Quoting can be one of the toughest parts of running a small business. It’s easy to lower your price to beat the competition, but that doesn’t always lead to a healthy business.A good quote should cover your time, materials, expenses, and the value you provide. The goal isn’t to get every job, it’s to get the right jobs that allow your business to grow. What’s one thing that helped you improve your quoting process?

Man, this hits home. Winning every single bid usually just means you're the cheapest option in town, not the most profitable.A few quick shifts that make a massive difference:Production Rate Templates: Moving away from "eyeballing" jobs and using set square-footage/hour rates takes the emotion out of quoting and stops under-bidding.Factoring Windshield Time: Building setup, breakdown, and drive time right into the estimate so non-billable hours don't eat your margin.Good / Better / Best Tiering: Giving clients options (like a standard wash vs. adding a sealant package) raises your average ticket without you having to hard-sell.Post-Job Costing Audits: Checking actual site hours against what was estimated. If a "2-hour job" takes 3.5 hours, the pricing template gets fixed right away.

Are You Pricing Jobs for Profit or Just to Win the Job?

4 Replies

travisshepherd
Verified Community Coach
19 days ago
Man, this hits home. Winning every single bid usually just means you're the cheapest option in town, not the most profitable.
A few quick shifts that make a massive difference:
Production Rate Templates: Moving away from "eyeballing" jobs and using set square-footage/hour rates takes the emotion out of quoting and stops under-bidding.
Factoring Windshield Time: Building setup, breakdown, and drive time right into the estimate so non-billable hours don't eat your margin.
Good / Better / Best Tiering: Giving clients options (like a standard wash vs. adding a sealant package) raises your average ticket without you having to hard-sell.
Post-Job Costing Audits: Checking actual site hours against what was estimated. If a "2-hour job" takes 3.5 hours, the pricing template gets fixed right away.
- mims01
  Contributor 5
  19 days ago
  Great points. I learned that being busy doesn't always mean being profitable. It's better to win the right jobs at the right price than every job at a discount.
roselvaggio
Verified Community Coach
17 days ago
One of the biggest changes we made was separating pricing from emotion.
Early on, I wanted every client to say yes. If someone hesitated, I’d immediately start questioning my pricing.
As we grew, we stopped pricing to “win” and started pricing to build the business we actually wanted. We know our labor targets, overhead, benefits, payroll taxes, workers’ comp, marketing costs, and profit goals. The quote has to support all of that, not just today’s sale.
Ironically, our close rate didn’t suffer nearly as much as I expected. We simply attracted clients who valued professionalism over finding the cheapest option.
The biggest lesson? A “no” isn’t always a pricing problem. Sometimes it’s just the wrong client.
- mims01
  Contributor 5
  16 days ago
  This is a mindset every business owner eventually has to develop. Pricing should reflect the value of your business, not the fear of losing a job. The right customers understand quality, reliability, and professionalism, and those are the relationships worth building.

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Are You Pricing Jobs for Profit or Just to Win the Job?