Revenue growth is lead-source dependent but CAC/ROAS is not shown.
- EBITDA excludes owner labor, dispatch, fleet, warranty, or callbacks.
- A roll-up is just stapled brands with no shared systems or density benefit.
- Key licenses, phone numbers, websites, reviews, or leases do not transfer in the proposed structure.
- Recent acquisitions distort TTM revenue or EBITDA and same-store performance is not visible.

## Kill criteria examples
- `hard pass`: job-level export does not reconcile to revenue, cash, or claimed EBITDA.
- `price reset`: normalized owner replacement cost, lead cost, warranty/rework, or fleet capex materially reduces EBITDA.
- `pause`: licenses, phone numbers, websites, reviews, or contracts are not transferable under the proposed structure.
- `pause`: recent acquisition contribution cannot be separated from legacy same-store performance.

## Evidence asks
- call tracking / CRM / dispatch export by date, source, job type, tech, invoice, and status
- booked and completed job export with revenue, collected cash, gross margin, and callbacks
- marketing spend and lead-source report by channel and month
- technician roster with license status, tenure, pay, productivity, and utilization
- customer master with repeat, referral, commercial/residential, and ultimate-parent mapping
- fleet/equipment list with leases, maintenance, mileage/hours, and capex needs
- acquisition bridge and pre/post-close financials for any acquired branch or brand
- license, permit, website/domain, phone number, review profile, lease, and trade-name transfer package

## Owner mapping
- operator / general manager
- dispatch or call-center lead
- marketing or lead-gen owner
- licensed field supervisor
- controller, bookkeeper, or QoE lead
- seller counsel for licenses, phone numbers, websites, leases, and asset transfer

## External triangulation when thin
- license board and permit lookups
- review density and recent review trends by brand/location
- local competition mapping and service-area coverage
- county/property records for shops, yards, or owned real estate
- storm/event context only if seller claims unusual demand was recurring

## Red flags
- High margin without job-level gross margin, callbacks, or warranty costs.
- Revenue per tech/truck is implied but no tech roster or utilization data exists.
- Paid lead growth is called organic demand.
- Seller transition is long because the owner still controls dispatch, licenses, or customer relationships.
- Acquisition timing inflates TTM without a same-store bridge.