Key Person Cost Calculator

Adjust the five sliders below. Both numbers update in real time. Plug in your top inspector, lead technician, senior route supervisor, or any key person carrying the operation. The first number is what it costs to replace them. The second is what it costs you, every year, to have everything run through them.

Years of trade experience 22

How long this person has been in the trade. Years compound. Pattern recognition, building history, regulator relationships, customer trust. None of it is on day one.

3 years 40 years

Loaded annual cost of this person $95,000

Salary plus benefits plus overhead. Use 1.3x base salary if you are not sure. This is the market rate for this role.

$50K $250K

Hard decisions per week only this person can make 40

Calls that route to them. Code interpretations, customer judgment calls, edge cases, the "what do we do here" moments. The ones nobody else on the team can answer cold.

5/week 100/week

Customer relationships only this person holds 60

Accounts, buildings, jurisdictions, regulators where this person is the trusted contact. If they leave, the relationship walks with them.

0 200

Cost of one bad call $25,000

When a wrong decision happens at the limit of someone's capacity. Failed inspection, lost contract, liability, AHJ shutdown, customer churn. The visible price tag.

$2.5K $100K

Your Read

This is not a problem with your senior person. They are not the issue. The issue is that everything they know lives only with them. The business rents access to it instead of owning it.

Your Read

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