TradesElectriciansPricing and profit
Electrician Business PricingAward rates went up 4.75% on 1 July. Did your charge-out rate move with them?
Pricing for electrical contractors: how to build a charge-out rate from your true labour cost, mark up materials without losing the job, charge properly for call-outs and variations, and hold the margin when the builder pushes back.
The week this is about
Sound Like Your Electrical Business?
Your rate was set by what the last bloke charged
You picked an hourly figure years ago because it sounded about right for your area. It has never been built up from wages, on-costs, super, the van, the insurance, the licence or the hours you spend quoting and lodging certificates.
Wages moved and your price did not
Electrical Award rates lifted 4.75% from 1 July 2026, super moved, and the wholesaler put through another increase. Your quote template still carries last year's number, so every hour your crew works now returns less than it did.
Variations get done and never get billed
The client asks for two extra points while you are on site, you say no worries, and it never reaches the invoice. Same with the extra trip when the plasterer was not ready. You gave away a day this month and cannot name it.
Underpricing does not show up as a loss, it shows up as a busy year with nothing in the bank and no way to pay yourself what the licence is worth.
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 that covers wages, on-costs, the van and your own time, then hold it. The pricing training in the Learning Hub and your coach turn it into a price book you actually quote from.
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 Electrical Business Pricing Actually Changes.
Three things electrical business owners walk away able to do.
Build a charge-out rate from real labour cost, on-costs and overhead recovery
Set a materials markup you can defend without hiding it in the labour hours
Capture and bill every variation before the job closes out
Questions
Electrician Business Pricing, Answered.
How do I calculate my charge-out rate as an electrician?
What does an apprentice actually cost me per hour?
How do I raise my rate without losing my regular clients?
Electricians
The Other Ways We Help Electricians.
Electrician Business Training
Structured training that turns what electricians know on the tools into a business that runs properly.
CoachingElectrician Business Coaching
A coach who has run a trade business, in your corner, holding electricians to the plan.
SystemsElectrician Business Systems
The documented process that lets the work happen properly when electricians are not standing there.
The free appElectrician Business App
Lessons, tools and a room full of other owners, free for electricians with an active ABN.
Marketing and leadsElectrician Business Marketing
How electricians get the phone ringing with the jobs worth having, not just the cheap ones.
Hiring and teamElectrician Business Hiring
How electricians 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.