How I Found $12,500 at Lunch

Today I found $12,500 during lunchtime…

I’m Ron Ramsden, I’m a DYB coach, also a painting contractor North of Boston Massachusetts.

A couple of years ago I came to a job site at lunchtime. I had six guys working at the time.

Two of the guys went out to their truck, grabbed their lunch, came back, sat down to relax and eat their lunch.

The other four, two of them although had their lunch, they all jumped in the truck, went off to the sub-shop.

The other guys ate while the other guys went in and they eventually made it back.

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Everybody had eaten except the two guys getting the subs.

So everybody hangs around and eats and then gets back to work.

I glanced at my watch, it was a 40-minute lunch. Not a big deal I thought.

Well on Monday when I asked for their time cards for the previous week, of course, two of them had it all filled out with the job names next to it.

The other two had theirs about partially filled out and they asked each other a couple of questions.

And the other two filled it out on that spot. And it was amazing, not only did they not really remember where they worked or how many hours they worked, they all took exactly a half hour lunch.

Well, I look at it this way, two years ago our billable hourly rate was $50 an hour.

Ten minutes a day for six guys loss is an hour a day. An hour is $50.

An hour every day of the week is five days is $250 a week time 50 weeks work a year is $12,500 dollars!

We had to make a change, that’s a lot of money!

And I explained this to my guys as well…

I said I also want to make sure you guys get paid for all the time you work.

A couple of the guys who been around a long time will show up at the job site a little early, get the ladders out, start getting the job put together. And a lot of times they haven’t even put in for that.

They were just there and they just assumed that it was part of their responsibility. I want to make sure they get paid for that.

And secondly, I want to make sure if they leave for a dentist appointment early or come in later, we don’t get paid for that unless that’s a pre-arranged thing.

What we did was utilize a phone app called T-Sheets.

This app helps with time tracking as well as job costing.

So every hour work is assigned to a job even if they split their jobs halfway through the day or even three jobs or even when we are tracking production.

We can have different things like interior prep, interior wall rolling, interior ceiling rolling.

In the painting industry, we track that. That allows us to bid and estimate jobs much, much better also.

For a small investment which I usually find pays for itself the first week for the entire month with guys coming in possibly 5, we can have different things, interior prep, interior wall rolling, interior ceiling rolling.

Anyway, I’m Ron Ramsden and I’m a DYB coach, I’m also a painting contractor in Northern of Boston Massachusetts, helping guys stay out of the bucket!

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About the Author

As many of you know, my journey has been one of grit, grace, and transformation. At 19, I was a high school dropout, single father, and struggling paint contractor in Michigan. I later moved to Florida, where I faced both personal and professional hardships. With nothing left to lose, I turned to prayer—and was blessed with a relentless hunger to learn. I devoured books, attended seminars, and discovered better ways to streamline and grow my business—even through the Great Recession (and yes, I did hit the wife lottery along the way!). In 2014, I published How To Double Your Business and later sold the painting business, launching a new chapter: coaching others to grow their businesses. For the past 10 years, I’ve dedicated myself to helping business owners scale through the DYB System, while also drawing from frameworks like EOS, Scaling Up, and The Four Disciplines of Execution. Yet something was still missing—something more adaptive, integrated, and complete. Then I found Pinnacle. After months of research and interviews with other Guides, I joined Pinnacle. Their tools and strategies have exceeded every expectation. Now, as a Pinnacle Business Guide, I help leadership teams implement a custom-tailored operating system that draws from the best in the industry—but flexes with your unique business. It’s a dynamic, proven approach to achieve clarity, momentum, and lasting growth. I’m no longer taking on any more 1:1 coaching clients… Instead, I now specialize in working with visionary business owners who are ready to get their leadership teams aligned—around a clear vision, a focused strategy, and an actionable execution plan. With the tools and process I now have as a Pinnacle Business Guide, I help turn alignment into momentum, and momentum into results. If your business is growing—but your leadership team isn’t fully rowing in the same direction—let’s talk.