I Underpriced a Job and I'm Losing Money: What Do I Do?

2026-10-13

It is 12:20 on a Wednesday, and you are sitting in your van outside a half-tiled bathroom, eating a sandwich you don't taste.

On your phone is the quote you sent three weeks ago. One number. Labour and materials rolled together, because that's how it felt right at the time, standing in the doorway with the client smiling at you.

Now you've counted. The wall behind the old bath was not flat. The extra adhesive, the second trip to the merchant, the two evenings you spent on the back wall. You do the sum on the steering wheel with your thumb.

It doesn't work. It really doesn't.

The thought arrives quietly and sits down next to you: I'm losing money on this one.

The quiet maths nobody sees

Here is the part you won't say to anyone. You aren't only worried about this job. You're worried about what it says about you.

If you can't price a bathroom, are you really running a business? Other people seem to know what to charge. They say a number and don't flinch. You said a number and have been flinching ever since.

So you do what many of us do. You say nothing. You finish the job, because finishing is what a professional does. You tell yourself you'll price the next one higher. You carry a small stone in your pocket for a week.

The cost isn't dramatic. It's a Saturday you worked for free. It's a slight edge in your voice when the client asks if you could also do the skirting. It's a receipt for materials you can't quite place, tucked in the glovebox, because looking at it means looking at the gap.

What actually happens at the kitchen table

That evening you open the quote again. You expect a disaster. What you find is a number and a vague memory of how you got there.

What did the tiles cost you? Roughly. How many hours did you really put in? You'd have to rebuild it from the calendar and your tired head. You know the answer is "too many", but you can't say how many. And a feeling isn't something you can put in front of a client, or in front of yourself the next time.

This is the odd thing about an underpriced job. The loss hurts, but the fog hurts more. You can't learn from what you can't see.

So you do the one useful thing a tired person can do. You write down what you do know: what you quoted, what the materials cost, roughly how long it took. It's untidy. It's also the first time this job has been a set of facts instead of a mood.

And something loosens, just a little. A loss with edges is smaller than a loss without them.

The call you were dreading

A few days later, you think about whether to say something to the client. Not an accusation. Not an apology. Maybe just a plain sentence about extra work that wasn't in the original scope, if there really was some, and a calm question about how they'd like to handle it.

You may decide to, or not. Some clients are fair when they're shown something clear. Some aren't. Either way, the choice is yours, and it's a much easier choice when you can point to what changed rather than to how you feel. (For anything contractual, a quick check of your agreement or a word with a professional is worth it. We build tools for organising, not for legal answers.)

What matters more is the next quote. The one you'll write on a doorstep, with a client smiling at you, and a number sitting on your tongue.

A different Wednesday

Picture that same moment, a little later in your working life.

You're standing in another doorway. Another bathroom, another smiling client. But this time the materials are listed as you go, line by line, and your own hours sit beside them. The margin is just there on the screen, quietly telling you what the job needs to be worth to you. You say your number without the flinch, because it isn't a guess any more.

Three weeks later, a wall turns out not to be flat. You notice, you note it, and you aren't surprised by your own bank balance on Friday.

You eat your sandwich at 12:20 and you actually taste it.

Nothing about the trade got easier. The walls are as crooked as ever. But the knot isn't there, because you can see the whole job, start to finish, in one place. You close the laptop earlier. You stop carrying the stone.

If you recognise yourself in the van

You don't need to become a different kind of person to price better. You need the numbers in front of you at the moment you say yours, and a place where materials, receipts and what clients still owe you live together instead of in the glovebox.

That's what we made Quote It Right – Job Quote, Materials & Margin Sheet for: an Excel quote builder for tradespeople, so you can price jobs on site, keep track of materials and receipts, see your real margin, and know who still owes you. It comes with sample data so you can see how it fills in, and a 30-day money-back promise: if it doesn't help, you get a full refund, no questions.

If that sounds like the Wednesday you want, you can have a look here: Quote It Right – Job Quote, Materials & Margin Sheet.

An illustrative story, written with AI assistance.