A general manager runs a home service business or branch and answers for all of its results: sales, service, people and profit. Every department head, from sales to the field to the office, reports to the GM, and the GM makes the calls no single department can, such as the budget, leadership hires and when to trade growth for margin.
General Manager · Any home service business · Word (.docx) · No email needed.
General Manager job description template
Free to copy. Replace the highlighted fields, delete anything you don’t offer, and set your pay range before you post.
[Company name] · [City, State]
General Manager
[Full-time / part-time] · [Base pay range and pay period] · Reports to [owner, president or chief operating officer]
Position summary
As general manager of [Company name], you'll run the business day to day and answer for its results. The sales, field and office managers report to you. You'll set the budget with [the owner], hire and coach the leadership team, and report on revenue, profit, customer reviews and safety every month.
What you’ll do
Build the annual budget and sales plan with [the owner or chief financial officer], then run the business to it month by month.
Hire the managers of [sales, service, installation or production, and the office], set their goals and coach them to reach them.
Own the profit and loss: review revenue, gross margin, labor and overhead each week, and act when a line is off plan.
Set pricing, staffing and marketing spend with the department leads so the business sells only what it can deliver well.
Report to [the owner or board] each month on results against budget, cash, customer reviews, safety and key hires.
Keep the company's licenses and insurance current, and keep its work in line with [the licensing, safety and consumer protection rules in your state].
Settle escalated complaints, warranty disputes and serious safety incidents, then fix the process that let them happen.
A typical day
Check yesterday's numbers: jobs booked, revenue completed, cancellations and cash.
Meet the department managers to clear problems that cross teams, such as sales booking more work than the field can reach.
Approve spending, overtime and price exceptions above a manager's limit.
Answer the customer complaints and reviews the managers couldn't resolve.
Spend time on job sites and sales calls to see the work and the customer firsthand.
What you need
[7+] years in management, including [3+] years leading other managers in [a home service or related business].
Has run a profit and loss statement and an annual budget, and explains the swings to an owner in plain terms.
Has hired, coached and, when needed, let go of managers.
Bachelor's degree in business, management or a related field, or equivalent experience.
Nice to have
General manager or branch manager experience in [your trade] or another home service business.
Experience with [your field service, CRM and accounting software].
Has grown a business or branch through a hiring push, a new location or a new service line.
Physical requirements
Office work at a computer and phone for much of the day, plus job site visits that involve walking, stairs and [ladders or roofs, if your work requires].
Occasional lifting up to [25] pounds, with or without reasonable accommodation.
Schedule and work environment
Works from [office location], with regular visits to job sites [and other branches].
Weekday hours of [days and times], with longer days in [peak season] and on call for serious incidents.
Pay and benefits
Base pay: [range and hourly or salary basis]. Additional pay: [overtime, bonus or incentive terms, or none].
Benefits: [health, dental, vision, retirement, paid time off, and when eligibility starts].
How to apply
Apply at [application link]. Our process is [phone interview, in-person interview, and next steps]. Contact [hiring contact] if you need an accommodation during the application process.
How the general manager role changes by industry
The general manager's job is the same in every trade: run the business and answer for its results. What changes is which departments report to the GM and which numbers the owner watches. Trades that sell and then build watch on-time completion and margin, route-based service trades watch callbacks and revenue per hour, and restaurants and hotels add licenses, inspections and owner reporting.
Directs customer service, dispatch and the office along with the field, reads financial reports to adjust plans, and covers on-call emergencies and visits to regional sites.
Leads sales, installation, customer service and project management together, tracks on-time completion and gross margin, and negotiates material pricing with suppliers.
Oversees scheduling, dispatch and quality checks, keeps the work within safety and environmental rules, and tracks employee turnover alongside callbacks.
Tracks on-time project completion and rework, runs safety and quality programs across every job, and works extended hours and on call during emergency restoration.
Owns client relationships and department budgets, inspects sites and meets clients for feedback, and serves as the main contact for both staff and clients.
Owns one restaurant's P&L, works with the executive chef on the kitchen, approves schedules against forecast covers, keeps the liquor license and health permit current, and works the floor on nights and weekends.
Builds the annual budget and capital plan for ownership, leads the department heads, keeps the hotel to brand standard, and leads the response to serious incidents.
Choose the four or five numbers you'll review with your GM every month, and set each target from last year's results.
Net profit against budget: [your target].
Revenue growth over the same month last year: [your target].
Gross margin by department: [your target].
Average customer review rating: [your target].
Turnover among managers and [technicians or crew leads]: [your target].
Safety incidents across all departments: [your target].
Before you hire a general manager
Write down the scope. Some GMs run sales, the field and the office; others run one branch while the owner keeps sales. List the departments and managers under the role, and the person it answers to.
Test the numbers, not the résumé. Hand finalists a month's profit and loss shaped like yours, with names removed and the numbers changed. Ask what they'd question first and what they'd change in their first quarter.
Ask about the managers they hired. A GM gets results through the leaders below them. Ask who they hired, who they let go and why, and how those teams did afterward.
Decide what stays with the owner. List the calls you'll keep, such as price changes, large purchases or manager hires, and put that list in the offer. A GM who doesn't know the limits either stalls or oversteps.
When applications come in, Iris interviews applicants by phone using your requirements. Your team reviews the answers and decides who to meet.
General Manager interview questions
Two of the 9 questions in our general manager interview guide, and what a strong answer sounds like.
Situational · Balancing sales and delivery
Your sales manager is beating quota, but jobs are booked out [five] weeks, cancellations are rising and the production manager wants sales to stop. What do you do this week?
A strong answer: Pulls backlog, crew capacity, cancellations by wait time and margin by job type. Meets both managers together. Changes what's sold (prices on long-wait work, booking to capacity, steering to better-margin jobs), adds crews only if the numbers hold, and ties both managers' goals to work completed.
Behavioral · Running the P&L
Take the last [two] branches, departments or businesses you ran. For each one, what did the P&L look like the month you took over, and the month you left?
A strong answer: Gives starting and ending revenue, gross margin and net profit for each, ties the change to specific actions (a price change, a manager replaced, a schedule fix), separates their effect from a good or bad market, and the exits fit the story.
In a home service company doing around $20 million a year, the GM sits between the owner and the department heads. BLS describes general and operations managers as overseeing work too varied to fit one area of management, which is why a GM's week moves between the budget, the field, sales and hiring.
How is a general manager different from an operations manager?
A GM is responsible for everything the company does, from marketing and sales to the office and the bottom line. An operations manager handles the field, meaning crews, the schedule and job quality, and in many companies sits one level below the GM. In a smaller company the owner may act as GM and hire an operations manager first.
How much does a general manager make?
BLS puts the U.S. median for general and operations managers at $105,770 a year, or $50.85 an hour, in May 2025. That figure covers every industry and company size, so check local postings for home service GMs and add the bonus you plan to pay.
Does a general manager need a degree?
BLS says top executives, the group that includes general and operations managers, typically need at least a bachelor's degree and considerable work experience. The template also accepts equivalent experience, because some home service GMs come up through the field or sales. In that case, look for a record of leading managers and running a profit and loss.
What should a general manager job description include?
The departments and managers the GM leads, the GM's own boss, the size of the business in revenue, trucks or headcount, spending authority, how the bonus works, and the real hours, including peak season and on-call duty.
Is the HireBus Role Blueprint free?
Yes. The GM template is yours to copy, and the formatted Word version is free too, with no email needed. Trade-specific versions sit in the industry list above.
HireBus Role Blueprints: 71 industry versions of the general manager job description, reviewed for publication on October 20, 2026.
BLS groups general managers with operations managers, so these figures cover both jobs in every industry, not only home service businesses. O*NET reports 3,599,000 general and operations managers employed in 2025 and projects faster than average growth (5% to 6%), with about 285,000 job openings a year, on average, from 2025 to 2035.
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