Trigger: a contract on the table
A contract is on the table and guessing wrong is expensive in both directions
Bid high and you lose work you needed. Bid low and you win something that costs you money every month for a year. Both mistakes are invisible until it is too late to fix them.
What is needed
The number you need before you sign
Most owners price off gut feel and last year's rate. That works until the job is big enough that being wrong matters, and by then the contract is signed.
True job cost
Labor, burden, materials, equipment, and the overhead the job actually consumes. A standard profit and loss hides all of it inside one number.
The price you cannot go below
The point where the job destroys value, calculated before the negotiation instead of discovered during it.
The downside case
What happens to margin and cash if the job runs long, materials move, or the crew changes size. That is the case that matters.
When you pay versus when you get paid
A profitable contract can still break the bank account, and on big jobs it usually tries.
Straight answers
Questions owners ask at this point
How do I price a large contract?
Start from true job cost, including labor burden and the overhead the job consumes, then set the margin you need rather than the margin you hope for. The output is a floor and a target, so you know during the negotiation which concessions you can actually make.
What is a margin floor?
The price below which the job costs you money once every real cost is counted. Knowing it before you negotiate is the difference between a disciplined concession and an expensive one.
How do I know whether a job actually made money?
Job-level costing, run consistently. Owners are regularly surprised to find their busiest crew or biggest customer is the least profitable, because a standard profit and loss statement cannot show it.
There is a deadline on this
Get the number right the first time.
One call, 30 minutes, no cost. Tell me the deadline and what the other side has asked for, and you will get a straight answer on what it takes.