Blog & guides

Practical reads for real jobs — not corporate “streamline your operations” nonsense. Same positioning as the rest of the site: built by a tradesman, low admin, mobile-first.

• How to price tiling jobs without eating your profit

  Tiling looks like simple m² maths until you price herringbone on a bad floor with tight cuts. This guide covers the full structure: true net area, waste percentages, prep, trims, labour time, and how to present the price so customers say yes rather than arguing over details.

• How electricians quote jobs (without drowning the customer)

  Electrical quotes balance clarity and detail: enough to be professional, not so much that the customer freezes or starts asking which RCBO is which. The structure is: packages for boards and contained work, line items for points and circuits, and plain-English outcomes the customer actually cares about.

• How to calculate material markup (without feeling greedy)

  Markup is not profit by another name -- it covers picking, returning wrong items, van stock, breakages and price rises. If you pass materials through at trade net with no margin, you are subsidising the merchant's business with your time. This guide explains how to calculate it, how to apply it consistently, and how to handle it on customer quotes.

• What to charge per day -- build a day rate that survives reality

  Day rate is not 'what my mate gets'. It is: fixed costs + desired wage + risk + holiday + sick + training + tools + van + quiet weeks. The tradesmen who name a number without doing this maths are often the busiest and the most stressed. If you skip the calculation, you are busy and broke.

• How tradesmen lose money -- the boring leaks that add up

  Most losses are not one disaster job -- they are 50 small cuts: free 'while you are here', materials at net, late invoices, and quotes that forget access time. A tradesman turning over £80,000 a year with a 15% profit leak is losing £12,000 before tax. This guide shows where the money goes and how to stop it.

• How to track business expenses without the shoebox

  Photo the receipt, note the job, done weekly. If you wait until January, you will forget half -- and pay more tax than you needed to.

• QuickBooks vs trade software -- different jobs

  Accounting tools count money brilliantly. Trade software wins when you need job context: measurements, quote versions, diary and customer history in one thread.

• How to build a price book that makes quoting boring (in a good way)

  A Price Book is your memory outside your head: standard lines, realistic labour bands, materials allowances, and wording that stops disputes. Once it exists, quoting is pulling lines rather than starting from a blank screen at 9pm after a 10-hour day. This guide shows how to build one that you will actually use.

• How to write a professional quote customers say yes to

  Professional is not fancy fonts -- it is clarity: what is included, what is not, how long the price stands, and what happens if the job changes. A clear, well-structured quote does three things: it sets expectations, it protects you legally, and it makes you look like the right person for the job.

• Why most tradesmen undercharge -- it is not greed, it is gaps

  Undercharging is usually a process problem, not a confidence problem. Rushed quotes miss lines. Vague day rates do not cover real costs. Fear of losing the job drives prices down without data. This guide walks through the patterns and shows how to fix each one without becoming an accountant.

Start with the trade quote software hub or accounting for tradesmen.