Business Management
By Richard Lahren
Have a Game Plan
Pricing yourself correctly to remain profitable
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Every year, when our season has
ended, I spend a week or two going
through the past year's costs, and compare
them with what we had budgeted for the
previous year. I do this periodically
throughout the season to adjust variable
business costs, such as fuel. I always have
my budget completed by January in order
to set my labor rates so that I can start
bidding projects as the season starts. I use
a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to do this
every year. First, I budget overhead; it's a
fixed cost that does not go away whether
you're working or not. Figure 1 shows a
typical
