Enter your revenue and cost — get the dollar profit, gross margin percent, and the equivalent markup. Useful for pricing single jobs, evaluating a quarter, or sanity-checking your books.
"Profit margin" is shorthand for three different numbers depending on what costs you subtract. All three matter, and most small businesses only track one (the easy one) and miss the real picture.
| Trade | Gross margin | Net margin |
|---|---|---|
| General contracting | 15-25% | 5-10% |
| Plumbing service | 25-40% | 10-15% |
| Electrical service | 25-40% | 10-15% |
| HVAC service & install | 30-45% | 10-18% |
| Cleaning | 40-55% | 15-25% |
| Landscaping | 35-50% | 10-20% |
| Roofing | 20-35% | 5-12% |
| Specialty (custom carpentry, painting) | 40-60% | 15-25% |
This is the most common pricing confusion. A $3,000 job sold for $5,000 has:
Same job. Two different numbers. Both correct. If you say "I run 40% margin" you mean the first; if you say "I mark up 40%" you mean something different. See the markup calculator for the conversion.
A $50,000 job at 5% margin yields $2,500 profit. A $10,000 job at 30% margin yields $3,000 profit. The smaller job pays you more. Margin is the multiplier that determines whether scale helps you or kills you.
Most small trades start out chasing big jobs (high revenue, low margin) and then realize over time that they make more money on smaller higher-margin work. Track margin per job and you'll see which work to take more of and which to walk away from.