Tradie resources

Pricing your work right.

Underpricing is one of the quiet killers of a trades business — it wins jobs in the short term and quietly erodes the business in the long term. This guide covers how to break down your costs, what a fair margin looks like, how to research what other tradies in your region charge, and the pricing mistakes that catch tradies out again and again.

Pricing feels like the most personal, most sensitive number in the whole quote — it's easy to second-guess and easy to shave a little off just to feel more confident about winning the job. But a business that consistently prices too low doesn't stay in business long, no matter how good the work is. Getting pricing right isn't about charging as much as possible; it's about charging what the work actually costs you to do, plus a margin that lets the business keep going.

Breaking down your costs

A price that actually covers your business has three parts. Materials — what you'll spend supplying the job, plus a reasonable markup for sourcing and handling them. Labour — your time, priced at a rate that reflects your skill and experience, not just what you'd accept to avoid an empty diary. And overheads — vehicle costs, insurance, tools, ACC levies, accounting, and every other cost of running the business that isn't tied to any one job. Tradies who only price materials and labour, and forget overheads, are effectively subsidising every job out of their own pocket.

A simple way to check your own pricing: at the end of a job, work out what you actually earned per hour once materials and overheads are subtracted, not what the invoice total was. Many tradies are surprised to find their real hourly return is lower than they assumed, especially on jobs with a lot of travel, small extras, or unpaid time spent quoting and following up.

Margin: why "fair" isn't the same as "cheap"

A fair profit margin isn't greedy — it's what keeps your business able to invest in better tools, take on staff or apprentices, and survive a slow month. Homeowners generally respect a tradie who prices fairly and explains their price over one who's simply the cheapest number on the page, especially when the quote itself is clear (see our guide on writing a winning quote). Competing purely on being the lowest bidder is a race that only ends one way.

It also helps to remember that margin isn't just profit sitting idle — it's what pays for the things that make your business more resilient. A healthy margin is what lets you afford proper insurance, replace a tool the day it breaks instead of limping along without it, and take a week off without the business grinding to a halt. Tradies who price at the bare minimum often end up trapped: unable to invest in the business because there's never any spare margin to invest.

Researching what others charge

Rates vary significantly by region and by trade in New Zealand — what's a fair hourly rate in a small provincial town is often well below what the same work commands in Auckland or Wellington. If you're not sure where you sit, talk to other tradies in your trade and region, check your trade's industry association if it publishes rate guidance, and pay attention to what similar jobs are actually going for on platforms like TradieMatch. Pricing blind — either too high or too low — costs you jobs or costs you margin.

Don't rely on rates from a few years ago, either — material costs and wages have moved a lot in recent years across New Zealand, and a rate that felt right a couple of years back may now be quietly underpricing your work. Set a reminder to revisit your rates every six to twelve months rather than waiting until cash flow forces the conversation.

Pricing for risk and the unknown

Not every job is equally predictable. A straightforward, well-defined job should cost less than one with real unknowns — old wiring behind a wall you can't see, a foundation that might need more work once it's exposed, access issues you won't know about until you're on site. Build a reasonable buffer into jobs with genuine uncertainty, and say so in the quote (for example, pricing as an estimate rather than a fixed quote for that portion of the work) rather than absorbing the risk silently and hoping it doesn't bite you.

Homeowners generally accept genuine uncertainty when it's explained honestly — most people understand that you can't know exactly what's behind a wall until it's opened up. What they don't accept well is a fixed price that turns out not to have been fixed at all, with extra costs appearing after the work has started and no prior warning that they might. Naming the risk in the quote protects both the relationship and your margin at the same time.

Common pricing mistakes

The big one is underselling — pricing to win the job today at the cost of the business's health over the year. Close behind: forgetting overheads entirely, not accounting for travel time on spread-out jobs, quoting a fixed price for genuinely uncertain work, and not revisiting your rates as your costs rise. Review your pricing periodically rather than setting it once and never touching it again.

Another common trap is discounting reflexively whenever a homeowner pushes back on price, without checking whether there's actually room to give anything away. If you do want to offer a discount, tie it to something concrete — a slightly later start date, a slightly reduced scope, payment upfront — rather than just shaving the number to make the conversation easier. A discount with no reason behind it trains homeowners to expect your first number is never your real one.

This guide is general business advice for New Zealand tradies, not financial or accounting advice. For advice specific to your business and costs, talk to an accountant.