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The mistake almost every solo tradesman makes: charging 40 hours of rate when only 20–25 hours are actually billable. The rest disappears into quotes, supply runs, driving and callbacks — but payroll taxes and overhead still come due.
So the rate is worked backwards: take-home you want, grossed up for taxes, plus twelve months of overhead (insurance, truck, tools, licenses), divided by real billable hours. A $60,000 target with 25 billable hours and $800 of overhead needs about $69 an hour — not $30.
That rate is the floor for every bid. Jobs below it are you paying for the privilege of working.
Keep going with these tools — they build on this calculation: Labor Cost Calculator, Restaurant Break-Even Calculator, Markup vs Margin Calculator and Restaurant Profit Margin Calculator. When your prices look right, print the menu with the Menu Maker — free templates, PDF & PNG. Want us to set the whole system up for you? Ask about concierge setup.
Twenty to twenty-five is realistic for most trades — the rest of a 40-hour week goes to quotes, supply runs, site cleanup and driving. Anyone budgeting 40 billable hours is planning to work for free half the time.
Everything that bills whether or not you worked: insurance, truck payment and fuel, tool replacement, licenses and permits, accounting, phone. Monthly it, and the calculator spreads it across your billable hours.
Materials should be passed through at cost plus a separate markup — mixing them into your labor rate makes bids hard to compare. Price the labor here, mark materials up separately on the quote.