I spoke with a painter the other day.

He needed my help.

He had great margins on all his jobs, but he was always tight on cash. The problem came down to his schedule of values (SOV). 

He asked me if he should throw in a bunch of fees before each project.

I did not think that was the right answer. So we got to work:

1. Determined a reasonable fee schedule he could charge (mobilization, storage, admin).

2. Set him up with a markup calculator based on target profit and required overhead.

Small tweaks, big results:

a. Now he can see exactly what happens if he bids low to win a job, and can make educated decisions.

b. He now starts off each project in a healthy cash position, giving his business room to grow, and his clients the security in knowing he’ll be able to see the project to the end.

I built a generic version of the template that you can use for free. If you are in a specialty trade than you will find this tool very useful.

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