How Solo Tradespeople Price Jobs: Hourly, Project, or Monthly Contract?
When you leave your employer to work for yourself, figuring out how to charge is a huge challenge. Hourly pay from a boss is one thing, but running your own plumbing, roofing, or flooring business means you need to cover tools, truck, insurance, and your time. Charging hourly can cost you money the better you get. Fixed project prices can get messy with surprises. Monthly contracts can seem too big. This guide shows solo tradespeople how to pick the right way to price their services so they get paid fairly and protect their hard-earned time.
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The quick answer
If you're a self-employed plumber, roofer, or flooring installer, charging by the hour often means you lose money as you get faster. A fixed project price is best for most jobs with clear steps, like installing a new water heater or patching a roof. Monthly maintenance contracts (like for HVAC or property management) are ideal once clients trust your work. Start with hourly to learn, move to project pricing quickly, and aim for monthly contracts to make your income steady.
Side-by-side breakdown
Hourly: * **Pros:** Easy for new clients to understand. Simple to set up when you're just starting. * **Cons:** You get paid less for being good and fast. If you can fix a leaky pipe in 30 minutes, you only get paid for 30 minutes, even if it took years to learn how to do it that quickly. It’s hard to charge for travel time, quoting, or picking up materials like new PEX pipe or roofing shingles. Your income is capped by how many hours you can physically work, which means less time for family or rest. Clients might question time spent, leading to arguments.
Project-based: * **Pros:** One clear price for the whole job, like "new toilet install" or "200 sq ft tile floor replacement." Rewards you for working efficiently. Clients love knowing the total cost upfront. Helps you get paid for your expertise, not just your muscle. * **Cons:** Requires you to be good at estimating everything involved: materials (e.g., specific lumber, PVC, drywall sheets), labor hours, travel, and unexpected issues. If you miss something, like discovering rot under old flooring or hidden asbestos, it eats into your profit. This is called "scope creep" and it's a major risk for tradespeople.
Retainer (Monthly Contract): * **Pros:** A regular monthly payment for ongoing work, like property maintenance for a landlord, commercial plumbing checks, or annual roof inspections. Provides steady income, which is gold for a solo business owner. Builds strong, trusting relationships with clients who value your consistent service. * **Cons:** You need to clearly define what's included each month. For instance, "2 hours of preventative plumbing maintenance monthly" is clear. "On-call support" without limits can turn into endless unpaid emergency calls. Often takes time to build enough trust with a client before they sign a monthly contract.
When to choose hourly
Only use hourly when you absolutely have to. This includes: * **Emergency diagnosis:** A complex leak where you need to open walls to find the source. Charge an hourly rate plus materials for the diagnostic work. * **Very small jobs:** A simple faucet repair taking less than an hour. Still, consider setting a minimum service call fee (e.g., 1 hour minimum charge of $125-$175, including travel). * **New clients who insist:** If you're just starting and need the work, sometimes you have to agree. But make it clear it's a temporary arrangement. * **Rule of thumb:** Don't let hourly work be more than 20% of your total work once you're established. It's too unpredictable and undervalues your skills.
When to choose retainer
Monthly contracts (retainers) are ideal once you've proven yourself. Look for clients who need: * **Regular maintenance:** HVAC system checks, commercial property plumbing inspections, annual roof cleaning and gutter services for homeowners associations, landlord property upkeep. * **Scheduled tasks:** Quarterly deep cleaning for commercial kitchens, monthly checks on rental units for a property manager. * **Long-term trust:** Clients who have hired you for several successful projects and see you as their go-to tradesperson. * **Examples:** A contract for a property management company to handle all their minor plumbing fixes for X hours a month, or a yearly roof maintenance agreement for a business park. Clearly define what's included and what's extra.
The verdict
Starting Out: Use hourly initially to get paid and understand how long tasks really take (e.g., how long to install a standard water heater, or lay 100 sq ft of basic tile).
Within 3 Months: Pick your 2-3 most common jobs (like a standard toilet replacement, or small drywall repair) and turn them into fixed project prices.
Within 6 Months: Look at your best clients. Do any of them need ongoing work? Propose a simple monthly maintenance contract.
By Year One: Aim for your income to come mainly from fixed projects (50-60%) and monthly contracts (30-40%). Keep hourly work to a bare minimum (0-10%), only for true emergencies or diagnostics. This mix gives you steady income and rewards your skill.
How to get started
Track Everything: For your next three plumbing jobs, roofing repairs, or flooring installs, track all your time. This includes travel to the job site, picking up materials (e.g., a specific sink, bundle of shingles), talking to the client, doing the work, cleaning up, and invoicing.
Calculate Your True Hourly Rate: Let's say you charge a client $75/hour and it takes 4 hours of billed work ($300). But if you spent an hour on travel, 30 mins quoting, and 30 mins picking up materials, your total time was 6 hours. So $300 / 6 hours = $50/hour. This is your actual pay.
Factor in Overheads: Don't forget your truck payment, fuel, insurance (liability, tools), tool replacement (new saw blades, drill bits), self-employment taxes (around 15%), and marketing. These can easily add $20-$40 per hour to your real cost of doing business.
Adjust Your Pricing: If your actual pay after all costs is less than you need to live well and grow your business (e.g., $80-$100+/hour, depending on your trade and location), you need to switch to project pricing for those types of jobs right away. Start bundling your time and materials into a single, profitable price.
RECOMMENDED TOOLS
HoneyBook
Set up project packages and retainer billing in one platform
Bonsai
Time tracking, project scoping, and contract templates for freelancers
Toggl
Track time on projects to know your real hourly effective rate
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How do I protect against scope creep on project pricing?
Define deliverables, not effort. Your contract should specify exactly what is included (number of drafts, revision rounds, formats delivered) and what triggers a change order. Include a scope change process in every contract.
How do I convince a client to move from hourly to a retainer?
Show them what they are getting monthly and package it as a flat fee that is 10-15% less than they would pay at your hourly rate for the same volume. The discount feels like value; the predictability is what you actually want.
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