Know your floor — the number you can't go below
Before you look at what anyone else charges, work out what you need to earn. This is your floor — the minimum daily income that keeps the lights on, covers your tax, and leaves you with a take-home pay that's actually worth getting out of bed for.
Here's the calculation. Add up your monthly costs: van payment or lease, fuel, insurance (vehicle + public liability), phone, tools and equipment, accounting fees, any subscriptions or software, and materials float. Then add what you want to take home each month. Then add 25–30% on top for income tax and National Insurance.
Divide that total by the number of days you'll actually bill in a month. Not 22 working days — you won't bill every day. Between quoting, admin, travel between jobs, weather delays, and quiet patches, most sole traders bill 15–18 days a month if they're busy.
Example: a joiner in Central Scotland
This is your floor. You don't quote below this unless you've got a very good reason. Materials, markup, and profit go on top.
Your number will be different. The point is to know it. Most tradesmen who say "I'm not making enough" have never done this calculation. They're pricing based on what the bloke down the road charges, or what feels right, or what they think the customer will pay. That's guessing, not pricing.
Day rates by trade (2026 UK)
These are ballpark ranges based on what self-employed tradesmen are charging across the UK in 2026. Your area, your experience, and how well you market yourself will push you higher or lower within these ranges.
| Trade | Day Rate Range |
|---|---|
| General labourer | £150–£200 |
| Painter & decorator | £200–£300 |
| Landscaper | £200–£320 |
| Joiner / carpenter | £250–£350 |
| Plasterer | £250–£350 |
| Tiler | £250–£350 |
| Bricklayer | £250–£380 |
| Plumber | £250–£380 |
| Roofer | £280–£400 |
| Electrician | £280–£400 |
| Gas engineer | £300–£450 |
| Groundworker | £300–£450 |
London and the South East typically sit 20–30% above these figures. Scotland and the North are generally at the lower to middle end unless you're in a specialist niche or have a strong reputation.
Day rate is your benchmark, not your price
Don't tell a customer "my day rate is £320." Use it to calculate what a job should cost, then quote the job price. A bathroom refit that takes you three days at £320/day plus £400 in materials plus your markup is a £1,400 job. Quote £1,400. The customer gets a clear number; you get paid for working efficiently.
Job pricing vs hourly pricing
Price per job, not per hour. This is the single biggest shift you can make in how you earn.
Hourly pricing punishes you for being good at your trade. If you can do a job in four hours that takes someone else six, you earn less. That makes no sense. The customer doesn't care how long it takes — they care what it costs and whether it's done properly.
Job pricing works like this: you estimate how long the job will take (be honest with yourself), multiply by your day rate, add materials with markup, and quote that number. If you finish early, you've earned a higher effective rate. If it runs over, you learn to estimate better next time.
When hourly pricing makes sense
There are a few situations where hourly or day rates are more practical: maintenance contracts where the scope varies day to day, diagnostic or investigation work where you can't predict the outcome, and jobs where the customer keeps changing their mind. In those cases, agree the rate in writing before you start, and set a rough budget ceiling so there are no surprises.
Marking up materials
You're not a charity. You source the materials, drive to the merchant, load them, transport them, and carry the risk if something's damaged or wrong. You're entitled to a markup.
10–20% is standard across most trades. Some tradesmen charge materials at cost and bury the margin in a higher labour rate. Others itemise materials separately with a visible markup. Either approach works — the important thing is that your total price covers your time, your costs, and your profit.
If a customer asks why you're marking up materials, the answer is simple: you're providing a supply-and-deliver service. They're welcome to source their own materials if they prefer, but then they own the risk if the specification's wrong, the delivery's late, or the tiles they bought online don't match the batch number.
Trade accounts pay for themselves
If you don't have trade accounts at your local merchants, set them up. The discount you get (typically 10–30% off retail) is your margin on materials. Customer sees the retail price on the quote, you buy at trade price, the difference is yours. Legitimate, expected, and how every tradesman operates.
Building a rate card
A rate card is your personal price list — a document that lists your standard prices for the jobs you do regularly. It saves you from pricing every job from scratch, speeds up your quoting, and stops you from accidentally underpricing because you were tired or busy when the enquiry came in.
Start with the ten jobs you do most often. For each one, list the typical scope (what's included), your estimated time, materials cost, and your price. Update it every three to six months as your costs change and your estimating gets more accurate.
What goes in a rate card
- Job description — what's included (and what's not). "Fit a standard radiator" is different from "fit a radiator including pipework modification."
- Estimated time — how long it typically takes you. Not an optimistic guess. Your actual average.
- Materials cost — typical materials at your trade price, plus your markup.
- Your price — the number you quote the customer. Labour + materials + margin.
- Exclusions — what's not covered. "Making good" after plumbing work, disposal of old bathroom suite, parking charges, etc.
Your rate card is an internal document. The customer doesn't see it. But it means when someone phones asking "how much to tile a bathroom?", you've got a confident answer ready instead of umming and ahhing and promising to "get back to them" — which is where half your leads die.
Track your jobs against your rate card
After each job, note how long it actually took versus what you estimated. If you're consistently underestimating, your rate card needs adjusting. If you're consistently finishing early, you might have room to be more competitive on price — or you could keep the price and enjoy the better effective rate. Either way, data beats guessing.
Writing quotes that win
The best price in the world loses to a better-presented quote. Customers aren't just comparing numbers — they're comparing how professional you look. A clear, written quote builds confidence. A vague text message saying "about a grand mate" doesn't.
What every quote should include
- Your name, business name, and contact details
- The customer's name and address
- A clear description of the work — specific enough that there's no argument later about what was or wasn't included
- The price — broken down if it helps (labour + materials), or as a single lump sum
- What's excluded — anything that's not in your price that the customer might assume is
- How long it'll take — a realistic estimate, not a promise
- Payment terms — when you expect to be paid (on completion, 50% upfront + 50% on completion, etc.)
- How long the quote is valid for — 30 days is standard
Send it as a proper document — a PDF with your logo, not a text message. It takes five minutes to set up a template, and you use it for every quote going forward. That five minutes of setup separates you from every tradesman who quotes on the back of a fag packet.
Pricing mistakes that cost you money
Pricing for the job, not the customer. A bathroom refit in a new-build flat is a different job from a bathroom refit in a 1920s terrace with dodgy joists and asbestos artex. Same scope on paper, different risk. Price the actual job in front of you, not the generic version.
Forgetting to price your time. The site visit to quote, the trip to the merchant, the follow-up calls with the customer — that's all your time. If you're not building it into your price, you're working for free on every job that doesn't go ahead.
Dropping your price to win the job. If a customer says "can you do it for less?", the answer isn't automatically yes. Ask what they'd like you to remove from the scope. Price reductions without scope reductions just mean you're working cheaper. If they're shopping purely on price, they're probably not the customer you want.
Not increasing your prices annually. Your costs go up every year — fuel, insurance, materials, the cost of living. If your prices stay the same, your profit is shrinking. Review your rate card at least once a year and adjust accordingly. Your good customers won't blink at a reasonable increase.
Quoting verbally. If it's not in writing, it didn't happen. Every verbal quote is a future dispute waiting to happen. It takes two minutes to send a PDF. Do it every time.
Reviewing your prices
Pricing isn't a one-time decision. It's something you should be reviewing regularly. Every quarter, sit down for 30 minutes and look at your numbers:
- Are you winning enough work? If you're quoting ten jobs and winning eight, you're probably too cheap.
- Are you turning a profit on every job? Check your actual hours against what you estimated.
- Have your costs changed? Fuel, insurance, materials — any significant increase means your prices need to move too.
- Are you busier than you can handle? That's the market telling you to charge more.
The sweet spot for most tradesmen is winning about 40–60% of the jobs they quote. Below that, your prices might be too high (or your quoting process needs work). Above that, you're leaving money on the table.
The win-rate test
Track your quotes for a month. How many did you send? How many converted? If you're at 80%+ win rate, raise your prices by 10–15%. You'll lose a few jobs but earn more overall — and the jobs you keep will be more profitable. The maths works out better almost every time.