Markup and margin are not the same number, and mixing them up is how contractors quietly lose money. Enter your cost and the margin you want to keep, and this tells you the price to charge.
Enter your total job cost and the profit margin you want to keep.
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Markup is what you add on top of your cost. Margin is the slice of the final price you actually keep. They sound the same, but they are not: a 30% markup only leaves you about a 23% margin, not 30. To actually keep 30% of the sale, you have to mark up by about 43%, which is exactly what the calculator above does for you.
Price to a margin, not a markup, and price it on purpose. Decide the margin you need to cover overhead and grow, and let the math find the number to charge. Do that on every job and a busy year actually leaves money in the account.
Want the full breakdown? Read how to bid a job and still make money, or grab the free estimate template.
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