What Rates Do You Expect From Contractors?
Your own competitive trade rate. You set it, we add our fee on top in the customer's quotation, and you are paid your figure in full.
The short answer
We expect your trade rate: an accurate, competitive price that you set.
We ask contractors to price at trade rate. That means a fair figure for the labour, materials and access the job needs, without the cost of marketing, sales and admin built in, because through us you aren't paying for any of those. We don't set your rates or issue a price list. We add our fee on top in the customer's quotation, and you are paid your figure in full.
The reason it has to be a trade rate rather than a retail one is simple: the customer's final price still has to make sense to them. Here is what that means in practice.
What trade rate means here
A price without the cost of winning the job
When you price work for a customer who came to you directly, your figure quietly carries everything it took to get there: advertising, lead fees, the evenings spent answering enquiries, the time writing and chasing quotes, and the admin of collecting payment.
Through the network, we carry those. We generate the enquiry, qualify it, book the visit, present and follow up the quotation, and collect the payments. So the figure you send us should be the price of doing the work well, and nothing more. For a fuller walk-through, read trade rates explained.
Two contractors in the same trade will rarely have identical trade rates, and we don't expect them to. What we expect is that your figure reflects the work and not the overheads we are already covering.
Building your price
What belongs in your figure, and what doesn't
Price in
- Your labour and your team's time
- Materials
- Access and plant the job needs
- Waste removal
- Your normal margin on the work itself
Leave out
- Advertising and lead fees
- Time answering enquiries
- Writing and presenting the quotation
- Chasing the customer's decision
- Collecting deposits and balances
Why it matters
The customer's price still has to work
Our fee is added on top of your figure in the quotation the customer receives. Because you are pricing at trade, the customer can usually be quoted at roughly what they would expect going direct, with the coordination included. That is what makes the quotation winnable, and a quotation that isn't accepted pays nobody.
We don't claim to be the cheapest option and we don't ask you to be the cheapest contractor. Allocation is based on reliability, not on who prices lowest. See how are jobs allocated?
We don't publish our percentage. Do you take a percentage? explains why, and why it never reduces what you are paid.
In practice
How rates work from joining to payment
At application
Once we have your full application, we talk through your areas, your rates and our standards, so both sides know where they stand before any customer is involved. See what happens after I apply?
On each job
You survey, set the scope and price the job at trade rate. Every job is priced on its own merits after you have seen it.
In the quotation
We prepare the customer's quotation from your price, add our fee on top and name you as the appointed main contractor. More in who writes the quotation?
At payment
You are paid your rate in full. Nothing is deducted from it.
If your pricing has no room below what you'd charge a retail customer, the model won't work for you, and it is better to know that now. Most contractors who join do so because they have worked out what winning work was really costing them. The comparison is on the contractor network hub.
Pricing well
Accurate beats low
The best trade rate is an accurate one. A figure that is too thin tends to come back as corners cut or an awkward conversation halfway through the job, and neither helps you or the customer. Price the work properly for what it involves.
On larger jobs, material prices move and suppliers can be slow to confirm. Take the time you need to get the figure right, and tell us when to expect it. Flexibility on timing is available to contractors who communicate; it isn't available to those who go quiet.
Awkward access, specialist materials or an unusual method all belong in your figure. You have seen the job; we haven't. If the price needs explaining to the customer, tell us why and we'll set it out clearly in the quotation.
Decline it. Some jobs won't suit your pricing, your diary or your trade, and turning them down carries no penalty. It is far better than accepting a job and pricing it in a way that doesn't reflect the work. What we ask is a clear answer the same day, so the customer isn't left waiting.
Straight answers
Rate questions
Do you set my rates?
No. You price each job yourself after the site visit. We discuss rates in general terms when you join so expectations are clear on both sides.
Is anything taken off my price?
No. Our fee is added on top, and you are paid your figure in full. There is also no upfront cost; see no upfront lead fees, explained.
Does a lower rate get me more work?
No. Allocation follows your record on responsiveness, communication, professionalism and completed work, not your price.
For contractors
Tell us about your business
Your trade, the areas you cover and the size of work you take on. A person reads every enquiry, and if it looks like a fit we will send you the full application.