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Action Toolkit
Playbook 08From Driveway Estimate to Defensible Number

Price a Job Without Guessing

Stop quoting from what the last guy charged. Build the price up from what the work actually costs you, then send it the same day.

What you end up holding

“Know your floor, price a real job above it, and have the estimate out before the customer has finished thinking about it.”

The workflow — 4 steps

  1. 1

    Work out the hourly rate you actually need, including the hours nobody pays for.

    Quoting, driving, invoicing and supply runs are unpaid. 60% billable is a good year for a solo operator.

    Open What Should I Charge? →
  2. 2

    Find the number of jobs a month that covers your fixed costs.

    Below this you are losing money. Knowing it changes how a slow week feels.

    Open Break-Even Calculator →
  3. 3

    Build the price up from materials, hours, drive time, overhead and margin.

    Margin is taken on the price, not marked up on the cost. A 25% markup is a 20% margin.

    Open Job Quote Calculator →
  4. 4

    Send it the same day, with what is NOT included stated plainly.

    Scope silence is the number one cause of arguments at invoice time.

    Open Job Quote Calculator →
The evidence

The First Number Sets the Range

“People make estimates by starting from an initial value that is adjusted to yield the final answer. Different starting points yield different estimates.”

— Amos Tversky & Daniel Kahneman, anchoring and adjustment

Quoting from what a competitor charges anchors you to their cost structure, not yours. Building the number up from your own materials, hours and overhead replaces a borrowed anchor with a defensible one — which is also why you can hold it when questioned.

The older idea

Know the State of Your Flocks

“Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds.”

— Proverbs 27:23

The oldest business instruction there is: count what you actually have before you trade on it. A tradesperson who does not know their true cost per hour is guessing with their own livelihood.

Go deeper on this

A playbook ends in a document. These journeys change what you can do — same subject, more of it.