TradesSolar InstallersPricing and profit

Solar Business PricingPer watt is how the customer compares you. It should never be how you price the job.

Pricing for solar business owners who are quoting against a per-watt number they did not set. This is how to build a price from your real cost per installed hour, your overhead and the margin you need, then hold it when the customer waves a cheaper quote.

A painted scene of two solar installers standing a large panel upright on a roof edge against an open sky

The week this is about

Sound Like Your Solar Business?

Your price came from a competitor, not your costs

You set your per-watt figure by looking at what the market was doing, and you have adjusted it since by feel. You do not know what an installed hour actually costs you once the van, the insurance, the accreditation, the rework and the unbillable time are in.

The rebate gets treated as your discount

The STC value comes off the quoted price, so the customer sees a number and haggles from there, and you end up funding the last cut out of your own margin. The certificates were never yours to give away, but the way you quote makes them look like it.

Variations disappear and you eat them

The switchboard needs an upgrade, the roof turns out to be two skins of tile, the network comes back with an export limit that changes the design. You do the extra work because the customer has already signed, and none of it reaches the invoice.

Underpricing does not show up as a loss, it shows up as a full diary, a tired crew and a bank balance that never moves, year after year.

A trade business owner working alone at the kitchen table late at night, laptop open and paperwork spread across the table, work boots and tool bag by the door

Pricing and profit

Here Is What We Do About It.

The Profitable Pricing Masterclass takes you through building a price from your own numbers, and the Profit & Freedom Masterclass connects that price to what you actually take home. The Learning Hub carries the pricing training, and coaching holds you to it on the next quote you send.

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 rate

How it works

Three Steps, Starting Tonight.

Step 1

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.

Step 2

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.

Step 3

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.

A small group of trade business owners in a coaching session, one of them explaining a plan at the head of the table

What changes

What Solar Installer Business Pricing Actually Changes.

Three things solar business owners walk away able to do.

Calculate your real cost per installed hour before you quote another job

Quote a variation for the switchboard or roof upgrade without flinching

Hold your price when a customer produces a cheaper per-watt quote

A trade business owner watching his child play sport on a Saturday morning, coffee in hand and phone face down
Nights and weekends back
A trade business owner and his partner in the kitchen looking at a tablet showing the numbers going up
Work that actually pays
A trade business owner shaking hands with a new apprentice in the work yard
A good hire who stays
A trade business owner standing calmly in the yard while his crew load two utes behind him
Out of the middle of everything
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Questions

Solar Business Pricing, Answered.

What should a solar business charge per watt?
Wrong question first. Per watt is a comparison unit for the buyer, not a pricing method for you. Build the job price from labour hours at true cost, materials at a considered markup, overhead recovery and margin, then check what that comes to per watt. If the market is below you, the answer is to sell better, not to cut.
How do I price battery work now the federal rebate is running?
Price the work, not the rebate. The Cheaper Home Batteries Program changes what the customer pays, and the rebate steps down over time, so a price built on it moves under you. Cost the install, the switchboard work, the compliance and the clearances properly, then show the rebate as a reduction to what they owe.
How much deposit can I ask for on a solar job?
It depends on the state, and getting it wrong is a fair trading problem, not a cash flow one. New South Wales caps residential building deposits at 10 per cent, Victoria works differently and Western Australia has its own threshold. Check your own state's rules, then design payment terms that protect you inside them.
A painted scene of a trade business owner home before dark, sitting on the tray of his ute while his son runs to meet him

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