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Pro tip: the 80/20 rule of contractor bids that a guy in Dallas taught me
I was at a supply house in Dallas getting PVC and started talking to this older plumber. He told me something that stuck: about 80% of his callbacks came from just 20% of the jobs, and it was almost always the cheap ones where he cut corners on prep. That matches what I see doing books for a few trades guys, the low bid jobs are the ones that eat the most time later. I started tracking my own small jobs after that and sure enough, the under $500 ones were costing me the most hours. Anyone else notice the cheap jobs are the ones that bite you?
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susanm564d ago
My buddy Rick ran a remodel crew in Tucson for 12 years and he tracked every job in a notebook, and his cheap jobs actually had the fewest callbacks. So the 80/20 thing might just be a story that feels true. Think about why someone calls you back on a small job: they paid less, so a small flaw looks huge to them. On a $15k job they expect a punch list and they're calmer about it. Same flaw, different reaction, and you remember the cheap one because the money sting hurts more. That's not the job biting you, that's the customer's mood and your own memory playing tricks. Could also be that you take on cheap jobs when you're slow and rushed, so the problem is timing, not price. Track it for a full year before you blame the bid size.
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