COLE CARTER
FOUNDER + CEO.
ARTICLES BY COLE.
How to bid the permit timeline honestly — by jurisdiction, by trade, and by season — so the customer's schedule expectation matches reality.
How to bid a paver patio or walkway to ICPI standards — base depth, edge restraint, joint sand, and the lifecycle that justifies the bid above the box-store kit.
A working pool builder's checklist for an inground gunite bid — from the engineering stamp to the deck drain to the equipment-pad pour.
The hidden price of free spreadsheets, free trade-association calculators, and the $0/month software that doesn't do what the marketing page says it does.
How working painters bid a residential repaint — coverage rates, prep allowances, color-change surcharges, and the labor multiplier most bids leave out.
The "savings" of free spreadsheet bids cost the average residential contractor $36,000/year in lost margin. Here's where the money actually leaks.
Change orders should be the most profitable hour on the job. Most contractors run them at break-even or worse. Here's the leak — and the four-line contract clause that fixes it.
If you think a 30% markup makes a 30% margin, you're losing 7 cents on every dollar. The fix is 90 seconds of math and a template that does it for you.
Why the bid you'd write for a 2,400 sq ft custom home is the wrong bid for a 24,000 sq ft tilt-up — and what to change in your workflow when you cross the line.
Ready-mix prices, regional swings, delivery surcharges, and the line items most concrete contractors forget on bid day. With a worked example.
Built by trade pros.
Every article reviewed by a practicing contractor. 14-day Pro trial, no card.