GreenLine Yards, a landscaping crew, runs a 42% margin and clears a median $5,200 a month after every cost. Its worst honest month is $2,400. With $31,500 in the bank against $5,700 of monthly burn, it holds 5.5 months of runway.
The safe draw sits at or below the $5,200 median, with a written answer for how a $2,400 month gets bridged. A draw set above the median here would quietly spend the runway one month at a time.
Median of the last 6 to 8 months of profit as the ceiling; worst honest month as the floor; cash runway as the referee. The full method, including how to compute it by hand in ten minutes, is in the main pay-yourself guide, and the calculator sorts your months for you.
What is specific to landscaping and trades businesses
Your median only means something computed across the whole season cycle: a June median is a fantasy in January. Trades businesses should hold a bigger cash cushion than the four-month default, because your equipment can convert a good month into a bad one with a single hydraulic failure.