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Don’t Negotiate Your Price

By Michael Stone

Don’t let your clients dictate or negotiate the price of your work.


How to Have a Profitable Construction Business

By Michael Stone

You can’t focus on being competitive if you want to be profitable. You have to focus on profitability.


Advice for a New Contractor

By Michael Stone

Michael shares a note from a new remodeling firm, asking questions that are often asked by new business owners.


Increasing Your Markup

By Michael Stone

Like many of you, I read industry magazines to keep up on new ideas. Much of what I read is good, but a recent article titled “Strategies for Increasing Your Markup” requires a comment.


Value Your Work

By Michael Stone

Your work is vital; rather than worrying about your price, recognize and sell the value you bring to a project.


Is Cost-Plus the Solution to Underpriced Jobs?

By Michael Stone

Both fixed-price and cost-plus contracts carry risk. Is cost-plus the solution?


Should I Change My Markup If I’m Not Making Sales?

By Michael Stone

Should you change your markup method if you aren’t making sales? Don’t spend hours fiddling with numbers; invest the time in your sales skills.


How Do You Measure Success in Construction?

By Michael Stone

Our goal is to help contractors build more profitable businesses, but how do you measure success? How do you know your pricing will result in a profit?


Charging a Fair Price

By Michael Stone

You can be the most ethical person in the world and if you aren’t charging enough for your work, you stand a good chance of cheating someone else.


Cost-Plus Contracts

By Michael Stone

Why cost plus and time & material contracts should be avoided, for both contractors and building owners.


When Business Returns

By Michael Stone

At some point this health crisis will slow down and go away. When it does, there’s a good chance we’ll be doing some things differently. But some things won’t change.


Unclear Change Work Orders

By Michael Stone

Pricing changes for a change work order isn’t easy when the scope of work isn’t clear.


Let’s Discuss an Acceptable Hourly Rate . . .

By Michael Stone

This note is a painfully perfect example of why you shouldn’t provide details on your pricing.


About Your Exorbitant Markup . . .

By Michael Stone

From a contractor: “I am definitely going to do a better job in pre-selecting my clients after this one.”


Overhead Differences: New Homes and Remodeling

By Michael Stone

A construction company building both new homes and remodeling needs to calculate a separate markup for each type of work.


Taxes and Profit and Markup

By Michael Stone

Michael addresses a few different questions we’ve heard recently, primarily dealing with taxes and profit and calculating your markup.


When Success Looks Impossible

By Michael Stone

After reading our books and trying to do things right, why is he still not making any money?


Contract Language That Puts You at Risk

By Michael Stone

Over the years, I’ve seen contract language evolve, shifting more and more responsibility to general and specialty contractors.


Transparency and Partnerships

By Michael Stone

What do you do when your partner is listening to someone who knows nothing about construction, but still thinks they knows what’s best?


How to Calculate Markup

By Michael Stone

When I teach a class or webinar, sometimes I wonder if my listeners understand what I’m trying to say. After reading some of the questions that came in during a recent webinar, I realized I missed the mark.


Pricing Mistakes

By Michael Stone

Everyone, and I do mean everyone, who has ever compiled an estimate has made a math error that put knots in their stomach once it was realized.


Overhead and Profit on Change Orders

By Michael Stone

You shouldn’t sign a contract that stipulates what you can charge, even if it’s just on the change orders.


Breaking Down Price Detail

By Michael Stone

Since the end goal for both the architect and the contractor is a satisfied client, how about working together from the beginning?


Profit and Loss and Markup

By Michael Stone

When your books are set up properly, it’s easy to calculate your markup, and it’s also easy to compare your actual results to your estimates.


Lower Your Price, Gain Exposure

By Michael Stone

Should you take every opportunity to increase exposure for your business? 


Pricing Handyman and Service Work

By Michael Stone

There are two schools of thought on pricing handyman projects and service work: T&M or flat rate pricing. They both have advantages and disadvantages.


Justifying Your Price

By Michael Stone

If your lawyer believes you have to justify your pricing just because someone doesn’t want to pay their bill, it’s time to find another lawyer.


Transparency – Or Maybe Not

By Michael Stone

Is transparency the way to go when selling? Be careful who you listen to.


Markup or Margin: Be Logical

By Michael Stone

If they tell you the formula to use will make you more profit, that’s baloney. It’s the numbers you use that determines your profit.


A Minimum Price

By Michael Stone

Being profitable doesn’t mean getting rich off your clients.


Can You Be Both Competitive and Profitable?

By Michael Stone

You can be competitive, or you can be profitable. You can’t be both.


Pricing Without Plans

By Michael Stone

It’s important to remember you aren’t in business to drive around and give out numbers. If you’re a specialty contractor, you also aren’t in business to provide numbers to architects or general contractors.


I Don’t Need Any Leads!

By Michael Stone

“I have more work than I can do. I tell new leads to call me after the first of the year.”


Pricing Small Jobs

By Michael Stone

It’s hard to remember what you’re worth, especially if you’re spending time on jobs that cost you money.


Construction Allowances: What They Are, How to Use Them

By Michael Stone

A construction allowance is a dollar amount included in the contract for a particular item. There are two types of construction allowances: material and installed.


Markup Worries

By Michael Stone

Remember, you’re in business to provide a service and make a profit doing it.


Don’t Be This Contractor

By Michael Stone

Please don’t be this contractor. Please don’t be that homeowner.


Your Labor Rate and Your Markup

By Michael Stone

Using the wrong labor rate, or using someone else’s markup when you don’t know their assumptions, is one of the biggest mistakes we see and the difference can be thousands of dollars.


Adjusting Your Markup

By Michael Stone

In Markup & Profit Revisited, we explain how to calculate your markup. We’re often asked if you can adjust your markup based on the length of the job.


Hiring A Contractor: Truth vs. Myths

By Michael Stone

Some advice on hiring a contractor is just plain wrong.


When Your Client Sets the Price

By Michael Stone

When your client wants a lower price, something has to change. It shouldn’t be just your price.


Pricing Too Low

By Michael Stone

It is a fact of life that when you sell construction-related services, you’ll have clients tell you that your price is too high. Bless their hearts. They have no idea what would be a fair price for the work they want done, they just know that your price is too high.


Markup on Subs

By Michael Stone

A lot of contractors don’t believe they need to use their full markup on subcontractor quotes. Let me explain why that can be a mistake.


Another Myth: Lower Your Markup for Larger Jobs

By Michael Stone

“I am working on designing a few jobs with the job costs starting around $125,000 and up. What is your opinion on markup when the job costs are getting bigger? I want to make sure I am staying competitive.”


The Games People Play

By Michael Stone

Why would a developer ask for a cost plus quote to replace a fixed price quote? Because he wants the very same work done at a lower price.


When Should You Cut Your Markup?

By Michael Stone

As the economy slowly improves, we are being asked to revisit issues we haven’t discussed for many years. 


Markup Materials Only?

By Michael Stone

In a perfect world, estimated costs will match actual job costs. At the end of a perfect year, total job costs will equal projected job costs. It’s not a perfect world.


Race to the Bottom, or “How Low Can I Price This Job?”

By Michael Stone

Cutting your price to get a job is a money losing approach. Over time, you won’t be making a profit and you’re only working yourself into debt.


How Much Should a Contractor Charge?

By Michael Stone

Many of our website visitors aren’t contractors, they’re clients looking for help with a Cost Plus project gone wrong, or wondering if their contractor is overcharging.


Adjusting Your Markup Based on the Job

By Michael Stone

Many contractors use a variable markup or margin to price jobs. They believe that in the construction industry you have to reduce the price to get the job.


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