Case Study: How We Helped a Remodeler Stop Working for Free and Build a $1M Business
Rise Up Renovations, a remodeler in Lee's Summit, MO
In early 2024, Nic Juncos was the definition of a “talented but trapped” contractor.
He was a lead carpenter who had spent years honing his craft at one of Kansas City’s top firms. But since striking out on his own in 2021, he’d hit an invisible ceiling.
On paper, he was bringing in about $225,000 in revenue. But the reality was different: his net profit was zero.
Nic was caught in the classic one-man-army loop. He was the salesman, tiler, dry-waller, and project manager all at once. He spent his nights geeking out on his Wix site and writing blog posts, thinking that was the path to growth.
But he wasn’t building the systems or the team needed to scale.
He was paying for marketing that yielded no results and running Facebook ads that resulted in zero ROI. He was just another guy doing bathroom remodels in a bloodbath of a market.
He knew he had the skills to build an empire, but he was too swamped holding the hammer.
This is the story of how Nic stopped being the busiest employee and finally became the CEO of his own business.
Turning Point #1: Escaping the Commodity Trap
When we first sat down with Nic, he was suffering from a common contractor ailment: he was a commodity bidder.
If you’re just “the guy who does bathrooms” in a competitive market like Kansas City, you’re essentially a gallon of milk. People just look for the best price.
The first step was fixing his identity. That meant rebuilding almost everything from the ground up.
The Shift: Finding the Brand’s Soul
We started by scrapping the generic corporate speak he had drafted for his mission statement. Then, we encouraged Nic to define values that truly resonate with his soul.
He landed on two pillars that changed everything, from:
- Extreme Ownership: This transformed his brand from “I’ll try my best” to “I am responsible for everything.”
- Unwavering Transparency: He committed to a culture of open communication where the client is never left wondering what’s happening and why.
These weren’t just words for the “About” page. They became the brief for an entirely new website.
The Rebuild: A Digital Presence Worth the Price Tag
We rebuilt Rise Up Renovations’ website from scratch.
The new site was designed to do one job: make a high-end homeowner feel like they’d found their people the moment they landed on it.
Every design choice from the copy, galleries, and the way the brand values were woven into every page was built to communicate trust and quality.
Rise Up Renovations’ website stopped looking like “just another contractor’s website” and started looking like a true design-build firm.
The Outcome: Pricing Power
The new website changed the way potential customers perceived Rise Up Renovations before any conversation even began.
When Nic started telling clients, “My price is higher because I take extreme ownership of your home,” it landed. His website became a shield against price shoppers.
He stopped begging for jobs and became a consultant who chose his own clients.
Homeowners don’t actually want the cheapest price. They want the lowest risk. By defining his brand’s soul and building a website worthy of it, Nic gave clients a reason to pay a premium for peace of mind.
Turning Point #2: Planting the Flag
Nic knew that a high-end identity required a high-end environment. You can’t sell luxury design-build services in a rural zip code that doesn’t match your target client’s lifestyle.
In early 2024, Nic made a strategic power move. He moved his business address from Archie to a flagship office in the heart of Downtown Lee’s Summit.
The Strategy: Geography as Authority
When Nic moved his business to Lee’s Summit, it sent a clear message to the community: he wasn’t a contractor who was just passing through. He was a local.
We backed this physical move with a digital blitz. We anchored his local SEO to the specific neighborhoods where his top-class clients lived: places like Blue Springs, Greenwood, and Leawood.
The Outcome: Dominating the Google Map Pack
Within months, Rise Up Renovations secured the #1 ranking in the Google Map Pack for its most profitable services:
- Kitchen Remodeling: #1 in Lee’s Summit.
- Bathroom Remodeling: #1 across multiple high-intent local searches.
- Authority: He outranked national directories like Yelp and Houzz, and beat out local competitors who had been in business for over 50 years.
To stop bidding against low-ballers, you have to move to the neighborhoods where quality and trust are valued.
Your physical and digital address must reflect the business you want to be, not the business you used to be.
Turning Point #3: The “Gas Pedal” Product
In the remodeling world, custom design-build projects are the dream, but they can also be a nightmare.
They take months to plan and weeks to bid. One delayed subcontractor can choke your cash flow for weeks. Nic needed a way to keep the engine running between massive projects.
The Innovation: The 5-Day Kitchen Refresh
To solve this, we helped Nic launch the 5-Day Kitchen Refresh product.
Unlike a full remodel that involves gutting the space and moving plumbing, the Refresh focused on high-impact visual changes: luxurious stone countertops, a chic tile backsplash, and modern lighting for a fixed price starting at $15,000.
The Outcome: Predictability and Cash Flow
This new product wasn’t just a budget option. It was a strategic foot on the gas pedal.
- Fast Turnaround: These jobs went from contract to completion in a week.
- Easy Conversion: It was an irresistible offer, the kind homeowners could understand instantly. These jobs went so smoothly that they fundamentally changed the way Nic offered services to clients.
- The Schedule-Filler: Whenever jobs start drying up, Nic could push the Refresh angle to fill the gaps in his calendar with high-margin, low-stress work.
Every contractor needs a no-brainer offer: a version of your service that is easy to sell and deliver on. If you only sell complex, custom projects, your bank account will always be at the mercy of a long sales cycle.
By building a cash flow floor with the Kitchen Refresh, Nic gained the breathing room to pursue the $65,000+ custom jobs without stress.
Turning Point #4: Finally Coming Up for Air
By mid-2025, our marketing systems were working so effectively that they created a new crisis: Nic was drowning in leads.
He was still trying to be the lead carpenter and the CEO at the same time, which meant he was ripping up thousand-dollar bills every day.
The Crisis: Stifled by Success
Leads were the oxygen of the business, but Nic didn’t have enough lungs to breathe them in.
He spent all day swinging a hammer at job sites, then coming home to a mountain of follow-ups and unwritten estimates.
One time, six high-quality leads lingered for over a week. Not because Nic didn’t care, he was just simply buried in work. By the time he came up for air, those homeowners had already moved on to competitors.
Nic realized that “too many leads” is only a good problem if you have the team to handle them.
The Breakthrough: Hiring for the Bottleneck
Instead of turning off marketing (which is the death spiral move most contractors make), Nic chose to build a leadership team. He made two critical hires to reclaim his time:
- Front of House: He brought on his wife, Janelle, as an Administrative Assistant. She took over the phone calls, follow-ups, and scheduling. This ensured that every lead hears a friendly voice within minutes of reaching out.
- Back of House: He hired a dedicated Project Manager to take over the day-to-day production in the field.
The Outcome: Freed to Lead
Once Janelle and the PM were in place, things finally started moving the way they should.
For the first time, Nic could actually focus on sales and on steering the business.
If you find yourself ignoring leads because you’re too busy working, the answer is simple: you need more people on your team.
The work will always fill your day if you let it. The only way out is to start handing things off so you can spend your precious time on what actually makes a dent.
Turning Point #5: Putting Money to Work
Before joining Contracting Empire, Nic was already running Facebook ads. He barely got anything back.
The ads weren’t the problem. It was everything else. You can’t run ads with zero online presence and expect miracles.
Now, with a strong brand, website, and Google presence, paid advertising finally had something solid to land on.
The Strategy: The Right Ads, in the Right Place
We launched two campaigns targeting his most profitable services:
- Google Ads for Kitchen Remodeling
- Facebook Ads for both Bathroom and Kitchen Remodeling
Each campaign was designed to reach homeowners already in buying mode.
The Outcome: $23,541 Spent. $138,062 Back.
Google Ads alone delivered a 9x return on ad spend.
At $228 per lead, 67 serious kitchen remodeling prospects came through the door directly from Google, generating $138,062 in tracked revenue.
Facebook brought in an additional 39 leads at $213 a pop, keeping the pipeline full across both bathrooms and kitchens.
Across both platforms, Rise Up Renovations generated 106 leads for $23,541.
That’s an average cost of $222 per lead, in a market where a single job is worth at least $15,000.
To sum up: ads aren’t a magic button. Nic already knew that firsthand.
But once your brand is credible and your website converts, paid advertising stops being a gamble and starts being a lever.
Conclusion: The Million-Dollar Reality
Nic Juncos entered 2026 after shattering the invisible ceiling that keeps most talented contractors stuck at the “profitable hobby” level.
After starting with a zero net profit, he closed 2025 with over $1,000,000 in revenue.
But the most impressive part isn’t that total number. It’s the consistency. Aside from the early winter months, Nic achieved a predictable revenue of over $50,000 every month.
Oh, and he bought himself a 2023 Chevy Silverado HD. A sweet reward after a big year, and a reminder that even the most driven contractors are allowed to enjoy the ride.
The Scoreboard for 2026
For Nic, riding the momentum isn’t enough. Efficiency is key. While many contractors chase raw growth until they burn out, Nic is focused on long-term profitability:
- Targeting 15-18% Net Profit: Moving away from the "work for free" trap of his early days.
- Replacing Himself in the Field: The next critical hire is a field lead. Someone better than Nic in the field, so he never has to be there again.
- The "Owner" Life: With a PM, an office manager, and a field lead on the horizon, Nic is assembling the team that lets him focus on the six $65,000+ design-build jobs currently on his board.
- Market Dominance: Rise Up Renovations now holds the #1 spot in the Google Map Pack for its most profitable services, outranking competitors with 50 more years of tenure.
The Final Lesson
Success for Nic was about the courage to stop holding the hammer.
By investing in his values, location, team, and time, he built a moat around his business that no local competitor can easily cross.
Sick of being buried in the field?
Your next chapter starts here.
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