Episode Details

The estimate doesn't start at the kitchen table. It starts on the first phone call — with the questions.

Eric and Andy lay out the qualifying questions they ask every potential customer: Have we done work for you before? How soon do you need it — and is it our emergency or yours? Are you doing this project yourself, or is a builder running it? And the one Eric's leaning on hardest lately: what's your budget — do you understand what this costs?

With material costs at all-time highs, Eric's done spending hours on estimates that die of sticker shock, so he's started giving the ballpark right on the call, even to existing customers. Andy tells the story of a contractor who swapped a water heater without ever saying the $2,700 price out loud — the job went fine, the bill detonated, and the review threats followed. The lesson both guys land on: say the price first, get it signed, and don't order a single part before then.

Also in this one: the customer who Googled a $3,000 boiler and couldn't get to a $20,000 job, why the customer who trashes the last contractor is a red flag worth probing, the $150,000 rolling toolbox that shows up to do the work, retail-store math vs. real-world installs, and a tile setter who genuinely planned to tile around a vanity's legs. It never costs less to do it a second time.

Running a one- or two-person shop? This one's for you. Send the guys your own qualifying questions and horror stories — links in the show notes.

New episodes of Make Trades Great Again every week — Eric Aune and Andy Mickelson talking shop about the trades, their businesses, and everything around them.

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