How Much Should You Really Be Charging?
The number one question I receive is tied directly to the fact, most contractors are still guessing when it comes to pricing. Overhead. Profit. Labor rate. Trip fees. They think just because they throw a number they hear their competitors use, thats all that they need. It may work, but how and what do you divide these funds is just as important for your business health. If you don’t know how to do the math, you’re not building a business. You’re surviving check to check and think you need more work, when you do not. So here’s the plan: This Tuesday & Thursday on IG, I’m walking you through our Contractor Price Builder Worksheet FREE on instagram live. We will cover: - How to calculate your real hourly rate - The difference between markup and margin - Why profit is a non-negotiable - And how to price with confidence Join the session. Bring your numbers.Progress Payments
I’ve been running into something with Jobber that I’m curious if other contractors are struggling with too. Jobber seems mainly designed around industries like pest control or lawn maintenance — companies that don’t usually run really high line item prices or multi-stage projects off a single quote. For trades like mine (electrical contracting), projects are often big and spread out — think full home rewires, panel changes with remodels, or multi-phase installs. On those kinds of jobs, you can’t realistically bill everything upfront. We need to take progress payments as the work moves along. Here’s what I’ve been forced to do: Create a quote for the full project and get the client to approve it. Save the quote, don’t schedule it. Start the job and then build separate invoices for progress payments. The problem is that this really messes with the books. Jobber ends up showing the full approved quote plus all the separate invoices and payments. That doubles the client value and makes reporting messy. It also makes it harder to show the client a clear record of what’s been billed versus what’s left. My idea for a fix: Add a “progress payment” option to quotes/jobs/invoices — basically the same way deposits work now. On a quote or job, we could set a deposit, and then later go back in and log progress payments against the total without closing the job. That way the system would track everything cleanly, clients could pay stage-by-stage, and we wouldn’t have to hack around the software to make it work. Also while I’m at it — one other small request: on desktop we can add text-only line items to quotes, which is amazing for breaking them into sections or adding explanations. On mobile, we can’t. It would be a huge time-saver if that feature was available in the app, too. So — is anyone else having this problem with progress payments in Jobber? Would this kind of solution help your business too? – TJ Maddock Odinson Electric, LLCWhat would you charge?
Hi everyone, I’ve got a landscaping job coming up and I’m looking for some advice on pricing it fairly. The job includes: Clearing out the backyard and the side of the house (removing overgrowth, debris, smaller trees, etc.) Hauling away all the waste and debris Cleaning out the gutters I already have images and a short video of the areas ready to share for context. Link: https://imgur.com/a/OJTrye7 I’m in the Lima, Ohio area and trying to figure out a fair total charge for this job. Based on the scope, how would you suggest I price it? Should I go hourly, flat rate, or a mix? Any tips on factoring in hauling and gutter work would be really appreciated. Thanks in advance for your guidance!Setting and Achieving Revenue/Sales Goals
At the beginning of each month, I take this time check in oh how I'm doing for my quarterly goal. Since it's July, I look back at last quarter and see how I did so that I can set and crush my monthly/quarterly goals for July and Q3. I typically start by looking at my capacity, and what I already have booked out. I see how much revenue I should be able to generate if all my guys are at 95-100% capacity for the month/quarter/year. From there, I figure out my recent conversion rate, average ticket, and number of jobs completed. That way, I can see how many leads I need to source and if I need to adjust price, sales approach, etc. How are you guys setting yourselves up to hit your goals?
Best way to gain more clients?
Hello everyone! I am new to the entrepreneurial world. I recently started a lawn care and landscaping business. I am curious what have other had most success with when trying to gain more clients? Paying for ads on social media, go door to door and hand out flyers/cards? What's the best way to go about things?
Launching This Summer Looking for Tips on Hosting a Free Service Day for Veterans & Seniors
We’re getting ready to launch AquaDogs Pressure Washing this summer, and we want to kick things off with a free service day for veterans and seniors in our town. For those of you who’ve done community-focused events or local givebacks. How did you promote it, stay organized, and still make it financially sustainable in those early days? Would love any lessons learned!
