# Pricing Your Work For Profit



## billb (May 4, 2010)

I've known many woodworkers who have lost money because of pricing and collection mistakes. I love woodworking and when I do it for myself or my family, the time and the cost doesn't matter. But when I do work for customers, I do it to make money. Our skills have value.

To help me make certain that I covered all my costs on jobs, I created a chart. I thought it was pretty good but one of my readers, who is obviously a whiz with Excel, turned the chart into a great excel spreadsheet to help him calculate job prices. His name is Mike Stewart and he generously shared this spreadsheet with me and allowed me to share it with anyone who is interested. So, now it's just a click away for all members of LJ. Just click on the link below and download it to your computer for future use.

http://woodworking-business.com/downloads/HowMuchToCharge.xls

The yellow cells can be adjusted to your own figures and the pink cells calculate automatically when you change the yellow cells. Not only does it make calculating jobs easier but it reminds you of all the items that should be considered when pricing jobs. Please let me know how it works for you and post any questions.


----------



## kennyd (Mar 9, 2010)

Hi Bill,

That's a great tool! Thanks for sharing.


----------



## asthesawturns (Aug 23, 2009)

Bill, thanks for posting this info, also very appropriate name for this post.


----------



## interpim (Dec 6, 2008)

I know a Mike Stewart that lives in Texas and is a woodworker… he used to be in the Navy and is a very good friend.


----------



## Sawkerf (Dec 31, 2009)

That's pretty good although I could quibble over a few things. IMO, the most glaring "error" would be the actual hours worked per year that get paid for. My own experience is that it's pretty easy to "work" 200 hours per year on bids, sales, marketing, etc on jobs that don't develop. Add in another 100 hours for administrative and book keeping chores and some more time for tool and machine maintenance.

Back in my engineering management days we used a factor of 15% to account for non-billable work over the course of a year.


----------



## billb (May 4, 2010)

Excellent point Sawkerf, although I think you are a little heavy on the hours. It would probably relate directly to the complexity of the work you are doing. The main problem is that many woodworkers don't get paid at all for this time and I just wanted to be certain it was considered.

interpim, this Mike Stewart is from Illinois. At least he is now. I plan to invite him to the forum and then you can find out for certain.


----------

