Arkansas HVACR NewsMagazine January 2026

HVACR NewsMagazine January 2026

Business & Marketing Tips

Get Paid for the 90% of the Value You Bring to the Job

Stop Underpricing Repair Tickets By Wendell Bedell Underpricing your repairs is hurtful to you, but it is also hurtful to your company and its people. Many contractors will always charge more for their services than you. There will always be contractors out there who charge less than you.

Your repair pricing must be based on the value you bring to the job to be profitable. When a customer pays you for a job, they pay for the work to be completed and your expertise, experience, and work delivery processes and resources. Remember that 90% of any repair success is what you and your work delivery staff bring to the job. Only 10% of a successful repair is the parts you selected to complete the job. Therefore, they pay for the value you and your people bring to the job, such as: • Knowledge

Experience

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Custom skills

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Professionalism

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Work ethic

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Many contractors think it is all about bidding low even when there is no competition on a no heat or no cool call. Most likely, this is why when we look at the statistics for the average contractor in terms of net profit before taxes, the numbers range from only 2.3% net profit before taxes. This means that 97.7% of all contractors have catastrophic cash flows. We are losing contractors with roughly 85% going out of business within the first five years of starting the company. Our distributor partners say that another 10% goes out of business every year going forward. 1

Dedication to excellence

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Integrity

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Tools & resources

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• Work delivery processes & forms

Licenses

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24/7 warranty management

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Safety & liability protection

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Insurance coverage

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Getting paid fairly for your expertise, experience, and work delivery resources is the key to profitability sustainability. According to most economics textbooks, our service price rates are determined by