PRICING THE JOB: MARK-UP,

OVERHEAD & PROFIT

In This Article
Calculating Overhead & Profit
The Mistake of Markup

View all Bidding articles

Once a contractor has come up with his estimate of hard costs to complete the job, he will
mark up his costs to determine the bid price. The hard costs the money paid out for labor
and materials is marked up to cover overhead and profit.
Overhead. Overhead includes all the soft costs incurred by being in business that are not
associated with a specific job for example, trucks, tools, and equipment; office expenses,
bookkeeping and accounting; advertising, training, legal, insurance, and other costs of being in
business. If a contractor does not charge enough to cover his overhead, he wont be in business
long.
Profit. The other component of markup is net profit, often referred to simply as profit. Net
profit is amount left for the owner after paying all hard and soft costs to complete the job (gross
profit net profit plus overhead). If the company owner works part-time of the job, his labor cost
while swinging a hammer is treated as a hard cost of that job. If he works in the office and pays
himself a salary, his office pay would be counted as overhead. If the job is profitable, the owners
would earn profits in addition to any wages paid to them by their company.

CALCULATING OVERHEAD AND PROFIT

Every company calculates overhead and profit a little differently. For example, some companies
consider labor burden (employee benefits and taxes) as a direct job cost, some consider it
overhead. Some companies mark up materials, labor, and subs. Some just mark up labor. Some
assign overhead based on the time it takes to do a job, rather than the cost of the job. Some
assign a line-item expense for the contractors management fee in lieu of profit. Or they may
use some combination of these pricing approaches. Whatever method is used, its essential for
the companys survival that they make enough money to cover all the companys costs. The
remaining net profit rewards the owner for taking on risk, and also provides money for new
equipment, for working capital, and as a hedge against future losses.
Many numbers get kicked around as the right amount of overhead and profit. In general, large
companies have higher overhead than smaller companies. In some very small companies, where
the owner is on the job site every day, the owner is often primarily working for wages, with a
modest additional profit if all goes well.
Because everyone calculates the numbers a little differently, these number are slippery and
difficult to generalize. A national survey of 54 builder/developers by NAHB (see below)
showed an average net profit of about 9% on land-and-house packages. Overhead, marketing,
and sales accounted for another 10% (financing is generally considered a direct cost of

construction). This is not far from the 10 and 10 sometimes thrown around for 10% overhead
and 10% profit. Custom builders typically work on smaller margins of about 15% to 18% for
overhead and profit on new homes, while remodeling contractors typically charge higher rates
for overhead and profit. When times are tough, some contractors lower their markup (and profit)
in order to attract more work with lower prices.
SINGLE-FAMILY HOME: COST BREAKDOWN
Sales Price
Breakdown

Average

% of total

Finished lot

$76,591

23.3

Construction

222,511

58.9

Construction loan

6,375

1.7

Overhead

20,377

5.4

Marketing

5,297

1.4

Sales Commission

12,815

3.4

Profit

33,658

8.9

Total Sales Price

377,624

100%

Source: NAHB 2009 survey of home builders. Avg. house size:

2,716 sq. ft.

THE MISTAKE OF MARKUP

If a builder wants to make a 20% margin (also called gross profit) to cover overhead and profit,
he has to mark up his hard costs by 25%. This little twist of math manages to confuse many
people and has probably lead to the bankruptcy of more than a few small contractors who
thought they could mark up their jobs by 20% for a 20% gross profit. The math, shown below is
simple. To achieve a 20% margin (for overhead and profit), you need to mark up your costs by
25% (see box below).
SAMPLE JOB MARKUP
Job Costs $10,000
+ Markup
2,500
Total Price $12,500
Markup Price

= Margin

$2,500 $12,500 = 20%

The chart below shows how much a contractor has to mark up his hard costs in order to make a
certain margin. Margin, or gross profit, is used to pay for a companys overhead and to provide a
net profit at the end of the year.
MARKUP VS. MARGIN
Markup

Margin (Gross Profit)

15%

13.0%

20%

16.7%

25%

20.0%

30%

23.0%

35

25.9%

40%

28.6%

50%

33.0%

100%

50.0%

Note: To achieve the margin in the second column, a

contractor must mark up its hard costs by the number
in the first column.

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Comments

1.

Brooks Dawson says:

March 25, 2015 at 9:55 am
Jack,
When does anybody get anything at cost. There is always a markup even when somebody
says they are selling it at cost. Remember the higher the risk, the better the reward.

Contractors take a lot of risk if things go wrong. You know the saying Hope for the Best,
but prepare for the Worst. Twenty percent seems high to some people but that is
reasonable in construction in most States. In retail you can get charged from 200% up to
1500% by the time the product goes from manufacture to showroom floor.
Reply

Jack Cross says:

2.

February 26, 2015 at 11:43 pm

I fully understand your explanation of how 125,000 will get you at full 20% markup. But,
this is still a bunch of contractor bologna. Why do you get to add the money you will be
receiving to the total in order for the amount not to equal 20%? Any business owner
could do this funny math to receive a desired larger percentage.
Reply

michael says:

April 21, 2015 at 11:36 am

Jack
Next time you go to the grocery store and youre standing in front of the teller, tell
them you dont want to pay retail that you want it at their cost and lets see
how hungry youll be. Markup is not some flippant process to extort money from
someone. Its the lifeblood that keeps a business in business. Why do you feel that
contractors are somehow ripping you off if they employ the same standard and
principles as all other businesses? Everything you have ever bought has had
markup. Im sure you dont argue with the gas attendant every time you fill up
your vehicle about their markups!
Reply

3.

Bert says:
February 18, 2015 at 10:31 am
You need to learn the math associated with the desired markup rather than depend upon a
table like noted above.

The math is rather simple: If you desire a 20% markup (Office Overhead, Soft Cost, and
net profit) you simply subtract the desired 20% from 100% and then divide the Hard Cost
by the difference between the 100% and the 20% (100-20=80).
Assume a $100,000 Hard Cost and a 20% markup. What you must remember is that you
are really looking for a 20% on the FINAL BID. Not a 20% on the Hard Cost.
If you just add 20% to the $100,000 the bid would be $120,000. Now to check if you are
actually meeting your objective of 20% on the contract amount, multiply 20% form the
bid amount of $120,000 and you get $24,000 not $20,000. So you are $4,000 short of the
desired 20% of bid or contract amount. You are actually only 16.67% of the total bid of
$120,000.
Lets redo this: Hard cost of $100,000, desired markup of 20% of actual bid.
100%-20% = .80
Hard cost $100,000/.80=%125,000
Check: Bid/Contract Amount = $125,000 X 20% = 25,000
$25,000/$125,000 = .20 or 20%
The total difference is $5,000. This means that if you marked up the project by just
adding 20% to the hard cost, you will need to hope that you overestimated your hard cost
by $5,000 if you are to actually obtain the $25,000 Markup.
Reply

Howard Moxley says:

May 12, 2015 at 4:57 pm

Finally, someone who understands the math of margins vs markup.
Another way to explain it is to say that you divide by the reciprocal of the Margin
you are trying to achieve. Granted this means you had to pay attention in school.
20% = .8 (80%) 15% = .85 (85%) and so on. Just another way of stating your
math.
Reply

4.

Greg Nelson says:

July 7, 2013 at 2:24 pm

This was article was so good to read because it really confirmed my own knowingness
on the subject. Regarding the Mistake on Mark-up section, I will be honest, I have been
doing it wrong and had no clue of this. As I have not finished high school as a teenager, I
am not stupid, and think many contractors and professionals share in this idea. I believe
the only reason I have not gone under is beacuse when I finish a bid, I always add
negotiating money on top of everything. But still, most jobs finish tight and I always
wonder, should I have put more money in the bid Did I estimate this wrong? Am I
calculating my mark-up wrong? Or I wonder how my competitor did his mark-up? I
actually worked in a company in Canada once that calculated their mark-up like its
explained in this mark-up but it was never explained to me why they did it. IN reading
this article, I get it! This to me is one of the best sources of information on the internet for
my business.
I guess, the only things that will be immediately noticeable is that if our competition does
not know about how to calculate their profit margin properly, (such as I have been doing,)
then our bids will be the higher most of the time. But I would rather sign on a job
KNOWING im going to make profit than wondering. And yes, most of the time, we
get the jobs because of a great portfolio and reputation price is NOT always the first
consideration.
Thanks,
GN