How to Price a Job Without Underselling Yourself
Undercharging is just as damaging as overcharging. Here's how to price jobs properly, cover your costs, and still win the work.
Most tradespeople who struggle with money aren't struggling because they're not busy. They're struggling because they're not charging enough. It sounds obvious but it's genuinely one of the most common problems in the industry — and nobody talks about it because it feels embarrassing to admit.
The Real Cost of Underselling
When you price a job too low, you don't just miss out on margin — you attract the wrong customers, you resent the job halfway through, and you end up cutting corners or rushing because you can't afford to spend any more time on it. A cheap quote doesn't just hurt your wallet. It hurts your reputation.
And here's the thing most tradespeople haven't clocked: customers who go with the cheapest quote are often the most demanding, the slowest to pay, and the first to leave a bad review when things don't go exactly their way. Price yourself properly and you'll attract better customers.
Start With Your Actual Costs
Before you can price a job properly, you need to know what it actually costs you to work. Not just materials — everything.
- •Your van: insurance, fuel, tax, maintenance divided across working days
- •Tools: replacement and wear cost spread over their lifespan
- •Public liability insurance, Gas Safe / NICEIC registration, trade memberships
- •Your own time — including travel, quoting, admin, not just the hours on-site
- •Materials with a sensible markup for your time sourcing them and the risk of price changes
- •Contingency — every job has something unexpected
Once you know your actual day rate to break even, adding your profit margin becomes straightforward. Most tradespeople who do this calculation for the first time are shocked at how much they need to charge just to stand still.
The Materials Markup Question
This is where it gets awkward for a lot of lads. Should you mark up materials? Yes. Absolutely yes. You sourced them, you carried them, you're responsible for them being the right ones, and if something goes wrong it's your problem. A 15–25% markup on materials is standard and any customer who has a problem with that has never run a business.
How to Know if Your Day Rate Is Right
A simple gut check: if you're always fully booked with no waiting list and you're not putting money away, you're too cheap. If you're losing every third or fourth job purely on price, you might be slightly high — though consider that the jobs you're losing might not be worth having anyway.
The sweet spot is winning roughly 60–70% of your quotes. If you're winning everything you quote, put your rates up. Seriously.
Breaking It Down in the Quote
An itemised quote — one that shows labour, materials, and any other costs separately — justifies your pricing far better than a single lump sum. When a customer can see £420 for two days' labour, £1,250 for the boiler, £185 for the flue kit, they understand what they're paying for. A single number with nothing underneath it just invites haggling.
Price yourself properly and stop apologising for it. You're skilled, you're insured, you're reliable. That's worth good money and the right customers know it.
What to Say When a Customer Says You're Too Expensive
Don't fold immediately. Ask what budget they had in mind and whether there's scope to adjust the spec. Sometimes you can scope down the job. More often than not, if a customer pushes back hard on a fair price, they're not a customer you want — they'll be difficult throughout the job and slow to pay at the end.
Stand by your price. The right customers respect it.
Ready to start winning more jobs?
Clinch lets you send professional quotes in minutes — from your phone, on-site.
Try Clinch free →