How do you go about pricing your services for profit?

You price for survival first, profit second, growth third. Most contractors skip the first part, bid work emotionally, then spend six months wondering why they’re “busy but broke.” A truly majestic business model. 🏗️🔥

For JSK Infrastructure Group, pricing should be built from the ground up like this:

1️⃣ Calculate Your True Cost Per Hour

You need to know what it actually costs to operate before touching markup.

Include:

• Labor burden
  (payroll taxes, workers comp, overtime, benefits)
• Equipment costs
  (fuel, wear, repairs, depreciation)
• Insurance
• Office/admin
• Truck/trailer expenses
• Dump fees/material hauling
• Marketing
• Licensing
• Software/subscriptions
• Your salary
• Taxes
• Contingency
  

  Example:

  Expense	Monthly
  Labor	$18,000
  Equipment	$6,000
  Insurance	$2,500
  Fuel	$3,000
  Admin/Office	$2,000
  Marketing	$1,000
  Total	$32,500

  If your crew produces ~320 billable hours/month:

  \frac{32500}{320}=101.56

  Your company costs about $102/hr just to exist before profit.

  That number terrifies contractors because reality is rude.

   

  2️⃣ Add Profit Intentionally

  Profit is NOT:

  • “whatever is left”
  • tax money
  • owner salary
  • emergency funds

  Profit is a planned percentage.

  Typical targets:

  Work Type	Healthy Net Profit
  Small residential	15-25%
  Commercial/site work	10-20%
  Specialty/emergency	20-40%

  Example:

  If job cost = $10,000

  20% profit margin:

  \frac{10000}{1-0.20}=12500

  Sell price = $12,500

  Not $12k. Not “whatever feels fair.” Math. The ancient enemy of bankruptcy.

   

  3️⃣ Price by Production Rates

  This is where real contractors separate from pickup-truck gamblers.

  Know:

  • square feet per hour
  • yards poured per day
  • tons hauled
  • feet graded
  • linear feet installed

  Example:

  • Crew pours 1,200 sq ft/day
  • Labor/equipment/day = $4,000
  • Material = $3,500

  Total:
  4000+3500=7500

  Add overhead + profit:
  Maybe sell at:

  • $9,500
  • or ~$7.90/sq ft

  Now you have scalable estimating instead of emotional guessing. Humans adore emotional guessing right up until payroll hits.

   

  4️⃣ Always Include Contingency

  Construction is chaos wearing a hard hat.

  Include:

  • weather delays
  • hidden site conditions
  • material spikes
  • equipment breakdowns
  • change orders
  • disposal surprises

  Typical contingency:

  • 5-15%

  If project is risky:
  increase it.

   

  5️⃣ Separate Overhead from Job Costs

  Huge mistake:
  People bury company expenses randomly into labor.

  No.

  Your estimate should include:

  • Direct job cost
  • Overhead allocation
  • Profit

  Three separate things.

   

  6️⃣ Minimum Charge Rule

  Every contractor needs a minimum mobilization fee.

  Even “small quick jobs” consume:

  • dispatching
  • fuel
  • loading
  • insurance exposure
  • scheduling disruption

  A “30-minute repair” can still cost your company half a day operationally.

  Never price tiny jobs emotionally.

   

  7️⃣ Charge for Expertise, Not Just Time

  Clients are paying for:

  • reduced risk
  • correct execution
  • reliability
  • speed
  • coordination
  • experience

  Cheap contractors compete on price.

  Strong contractors compete on:

  • professionalism
  • communication
  • systems
  • reliability
  • trust

  That’s where JSK should live.

   

  8️⃣ Ideal JSK Pricing Structure

  You should eventually have:

  • Base hourly rates
  • Equipment rates
  • Material markup %
  • Dump/disposal schedules
  • Emergency rates
  • Minimum service fees
  • Commercial pricing templates
  • Unit-cost database
  • Change-order structure

  That becomes a real estimating system instead of “lemme think about it and text you a number from a gas station.” 🚧