At a glance
A practical Ohio launch needs about $57,000
For an independent, owner-operated, mobile appliance-repair company serving Ohio households with one equipped cargo van, no storefront, and refrigeration work included, plan on $57,000 of founder cash before opening. A defensible scope range is $31,000 to $104,000. The Base model produces $26,880 monthly net service revenue, $7,694 normalized passive-basis cash operating profit, and $13,170 of working-owner pre-tax business cash benefit before debt service, maintenance capex, income taxes, and growth funding.
This is a statewide planning model in 2026 dollars, not a city quote. The canonical configuration is fixed as: independent Ohio LLC; one working owner; one vehicle; mobile-only; practical capacity of 88 completed jobs per month; core mix of diagnosis/standard repair, sealed-system refrigeration repair, and parts markup. Ohio-specific anchors include the $99 LLC filing fee, taxable repair treatment under Ohio Revised Code 5739.01, a $50 vendor-license application fee, the statewide technician wage benchmark, and Ohio fuel prices. The largest uncertainty is realized ticket and first-year job volume – not the filing fee.
Configuration fingerprint. Mobile service business; owner-operated Ohio LLC; one cargo van and no leased shop; 88-job practical monthly capacity; residential washers, dryers, refrigerators, ranges and dishwashers; 75% standard jobs, 15% sealed-system jobs, 10% diagnosis-only/other. This comparable case excludes appliance retail, warranty-network volume guarantees, employees at opening, and major HVAC installation.
Startup scope
The van, tools and runway – not licenses – consume the cash
The Typical scope assumes a reliable used cargo van purchased for cash, diagnostic meters, hand and specialty tools, refrigerant recovery equipment, a starter parts stock, dispatch and payment setup, commercial insurance deposits, and enough unrestricted reserve to absorb the ramp. Lean uses an existing suitable vehicle and a narrower tool/parts package. Premium buys a newer van, broader inventory, stronger branding and more reserve. All amounts below are modeled planning allowances except identified official fees; insurance, vehicle and tool packages require actual quotes.
| Use of funds | Lean | Typical | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vehicle purchase / setup | $3,500 | $18,000 | $38,000 |
| Tools, diagnostics, recovery gear | $5,500 | $9,000 | $14,000 |
| Technology, phone and payment setup | $1,000 | $1,800 | $3,000 |
| Formation, tax registrations and professional setup | $450 | $1,200 | $2,500 |
| Insurance deposits and training/certification | $1,550 | $3,000 | $5,500 |
| Opening parts and consumables | $2,500 | $4,500 | $8,000 |
| Launch marketing and branding | $1,500 | $3,500 | $7,000 |
| Pre-opening expense, deposits and contingency | $3,000 | $5,000 | $9,000 |
| Initial net working capital, excluding opening inventory | $2,000 | $3,000 | $5,000 |
| Opening operating-cash reserve | $10,000 | $18,000 | $32,000 |
| Total project cost / founder cash, no financing | $31,000 | $57,000 | $124,000 |
The headline Premium range is capped at $104,000 for a disciplined founder-scale launch; the table's $124,000 “fully funded Premium” shows what happens when both a newer van and a $32,000 reserve are funded at once. A founder choosing the headline Premium budget should finance or reduce roughly $20,000 of vehicle/reserve scope. If a lender commits $15,000 of vehicle financing before purchase, permanent founder equity falls to $42,000, but peak cash does not fall until the loan proceeds are actually available. A refundable deposit remains a cash use, not an expense.
Takeaway: vehicle and unrestricted reserve together consume 63.2% of the Typical cash requirement; buying tools cheaply cannot rescue an underfunded ramp.
Opening path
Certification and tax setup should precede refrigeration jobs
A mobile model avoids a retail build-out, but it does not eliminate address checks, tax registration or technical compliance. EPA rules require certification for technicians whose work can open a refrigerant circuit; the Section 608 credential does not expire. Ohio treats repair of tangible personal property as a retail sale, so tax collection and invoicing must be operational before the first taxable job.
File the LLC, obtain EIN, define service territory, confirm the business address and parking/storage rules, open banking and bookkeeping.
Complete EPA testing if refrigerant circuits will be opened; quote general liability, commercial auto, tools coverage and workers' compensation if hiring.
Inspect, title and insure the vehicle; install secure shelving; buy recovery and diagnostic gear; document calibration and safety routines.
Obtain the appropriate vendor license, set local destination tax logic, invoices, warranty terms, card processing and records.
Set supplier accounts, parts-return rules, dispatch zones, website and referral channels; test jobs for timing and gross margin.
Begin with bounded routes and appointment windows; monitor callbacks, first-time fix rate, parts lag and cash reserve before adding spend.
| Requirement | Level / status | Fee / timing | Dependency | Authority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ohio LLC articles | State; mandatory for assumed LLC | $99; processing SLA not modeled | Before banking and contracts | Secretary of State |
| EIN | Federal; generally needed | No IRS fee | Banking, payroll, tax accounts | IRS |
| Vendor license | State/county channel; mandatory for taxable retail repair | $50 application; current fee effective 2025 | Before collecting Ohio sales tax | Ohio Taxation notice |
| EPA Section 608 | Federal; conditional on refrigerant-circuit work | Provider-priced test; credential does not expire | Before covered refrigeration service | U.S. EPA |
| Workers' compensation | State; conditional on employees | Premium quote required; processing may take up to 30 days | Secure before covered payroll | Ohio BWC rule |
| Unemployment account | State; conditional on covered wages | Rate/account assignment; confirm directly | Before employer reporting | Ohio SOURCE |
| Zoning / home occupation / vehicle storage | Varies by city/county | Not statewide; local confirmation required | Confirm before signing a lease or storing parts/vehicle | Final-address planning and zoning office |
Local variation and address checks. Use Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati only as a three-jurisdiction check on whether the chosen home or commercial address permits business activity, exterior vehicle parking, inventory/refrigerant storage, signage and customer visits. Do not average these legal rules. Ask the exact municipality and county for written zoning confirmation and any occupancy, fire, signage or local income-tax registrations. This mobile Base case assumes no customer visits and no repair work performed at the home address.
Operating economics
Seventy-two completed jobs support the Base case
Revenue is built from completed jobs, not from a generic industry average. The Base month has 72 jobs at a $360 net average ticket: 54 standard jobs at $315, 11 sealed-system jobs at $610 and 7 diagnosis-only/other jobs at $235, totaling $25,375 before a modeled $1,505 of ancillary parts/priority-service revenue. Rounded presentation gives $26,880. Prices exclude sales tax collected. Ohio tax is a pass-through liability, not revenue; repair labor is not automatically exempt simply because an invoice separates parts and labor.
| Metric | Downside | Base | Upside |
|---|---|---|---|
| Completed jobs | 46 | 72 | 86 |
| Net average revenue per job | $320 | $373 | $402 |
| Revenue | $14,720 | $26,880 | $34,572 |
| Variable non-owner costs | $4,858 | $8,602 | $11,063 |
| Variable owner-replacement labor | $3,496 | $5,476 | $6,540 |
| Passive-basis contribution | $6,366 | $12,802 | $16,969 |
| Fixed costs incl. $1,150 fixed owner-replacement management | $5,108 | $5,108 | $5,758 |
| Normalized passive cash operating profit | $1,258 | $7,694 | $11,211 |
| Working-owner pre-tax business cash benefit | $5,904 | $14,320 | $18,901 |
The Base working-owner benefit in this detailed bridge is $14,320 before recurring maintenance capex. After a $650 monthly van/tool replacement reserve and $500 average net-working-capital/reserve top-up, potential owner cash is $13,170 – the KPI figure. The passive result already pays economic replacement labor for the technician/owner's direct work plus fixed administration. It is therefore a residual return on capital and business risk, not a salary. Because depreciation is not reliably modeled, the article reports normalized cash operating profit before D&A rather than EBIT or EBITDA.
The replacement-labor anchor starts with Ohio's May 2023 mean wage of $23.91 per hour / $49,740 annually for home appliance repairers reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The model uses $27.50 per productive/paid hour plus a 25% payroll burden for direct replacement labor, reflecting the need to recruit above an older statewide mean and cover employer taxes, workers' compensation, paid nonbillable time and basic benefits. That is a modeled, moderate-confidence normalization – not a published current wage quote.
Cost control
Parts, callbacks and route time decide the margin
Parts are the largest variable outlay, followed by the economic value of direct technician labor. The Base convention records card fees as variable costs rather than netting them from revenue. Fuel uses an operating allowance informed by Ohio's weekly gasoline series; regular gasoline was $3.981 per gallon for the week of August 24, 2026 in the U.S. Energy Information Administration data. The monthly allowance also includes oil, tires and route mileage, so it is not merely gallons multiplied by pump price.
| Cost | Monthly | % of revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Parts, consumables and warranty leakage | $6,450 | 24.0% |
| Card processing | $780 | 2.9% |
| Fuel and variable vehicle wear | $792 | 2.9% |
| Other job-variable expense | $580 | 2.2% |
| Commercial auto, liability and tools insurance | $650 | 2.4% |
| Dispatch, phone, software and bookkeeping | $608 | 2.3% |
| Marketing and referral spend | $1,350 | 5.0% |
| Storage/parking, professional and recurring overhead | $1,350 | 5.0% |
| Non-owner cash operating costs | $12,560 | 46.7% |
Parts margin
Track parts dollars per completed job and return credits. A five-point increase in parts/consumables costs reduces Base monthly cash by about $1,344.
First-time fix rate
Callbacks consume route slots without equivalent revenue. Flag repeat visits within 30 days and value each at technician time, fuel and lost capacity.
Route density
At 72 jobs, one extra nonbillable hour per working day can displace roughly 8 – 12 monthly jobs. Zone scheduling before buying more leads.
Debt is excluded from the operating table. If $15,000 is financed at a hypothetical 10% APR over 48 months, the payment is about $380 per month, subject to lender fees and actual credit. That payment belongs below operating profit in the cash bridge. Maintenance capex is also below operating profit: the model reserves $650 monthly for vehicle, tool and device replacement. Personal or entity income taxes are not modeled; owner cash is pre-tax.
Job economics
A Base job contributes $178 on a passive basis
The natural unit is one completed service job. On the Base mix, net revenue is $373 per job. Variable non-owner cost is $119, including parts, card fees, job-related fuel/wear and callback allowance. Variable owner-replacement labor is $76 per job, based on 2.2 paid/productive hours at the fully loaded modeled rate. Passive/economic contribution is therefore $178 per job, or 47.7%. Cash contribution before direct owner compensation is $254, or 68.1%.
Fixed overhead is deliberately excluded from contribution. It appears in the break-even numerator. The model also keeps the owner's fixed dispatch, sales and administrative replacement value – $1,150 monthly – out of unit contribution, preventing the same owner labor from being counted twice. An operator should calculate separate contribution for standard and sealed-system jobs; sealed-system work usually carries higher tickets but can also bring higher parts exposure, longer diagnosis time and refrigerant-compliance cost.
Acquisition guardrail. At $178 passive contribution per job, a $90 paid-lead/customer acquisition cost consumes roughly half of first-job contribution. Referral and repeat-business economics improve only when the customer actually returns; do not book speculative lifetime value as current profit.
Survival and return
Break-even is achievable, but the first quarter still burns cash
Cash-survival break-even uses the 68.1% cash contribution margin before owner compensation and $3,958 of fixed non-owner costs: about $5,812 monthly revenue, or 16 jobs. That keeps the operating engine alive but pays no owner labor. Sustainable working-owner break-even adds a $8,650 monthly compensation target to the numerator, producing roughly $18,500 revenue or 50 jobs. Passive-owner break-even uses the 47.7% economic contribution margin and $5,108 of fixed costs including fixed owner replacement: about $10,708 revenue or 29 jobs.
| Decision measure | Result | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Cash-survival break-even | $5,812 / 16 jobs | 68.1% margin; excludes owner pay |
| Sustainable working-owner break-even | $18,500 / 50 jobs | 68.1% margin; includes $8,650 owner target |
| Passive-owner break-even | $10,708 / 29 jobs | 47.7% margin; includes replacement labor |
| Debt-service working-owner break-even | $20,013 / 54 jobs | Adds $380 debt and $650 maintenance reserve |
| Base founder-equity payback | Month 11 | $57,000 equity; owner cash after maintenance/NWC |
| Downside payback | Not reached in 36 months | Typical scope; weak volume/ticket |
The Base monthly cash schedule starts at negative $57,000 at month 0 and ramps completed jobs through 28, 40, 50, 58, 64, 68 and 72 by month 7. Cash available to equity is negative during setup/early ramp, then rises as utilization improves. The already funded $18,000 reserve pays the modeled ramp deficit; that deficit is not counted again as a second contribution. Cumulative owner cash crosses zero in month 11. The shortcut $57,000 divided by stabilized annual owner cash would imply only 4.3 months and is misleading because it ignores ramp timing.
The opening reserve is designed to keep at least a $6,000 minimum cash floor during the Base ramp. On a simple stressed burn of $4,500 monthly, it covers four months; the actual schedule is uneven, so the business should monitor weekly cash, parts on order, card settlement delays and customer refunds. Payback is pre-tax and working-owner-based. A passive owner should use the smaller passive cash flow, which materially lengthens payback.
Ohio demand and risk
A large installed appliance base does not guarantee route density
Ohio had an estimated 11,900,510 residents in 2025 and 2.37 persons per household in 2020 – 2024, according to Census QuickFacts. That implies roughly five million household-scale demand units, but it is a proxy, not appliance-repair market revenue. Public category data do not cleanly isolate independent residential repair receipts, warranty work, parts resale and manufacturer service, so a reliable Ohio market amount is not publicly determinable from the available category data.
Price × close rate
Early warning: approved estimates / diagnostics. If average ticket falls 10% with volume unchanged, monthly revenue falls about $2,688 and most of the decline reaches contribution.
Parts × callback rate
Early warning: parts plus rework cost / revenue. A five-point cost increase removes about $1,344 of monthly cash at Base revenue.
Jobs × route hours
Early warning: completed jobs per paid day. Below 2.5 jobs/day, the owner-pay target becomes difficult without higher tickets or lower fixed burden.
Ohio's 2026 non-tipped minimum wage is $11.00 for covered employers, as shown on the state wage poster, but skilled technician recruitment should be budgeted from occupational wages, not minimum wage. Hiring a second technician is a step-cost decision: vehicle, insurance, tools, dispatch capacity and demand must increase together. The Upside case stays below the one-van 88-job capacity; any sustained demand above that threshold requires a second capacity tier and a new model.
Taxability map. Residential appliance diagnosis and repair tied to tangible personal property is treated as taxable retail activity in this model; parts are taxable and sales tax collected is excluded from revenue. Warranty reimbursements, manufacturer-authorized work, appliance sales, disposal fees and separately contracted non-repair services can have fact-dependent treatment. Confirm sourcing and local rate for each customer address with Ohio Taxation or a qualified adviser before launch.
Sources and method
What is official, derived and still quote-dependent
Research was reviewed August 27, 2026. Monetary planning inputs use 2026 USD. Official fees and rules are high-confidence only for the stated entity and activity; wages are moderate-confidence because the latest directly surfaced statewide detailed estimate is May 2023; vehicle, insurance, tools, parts, marketing, tickets and productivity are modeled planning assumptions requiring local quotes and operating tests. The statewide model uses no single city as its Base. Local examples are reserved for address validation.
| Source / publisher | Geography / period | Evidence type | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ohio Secretary of State | Ohio; current page | Official fee or rule | $99 LLC formation fee |
| Ohio Revised Code 5739.01 | Ohio; current code | Official fee or rule | Taxability of repair to tangible personal property |
| Ohio Department of Taxation | Ohio; effective Apr. 2025 | Official fee or rule | $50 vendor-license application fee |
| U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics | Ohio; May 2023 | Reported government data | Technician employment and wage anchor |
| U.S. EPA Section 608 | Federal; updated 2026 | Official fee or rule | Refrigerant certification gate |
| U.S. Energy Information Administration | Ohio; Aug. 2026 | Reported government data | Fuel-cost context |
| U.S. Census Bureau | Ohio; 2020 – 2025 | Reported government data | Household demand proxy; not market revenue |
| Ohio Job & Family Services | Ohio; current portal | Official process | Employer unemployment registration gate |
| Financial operating model | Ohio planning basis; 2026 USD | Derived calculation / modeled assumption | Tickets, mix, capacity, costs, ramp, break-even and payback |
Before committing capital, replace every modeled quote with three comparable supplier or insurer proposals, validate taxable transaction treatment, obtain written zoning confirmation for the exact operating address, and test the ticket/parts/callback model on at least 20 – 30 real jobs. That evidence will move the forecast more than refining a statewide “average.”
Planning information only; not legal, tax, insurance or investment advice. License and permit requirements are not exhaustive and can change.