At a time like this, it’s absolutely critical to be working with the best tools you possibly can to squeeze every ounce of profit out of each job that comes your way. Estimate 2 offers you extremely powerful features that allow you to identify the type of work you do that’s most profitable, and focus on that in your marketing.

You see, here’s a secret: when you do less of your low profit work and more of your high profit work, you make more money effortlessly and automatically. Estimate 2 gives you the tools you need to identify this type of work and give it your full attention.

Here’s an example. Let’s say you use EstiMate 2 to price a 4′x8′ Coroplast sign with simple vinyl graphics, and the profits on the job come out to about $53 (see screen shot below).  When you add up the times you get about 1.25 hours combined for design and production time, or a profit rate of about $42.40 per hour.

Compare the above example with a job for 1000 full color inkjet printed decals, laminated, at 3″x5″ trimmed to a rectangular shape.  The total job here sounds better – it bills at $338 compared to the $146 that the coroplast job billed at – but comparatively you took a bath!  Your profits on this job are just $41 for 4 hours of work, or $10 per hour.

Remember, it’s not what you get, it’s what you keep that matters — and EstiMate 2 gives you the tools to identify profit opportunities like this one in SECONDS, not the hours it would take to figure this stuff out by hand or by using lesser or “me-too” tools.

This is just one way that EstiMate 2 can make you a fortune and save you massive amounts of time. Stay tuned for more examples!

One really cool trick with EstiMate is to offer good, better, best pricing scenarios to your customers.  If you couple good, better, best pricing with decoy marketing you can usually capture more dollars for your work.

EstiMate makes good, better, best pricing very easy to do. In a nutshell, what you’re doing is presenting three levels of pricing to your customer — the “good” level is, essentially, what they came for. The “better” level can be used more as a stepping stone to the “best” level, which is what you want to sell them.

To accomplish good, better, best pricing with EstiMate, the first thing to do is to create your basic quote for what your customer ordered and add it to your estimate. Here’s an example of an estimate with one single item on it, representing the “good” level.

For sake of example, what we’re talking about here is a sign made on aluminum clad plywood (NuAlum or the equivalent) with the good level being basic vinyl graphics, the better level being vinyl graphics with a digital print, and the best level being a fully digitally printed panel.

Once you’ve created all three line items on your quote (example below) you are in a position to implement the good, better, best strategy.

Next you print your quote, being sure to uncheck the “Print Totals on Estimate” checkbox on the print screen. Then, add a custom message to your quote asking your customer to select the level they are looking for, circle it on the quote, sign the quote and fax it back to you.

And that’s how you can automate good, better, best pricing using EstiMate!