# How do I price a service job so I make a profit?

Add up the cost of one job: hours times the hourly pay you want, plus materials, travel and a share of monthly overhead (overhead divided by jobs per month). Then divide by 1 minus your profit margin. ProfitDrawer's free price per job calculator uses this formula. Example: 3 hours at $25 an hour, $15 of materials, $10 of travel and $20 of overhead cost $120; at a 20% margin the price is $150.

Step by step:

1. **Time:** count every hour, including setup, travel time on site and clean-up.
2. **Your pay:** choose an hourly rate you want to earn.
3. **Materials and travel** for this job.
4. **Overhead share:** monthly insurance, phone, software and advertising divided by your jobs per month. $600 a month over 30 jobs is $20 a job.
5. **Margin:** price = cost / (1 minus margin). With a 20% margin, 20% of the price stays in the business as profit.

Then sanity-check it:

- **Compare with local prices.** If you are far above the market, look at your hours or overhead rather than only cutting the margin.
- **Find your break-even:** monthly overhead divided by what each job leaves after your pay, materials and travel, rounded up. In the example, each $150 job leaves $50, so 12 jobs cover $600 of overhead.
- **Remember taxes.** Self-employment tax is 15.3% on 92.35% of net profit in 2026, on top of income tax.

- Source: [Price Per Job Calculator for Service Businesses](https://profitdrawer.com/tools/price-per-job-calculator.html)
- Updated: 2026-10-29
- Published: 2026-10-29
- Category: Pricing and profit
- Canonical: https://profitdrawer.com/answers/how-do-i-price-a-service-job-so-i-make-a-profit.html
- Publisher: ProfitDrawer (https://profitdrawer.com)