TradesCarpentersPricing and profit
Carpenter Business PricingYour day rate has barely moved in years. Timber, fuel, insurance and wages all have.
Pricing for carpentry business owners: how to build a charge-out rate from your real cost floor instead of copying the bloke down the road, and how to hold it when a builder pushes back on a square rate for the frame.
The week this is about
Sound Like Your Carpentry Business?
You priced it off what the last bloke charges
You set your hourly rate years ago by asking around, and you have nudged it since without ever working out what it costs to have you and a first year on site for a day. You do not know your floor, so you cannot defend your price.
The frame took eleven days, you quoted eight
Wet weather, a late truss delivery and a slab that was out took the job three days over. There was no allowance for any of it in the price, so those three days came out of your margin and you still paid the crew.
Your charge-out rate is basically your wage
You charge out a chippy at barely more than you pay one, so the ute, the tools, the insurance, the accountant and the hours you spend quoting are all funded by nothing. Every extra body on site quietly makes the business worse, not better.
Price too low for long enough and the busiest year of your life ends with a full calendar, a tired crew and nothing left in the account.
Pricing and profit
Here Is What We Do About It.
The Profitable Pricing Masterclass and the Profit & Freedom Masterclass show you how to build a rate from your own numbers: award wages under MA000020, the industry and tool allowances, overheads, downtime and the margin you actually need. Pricing training in the Learning Hub and coaching keep the new price in place.
Free tool, no sign-up
Charge-out rate calculator
Put in what labour costs you, how many hours you can actually invoice and what the business spends, and it builds the rate that covers all of it and leaves a margin. It runs in your browser and nothing you type is sent anywhere.
Work out your rateHow it works
Three Steps, Starting Tonight.
Work out what an hour really costs you
Not the wage. The wage plus the ute, the insurance, the phone, the unbilled hours and the time you spend quoting. Most owners have never put that number on paper.
Price off the number, not off the last bloke
The Profitable Pricing Masterclass takes you through building a rate that carries your overheads and a margin, so you stop pricing against whoever is cheapest this month.
Hold the price and watch what happens
The Profit and Freedom Masterclass covers the part nobody warns you about: what to do when someone pushes back, and why losing the wrong job is a win.
What changes
What Carpentry Business Pricing Actually Changes.
Three things carpentry business owners walk away able to do.
Calculate a charge-out rate that covers wages, allowances, overheads and margin
Quote a frame or a fixout with a real allowance for weather and delays
Hold your price when a builder tells you the last crew was cheaper
Questions
Carpenter Business Pricing, Answered.
How do I work out my charge-out rate as a carpenter?
Why is my charge-out rate higher than what I pay a chippy?
Should I price framing by the hour, by the day or per square?
Carpenters
The Other Ways We Help Carpenters.
Carpenter Business Training
Structured training that turns what carpenters know on the tools into a business that runs properly.
CoachingCarpenter Business Coaching
A coach who has run a trade business, in your corner, holding carpenters to the plan.
SystemsCarpenter Business Systems
The documented process that lets the work happen properly when carpenters are not standing there.
The free appCarpenter Business App
Lessons, tools and a room full of other owners, free for carpenters with an active ABN.
Marketing and leadsCarpenter Business Marketing
How carpenters get the phone ringing with the jobs worth having, not just the cheap ones.
Hiring and teamCarpenter Business Hiring
How carpenters build a crew that does it right without being watched.
Start Tonight, For Nothing.
The Crew, daily Q&A, starter courses and your complimentary coaching session. Free with an active ABN. No card, no trial clock.
Turning over $20k a month or more? Thirty minutes, one on one with a trade business coach, on what is capping the business and what to fix first.