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MTAC_Plumbing's avatar
MTAC_Plumbing
Contributor 2
2 months ago

Seeking Advice: Building a Pricing Strategy and Ideal Customer Avatar for MTAC Plumbing

Hi Everyone,

This is Markus from MTAC Plumbing, based in Kitchener, Ontario.

After 2.5 years in business, I’m reaching out to fellow plumbing companies for advice and insights. As a relatively new business, we’ve been saying "yes" to all types of customers and work. We’ve worked with small general contractors on home renovations, direct service calls with homeowners, small commercial fit-outs, reworks, and even a few custom new construction homes.

One challenge I’m facing is narrowing down my ideal customer avatar. Without that focus, I’ve struggled to create a solid pricing strategy and price book tailored to specific types of work.

I’ve consumed a lot of content—coaching programs, podcasts, and even paid for some trades business coaching—but I’m constantly torn between different approaches. Should I stick to flat rate/lump sum pricing, or go with time and materials transparency? Overhead recovery is another area I need to lock down, along with deciding whether to lean into truck/service charges or a higher hourly rate with minimum-hour strategies.

Currently, my price book in Jobber feels clunky and difficult to use. It’s challenging to organize by service types (e.g., Service, Renovation, Commercial), and there’s no way to create subfolders, making navigation harder.

From my experience, homeowners in my area often see flat-rate pricing as a dealbreaker. I’ve trained our admin to explain that a plumber needs to assess the job on-site because of plumbing’s many variables. For common issues, I’m considering building out flat-rate pricing for simplicity, but most clients still want an upfront range or at least a disclosed hourly rate before scheduling.

I’m looking for advice from this community:

  • How do you structure your pricing and organize your price books?
  • Do you use flat rate, lump sum, or time and materials strategies, and how do they work for you?
  • What’s the best way to build confidence and efficiency in pricing to ramp up billables while keeping processes streamlined?

I appreciate any insights or feedback!

Best regards,
Markus
MTAC Plumbing

business advice
hitting goals
  • bedellmgmt's avatar
    bedellmgmt
    Jobber Ambassador
    2 months ago

    I've had a lot of success with time and materials and when asked for a lump sum price, it frequently ends up being inflated in my favor, compared to how time and materials pricing would have played out.  The key is to always be profitable - way too many contractors in all trades have too slim of margins, especially after years of inflation compounded.

    Narrowing down your client base is a luxury that comes with time and figuring out where the most profit can be made. Keep your "stick on the ice" and keep saying yes to the work that makes you money!!