MONEY & PRICING GUIDES
Pricing, quoting, getting paid, cash flow, job costing, bookkeeping and taxes for trade businesses, written in plain English.
Showing 20 of 20 guides
Bidding commercial jobs vs residential: what actually changes
Commercial tickets are bigger, but they come with slow pay, retainage, and someone else's spec. How bidding commercial work really differs from residential, and how to price for the wait.
Giving quotes over the phone: when it works and when it burns you
The phone rings: 'how much to...?' Give a number and maybe win the job, or lose it to the next guy who did. When phone quotes are safe, when they'll burn you, and how to quote without getting hung.
How to read a P&L statement, even if your accountant handles it
Your accountant hands you a P&L and you file it. That's a waste. Learn the five lines that matter and you'll catch a losing quarter before it sinks you.
Flat-rate vs time and materials: when to use which
Flat rate or time and materials? Most guys pick by habit and never think about it again. The two aren't interchangeable, and one fits a job the other one wrecks.
How to build a cash reserve when the margins are thin
Everybody says save for a rainy day. Nobody says how, when every dollar already has a job. A sneaky, doable plan for building a cash reserve on thin margins.
Leasing vs buying equipment: which one actually makes sense for your shop
Lease or buy? Most owners pick by which number feels smaller today, and that's how you end up broke with a garage full of stuff you're still paying for. When each one actually wins.
Year-end tax moves every trades owner should know
Your tax bill gets mostly decided in the last weeks of the year, not in April. The moves that actually cut it, and why every one of them has to happen before December 31.
How to handle change orders without losing your shirt
The extra work is where trades quietly bleed. Not the big jobs people fight over, the little yeses nobody wrote down. How to price change orders and get the okay before the wrench turns.
Should you raise your prices? How to do it without losing customers
Your costs have crept up while your prices held still. How much to raise them, how to roll it out quietly, and why the customers who leave are usually the ones worth losing.
Credit card processing fees: how to stop giving away 3%
The card fee is invisible on one job and adds up to real money over a year. Where it goes, when a surcharge makes sense, and how to steer the big jobs to a cheaper rail.
Bookkeeping for trades: what to track and what to ignore
The point of bookkeeping isn't a perfect ledger, it's knowing if you made money. The short list worth tracking, the busywork to ignore, and the habits that keep April boring.
Should you offer a senior or military discount?
A discount comes off your profit, not off fat you were carrying. When a senior or military discount pays for itself, and how to give one without bleeding margin.
How to handle collections when customers don't pay
An unpaid invoice is money you already spent. A plain-spoken playbook for getting paid without turning into a bill collector: deposits, a follow-up sequence, and when to reach for a lien or small claims.
The five numbers every trades owner should actually track
Revenue feels good. Revenue doesn't tell you whether you made any money. Five numbers do, and most trades owners track none of them. Here they are, and what to do when each one starts moving.
Deposits and progress billing, done right
Without a deposit, you're the bank. How much to ask for by job size, when progress billing actually carries you, and the small choices that decide whether the customer pays today or next week.
Job costing for trades: which jobs actually make you money
Two jobs land at the same price. One pays the bills, the other quietly drains them. Job costing is how you tell which is which: the four numbers to capture, the patterns that show up after a quarter, and what to do once you can see them.
Should you offer customer financing on big-ticket jobs?
A $9,400 quote lands different when the customer hears "$192 a month." What customer financing costs you on the dealer side, where it actually lifts close rates, and how to bring it up without sounding like a car salesman.
Cash flow for seasonal trades: making the busy months pay for the slow ones
Half the year is feast, the other half is famine, and the bills don't take a season off. How seasonal trades plan the cushion, smooth the revenue with maintenance plans and pre-pays, and what to do when November lands empty.
Getting paid faster: Stripe vs Square vs QuickBooks vs PayPal
Stripe, Square, QuickBooks, PayPal. Four ways to take a card, all priced and built differently. Where each one shines for a trade, and how to get paid faster no matter which one you pick.
How to price and quote jobs so you actually profit
Most small trades underprice and don’t know it. The hidden costs your hourly rate has to cover, why flat-rate beats time-and-materials on bigger jobs, and how quote speed wins more work than quote price.
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