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Job estimate template word for Operations

estimating 101 this is probably going to be one of the most important videos that you watch throughout the entirety of this course because estimating is one of the main reasons why companies go out of business just improper bidding practices improper calculations this is probably one of the biggest things that you want to focus on mastering when you're starting a new construction or contracting business first and foremost when you get a call from a client to go give a bid or give an estimate you want to make sure number one you have the capacity to complete the job you don't want to give a bid on the project you don't even know that you can complete right if it's out of your scope of work sometimes it's better just to say no to the job because the last thing that you want is to take the job and then not be able to complete it especially when you're dealing with commercial clients residential it's not so bad those are smaller projects it's not that big of an issue if you do that on a commercial level with commercial clients that's like you're basically cutting your head off in that sense so don't bid a job if you don't have the capacity to complete it number two make careful and complete estimates that means pay attention to the details make sure that you include every single little thing that you're going to run into possibly run into and worst case scenarios there's been so many projects throughout my career where unexpected things happen sometimes the weather is something that a lot of people don't take into consideration is it going to be raining is it going to be you know windy this and that like all of these things have an effect so you have to account for that you have to have a schedule in mind okay if I get the job I plan on doing it next month okay what month is it is it July or is it December is it going to be cold is it going to be rainy what are the chances of the weather working in your favor you know you have to take all of these things into account are you going to need to pay for permits are you going to need to pay for licenses are there any special requests that the client has you have to take all of these things into account whenever you're estimating attach to the this video I'm going to give you guys a free Excel sheet that I used when I was starting out it's got a basic format of the things that you should include it's not gonna apply really to every single different Construction contract it's just something for you guys to use if you've never been a job before if you don't know how to start or what to do or how to lay it out or whatever this is going to help you out a lot and at the end of the day you can edit it you can fix it up however you want to fit your needs at the end because you guys got to remember I don't know what your trade is I don't know if you're a general contractor I don't know if you're a landscaper I don't know if you're a roofer a carpenter like I'm giving you guys general information that applies to like businesses across the board make careful and complete estimates number three build the job on paper first that is exactly what it says get a piece of paper draw out your layout for your project whatever it's going to be like I said if you're a landscaper and you're just doing lawn mowing or tree trimming and stuff like that you don't really need to draw the paper out but if you're doing form work or if you're doing like fence or a brick wall or something like that then you need to draw map out your work this kind of varies between commercial and residential because commercial clients usually provide you specs which specs are just the specifications to the projects they'll give you a blueprint they'll give you all the different measurements and the layout of everything you don't really have to draw it out on paper but if you're working with residential clients that's when more than likely are going to have to draw the project out yourself you know get all your measurements on the job site and do all the layout work yourself number four you got to consider your direct and indirect costs now direct costs are anything directly related to the completion of the project so that's materials labor and any other types of things that may come up like I said I don't know what trade you're in let's say you're building a house a direct cost to that would be all your subcontractors if you're a general contractor that would be all of your subs the things that are related to the project but if you're a trade if you have a specialty trade if you're a carpenter your direct cost would be all the the lumber all the nails the labor all the stuff that's directly related to the completion of the project now your indirect costs are everything that's not directly related to the job but it's still it's indirectly related so that would include like your travel expenses that would include your overhead costs your office employees salary officers if you have any you may be the only one if you're just starting out pretty much anything that indirectly affects your business like insurances stuff like that and then last thing they want to include obviously is your profit margin now starting out eight years ago the the standard was like 10 15 but that also depends where you live if you live in California 10 to 15 percent is not going to be very much if you live in Texas or something like that 10 or 15 percent may get you through the beginning stages of your company however at the end of the day you're in this to make money you're in this to build Financial Freedom getting this to take care of your family your loved ones and provide a better lifestyle for yourself so if you want to make money in contract thing you have to charge a minimum of like 25 to 35 percent profit because at the end of the day guys you are taking all the risks you are the one that's going to be going through the stress dealing with people calling people managing the project or supervising like dealing with clients that are unhappy and everything that comes up you're taking all the risk if your employees mess up if they get in an accident on the way to the job if they destroy your equipment on accident or damage some material like all of that falls on you you are taking all the responsibility so make sure you get paid for it make sure that it's worth your time and money there's no point in going through all this stress and going through all of the hassle to you know complete a project for a client so that they're happy only for you to be miserable so when you're estimating when you're going through to look at a job make sure that it's going to be worth it make sure that it's going to be worth your time and at the end of the day you set the standard for how much you want to make whatever it is for you and whatever you're comfortable with and you're happy with you need to find a happy medium but until you start doing a couple projects you won't really be able to tell okay I can afford to charge only 10 or 10 is too little I need to charge at least 30. when I went to the American Fence Association conference when I was getting my C13 license for SoCal one of the guys that that I met there you know he became my mentor he told me that he doesn't even look at a job unless he can make 40 on it and that changed my whole life because after that I started charging you know because I was only charging like 10 profit at the time now I charge you know anywhere between 25 to 35 percent depending on how big the project is how small you know all of that affects how much I charge but if it's a client that I do regular business with I may give them a discount whatever like that's just you know all of that extra stuff comes with experience and just kind of knowing your business so estimating guys estimating very important so just to recap one do you have the capacity to complete the job to make careful and complete estimates three build the job on paper first four consider your direct and indirect costs and five figure out your profit margin and that'll make you a lot of money