Labor Costs and Your True Cost of Production
Problem
Your crews have gotten thinner and harder to keep, and the people who show up cost more than when you wrote last year's bids. Then the year closes and the money isn't there, because the hours you paid for and never sold weren't in any estimate.
Outcome
At the workshop, you will see why labor is inventory: you buy 40 hours a week from each employee, and every unsold hour is gone. You'll see how a $2.5 million company at an 87.8% cost of production keeps just over 2% net.
Aspire Difference
Aspire's Job Costing tool, used in coaching, is a tracking tool that shows where an estimate and the finished job came apart. Your next bid then carries the real cost of your crew.
Markup vs. Margin on ADUs, Kitchens, and Additions
Problem
You might turn a garage into an ADU one month and gut a kitchen the next, and price both at cost plus 20%. You hit your markup number and barely made any money, because one markup can't carry the risk of every kind of job.
Outcome
At the workshop, you will see why a 25% markup is only a 20% margin. We teach you practical example prices for kitchens and baths at a 32% margin, and for additions and ADUs at 25–28%.
Aspire Difference
Matrix pricing is a pricing structure that sets separate margin targets for company labor, materials, subcontractors, and change orders.
Multiple Bids and Unpaid Estimating Time
Problem
You spend a week on site visits, scope, and numbers, and the client takes your estimate to two other builders. Most homeowners have done a project like this once or never, so they compare bids side by side and pick the one in the middle. You gave away the work that should have won the job, and your price became the only thing they judged.
Outcome
At the workshop, you will see why multiple bids mean the client was never taken off the market, and why a close number at the first meeting rests on too many assumptions. You'll learn to give a range of cost, get the client's number, and build the project backwards so their selections fit it, and you'll get an example Professional Services Agreement (PSA) to use in your business.
Aspire Difference
A PSA keeps the first meeting and range of cost free, and turns developing the project into paid work you do together before the final contract. Whether the retainer is $500 or $10,000, the commitment is what matters: the client has stopped shopping.
Protecting Construction Margins in a Slow Market
Problem
Homeowners are delaying projects, shrinking scope, and collecting more bids, and a schedule that was full two years ago has gaps in it now. A busy market hid a lot of pricing and margin problems, and a slower one exposes them. When work slows, the owners carrying the most volume at thin margins feel it first.
Outcome
At the workshop, you will see how 18 jobs at a 25% margin produce the same $380,000 in gross profit as 51 jobs at 10%, on about $2.3 million less revenue. You don't need more jobs, you need more profit.
Aspire Difference
Aspire teaches owners to test every lead and estimate against one formula: job count times job size times average gross margin equals gross profit. Your Road Map uses it to show where your business stands now and what a different job mix and margin would produce.
