Profitably Costing Jobs

There is a better way to cost your jobs.

You can only get so far with back of the napkin math. You need a simple costing process. One that gives you an in-depth understanding of all the costs of running your business. For each job.  

Adding up the big expenses and roughly estimating labour based on what you think you did last time leaves too many unknowns. I’d also bet that it isn’t doing your profit margins any good.

Costs like travel, meals and entertainment, office supplies, and employee benefits aren’t going to get covered elsewhere. You need to account for them under each job you do.

We've spent the past two years working through cost analysis’ for small trade businesses. We found that strategic costing for each job helped move the needle more than anything. It gives owners confidence in their pricing and insights into how profitable the company is at the job level. More profitable jobs mean more cash flow in your business.

Our simple-to-use Job Costing Sheet allows you to confidently quote a job in under 10 minutes. 

Before you start costing a job, ask yourself;

1. What's your ideal margin and markup for maximum profitability?
2. What’s your profit margin for the past three months?
3. Are you sharing the right details with customers in your quotes?
4. How do you handle change orders? Incorporate them or issue a new quote?

If you’re not sure, that’s okay. We can help you work through these questions.

Gain control of your bottom line and use this costing process for each job you quote. Fine-tune it for your business. You’ll know when you’re ready to graduate from it because you’ll be consistently hitting your profit goals.