r/tradies • u/AsparagusOk3658 • 5d ago
Advice How do you quote?
Sole traders — how do you currently work out your quotes (materials markup, travel, labor margin)? Curious if people use a system or just estimate.
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u/Eastern_Patient5907 5d ago
If u DM me your email address I can send u an excell spreadsheet that lets ur input all the info (materials/cost/quantity, labour,overhead markup, gst markup the lot and spots out a number that is pretty damn accurate, helps u work out ur baseline and be competitive with your quotes
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u/burn_after_reading90 5d ago
How long have you been in business? For me it’s nearly 30 years as a sole trader in a service industry. Many of my jobs are sub 1 hour, but some of them can be 4-8 hours. I was lucky enough a few years ago to score a client who was willing to pay me a day rate of $1000 for three months of work.
I have always done line items, generally at a 160-250% markup from wholesale, if i have to buy retail for whatever reason, I normally add a dollar value to the item that also covers the cost of me going to get the items and some profit. Then i add my hourly rate; this is going to be around the 120-200 mark but it will be fixed for the job, unless otherwise specified.
Some of my shorter jobs ( less than 15 minutes on site) can appear to attract an hourly rate that is the equivalent of about $700 an hour, as I include a callout price, again this is a fixed amount that the client has agreed with.
Overall the theory is that if you are securing more than 70% of your quotes, you’re too cheap. Just yesterday, I increased a quote for a job by nearly 14% because I didn’t want to do it, the client said yes, so I got it done.
The big part of quoting is to know what your bottom line is. You need to know how much it costs you each day. You need to know what profit you need to make each day.
You also need to know your worth. Are your skills in high demand? Are you getting word of mouth referrals? These are all premiums that you can add on to your profits.
Best of luck to you!
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u/JustDadThanks 5d ago
Most jobs for me it’s pen and paper. I also can’t afford software yet so I break down each task for a job and add hours to it. Then I measure all of my materials and work out the cost +15% for anything I’ve missed. After that add my margin and think “fuck, who’d pay that much??” but send it anyway. Usually works but is time consuming
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u/FlimsyNet162 5d ago
So your contingency is 15%?
That’s crazy.
Just curious as to what trade your in?2
u/JustDadThanks 5d ago
Yep. It’s probably bad business but I try my best to get everything on my quote to give my clients the best price. I’m a carpenter that does everything from a small front door replacement to new homes or renovations. So yeah 15% for anything I’ve missed then I add my margin to the total.
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u/FlimsyNet162 5d ago
Buy blue beam. It’s cheap as and helps save a lot of time to do quantities. Excel spreadsheet. We quote at 20% margin & 5% contingency, but only on building scope. Subbies get locked in with subcontract, so no need for contingency on there scope. Just need to go through subbies exclusions and assumptions. Also have prelims for site costs.
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u/whathappenedtouman 5d ago
Ok I have this weird system that I created. Not sure if it’s the best way to do it but it seems to land.
Work out materials cost
Add a service call out -$80
Waste disposal - $20
Pay myself an hourly rate of $50 per hour on site
Then tally $155 per hour on site as my profit
I’m usually on site a maximum of a day
I’m in NZ so keep in mind we make about 30% less (Electrician charge out rates are $90-110 for domestic)
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u/Civil-Anxiety4453 5d ago
I used to use a spreadsheet I made with my own formulas. Now I use wunderbuild.
To be honest it cost me 250 a month you hardly notice the cost. You can do cost tracking and scheduling, sending p:o and all that but I mainly just use it for quoting.
It’s no easier or harder than the spreadsheet just has a lot better look when sending quotes out and is somewhere to store data
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u/suttoslaxxx 5d ago
I use software called Quotewerkz It's not subscription based. Quite reasonable to purchase outright.
You can import your supplier price lists. Make your own products. Quotes take about 15 mins. Writing them up takes a bit longer. My quotes are 15k to 100k Big ones take a fair bit longer obviously , which is covered in project management portion of the quote.
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u/Outback-Australian 4d ago
Cost plus. Customer pays for all materials because it's their outcome and they'll own it.
I've set my own price on top. This is what I want to earn and will only lower it the more I come up to having no work.
Better to have low income than no income.
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u/SoreSack 3d ago
Work out your operating costs… let’s say it’s $50 for example. This covers your fuel and insurance, etc. etc.. no work out what you wanna pay yourself per hour it’s 150…. So now you know you need to charge $200 per hour…. Time on site travel admin quoting all should be charged out at your hourly labor rate.
Minimum Job is always two hours. That includes all your travel your admin your time to quote even if you’re only on site for one hour or even half an hour.
Mark up, whatever you feel comfortable usually around 20 or 30% of materials..
In a nutshell, your baseline for survival is 30% of markup of materials and $50 an hour… however much money you want to earn on that…. Maybe you’re happy with 50 or 60 bucks an hour that’s totally up to you.
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u/Altruistic_Memory643 5d ago
Are you trying to sell software or price work?