I watched a guy lose a $14,000 bathroom renovation last month. Not because his work was bad — his work is excellent. Not because his price was high — he was right in the middle. He lost it because the other contractor sent a professional quote with line items, photos, and a payment schedule within two hours of the walkthrough. My guy sent his three days later in a plain email with three numbers and the word "estimate" at the top.
Same price. Same scope. One looked like a professional operation. One looked like a guy with a truck.
Guess who got the job.
I've been painting and renovating in the Bahamas since 1992. I've been on both sides of that equation. I've been the guy scribbling numbers on a clipboard and I've been the guy who walks into a client meeting with a document that makes them nod before they even see the bottom line.
Here's what nobody tells you when you start a trade business: your estimate is your first job. Before you swing a hammer, before you cut a single board, before you mix a gallon of paint — the client is already judging your entire operation by what you hand them. And most contractors hand them garbage.
The Real Cost of Slow Estimates
Let me put numbers on this. Say you do 15 estimates a month. Each one takes you 20 minutes to write up — that's five hours. But that's not the real number. The real number is the time between jobs when you're sitting in your truck typing on your phone. The real number is the quote you forgot to send because you got busy on site and by the time you remembered, the client had already hired someone else.
Five hours of estimating a week. At your billable rate — let's call it $75 an hour conservatively — that's $375 a week in lost production. $1,500 a month. $18,000 a year. And that's just the time. That doesn't count the jobs you lost because your quote looked unprofessional or arrived too late.
Now add the jobs you underbid because you rushed the numbers. That's where the real bleeding happens.
What I Changed That Actually Moved the Needle
I used to write quotes the way most guys do: walk the job, take notes, go home, sit at the computer, type it up, format it, email it. Twenty minutes minimum per quote. Sometimes forty if the job was complex.
Then I found a tool that changed the entire process. It's called QuoteIQ. Here's what it does:
1. Templates that actually make sense for trades. Not generic invoice templates. Actual estimating templates built for painting, construction, and renovation work. Line items, scope descriptions, payment terms — all pre-loaded.
2. Professional formatting out of the box. The quote comes out looking like a document from a company that's been in business 30 years. Logo, branding, clear breakdown. Clients see it and they stop shopping.
3. Speed. I can send a full professional quote in under two minutes now. Under two minutes. The client gets it before I've even left the driveway.
That last point is the one that matters most. When you send a quote while the client is still thinking about the conversation you just had — while they can still picture you in their kitchen explaining the scope — your close rate goes up dramatically. It's not magic. It's timing.
What The Uninformed Contractor Does
Writes estimates in Word. Or worse, in the body of a text message. Spends 20 to 40 minutes per quote. Sends them hours or days later. Wonders why the close rate is 30%.
What The Smart Contractor Does
Uses a purpose-built estimating tool. Sends professional quotes in under two minutes. Gets the quote in front of the client while the conversation is still warm. Wins more jobs at the same price.
The gap between those two approaches isn't skill. It's not experience. It's not reputation. It's systems.
I've been doing this for over three decades. I've seen guys with half my experience win jobs I should have had — and early on, I lost plenty of jobs to guys who weren't better painters than me. They were just better at the business side. They had systems. They looked professional on paper.
That's the part nobody teaches you when you're learning the trade. Being good with your hands gets you in the door. Being good with your business keeps the door open.
Here's What I'd Tell Any Contractor Starting Out
You didn't learn your trade to spend five hours a week typing estimates. You learned it to build things, fix things, and run a crew that does quality work. Every hour you spend on paperwork is an hour you're not billing, not managing your team, not growing.
The contractors who are going to survive the next ten years aren't necessarily the best craftsmen. They're the ones who figured out that the back office matters as much as the job site.
If you're still writing estimates like it's 1995 — in Word, in emails, on napkins — you're leaving money on the table every single week. Not because your work isn't good enough. Because your presentation isn't.
I use QuoteIQ for every estimate now. If it saves you even one lost job a month, it's paid for itself a hundred times over.
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