📐 Quotes and proposals for contractors

🎯 The business: a remodeler, roofer or landscaper sends you a voice memo, photos and measurements from a site visit at 6 p.m. By 7 the next morning they have a clean, branded proposal in their inbox: scope room by room, line items priced from their own price book, good-better-best options, exclusions and a payment schedule, ready for them to check, sign and send. AI drafts from the notes; you check every quantity and price; the contractor approves every number. You sell speed and accuracy, not the contractor’s judgment.

At a glance

Is this for you?

It suits someone who grew up around a trade, worked for a contractor, or simply likes turning messy notes into a tidy document with numbers that add up. Evenings are when contractors finish site visits, so this fits people with free nights.

It is a poor fit if you want to decide what a job should cost. You will not. The contractor sets every price, approves every quantity and signs every proposal. If you are tempted to fill a gap with a guess, this is the wrong business.

Who pays, and what

Small general contractors and specialty trades: remodelers, roofers, painters, deck and fence builders, landscapers, flooring and window installers. Most are owner-run with 1 to 15 people. The owner does the site visit and then writes proposals at the kitchen table at night, which is when proposals are late, inconsistent or never sent. A late proposal often means a lost job.

Field-service software such as Jobber, Housecall Pro and Buildertrend has quote templates, and AI estimating apps are appearing, so the template itself is not worth much. What a contractor pays for is someone who learns their price book, writes the scope the way they talk, catches the missing line item, and delivers overnight inside the software they already use. Price, from research estimates: about $50 to $150 a proposal, or $500 to $1,500 a month for a steady flow.

What it takes to start

You work inside the contractor’s own estimating or field-service software with your own user seat, which they pay for. Their price book, client list and proposals stay in their account.

Start to finish: the steps

1. Pick one trade. Roofing, painting, decks, kitchens and baths: each has its own units, materials and usual exclusions. Learning one well beats knowing five badly, and contractors in the same trade refer each other.

2. Learn how that trade prices. Read real proposals from two or three contractors (ask friends in the trade), and learn the units: squares for roofing, square feet of wall for paint, linear feet for trim and fence. Learn what is always forgotten: tear-off, disposal, permits, protection, cleanup.

3. Build a proposal template. Cover, scope by area, line items, options, exclusions, allowances, schedule, payment terms, and a place for the contractor’s required contract language. See the figure below for who supplies each part.

4. Get the contractor’s price book into a sheet. Every item with unit, material cost, labor and markup, all from the contractor. This takes a few hours with the owner and is the most valuable thing you will build for them. AI must price only from this sheet.

5. Set the intake routine. One voice memo, photos and measurements per site visit, sent the same way every time: a shared folder, a text thread or the job record in their software. Write a short checklist of what you need, such as roof pitch or ceiling height, so you are not chasing details at 10 p.m.

6. Draft, then check line by line. AI turns the memo into the scope and line items. You check every quantity against the measurements, every price against the price book, and every exclusion against the trade’s usual list. Flag anything you are unsure of in a note to the contractor, never fill it in.

7. Hand over for approval. The contractor reads, edits and approves. They send it to the homeowner from their own account. You never talk price with the homeowner.

8. Track wins and fix the template. Note which proposals were accepted and which questions homeowners asked. Tighten the scope wording each month.

9. Sell a monthly plan. A set number of proposals each month for a flat fee, plus a price-book update every quarter when material prices move.

10. Add a second trade or a helper. Once two or three contractors rely on you, add a trade close to the first (roofing to gutters, painting to drywall) or train someone to take overflow nights.

Pricing

These are example prices based on research estimates. Price by the proposal, not the hour: a contractor who wins one more $15,000 job a quarter because proposals go out the next morning will not argue about $100. Do not promise a higher close rate; you cannot back it up.

The math

Take an operator about six months in. Two contractors on an $800 monthly plan bring in $1,600, and ten single proposals at $100 add $1,000, so $2,600 in all. Costs: $20 for AI, $15 for a design tool, $65 set aside for insurance and $60 for marketing, $160 in all. That leaves about $2,440 a month before tax for about 34 proposals, roughly 40 to 50 hours of work in the month.

Set aside about a quarter to a third of profit for income and self-employment tax. See Business insurance for the E&O cover that matters here.

Getting customers

Who first. Contractors you already know: the one who did your parents’ roof, a cousin who paints, a friend’s dad with a deck business. Then owner-operators with 2 to 10 people who are busy enough to fall behind on proposals and too small for an office manager. Owners who say "I’ll get you a number by Friday" and then don’t are your market.

The first ten customers. Over six weeks: visit 5 supply houses (lumber yards, roofing and paint suppliers) early in the morning when contractors pick up materials, talk to 30 contractors in person or by phone, and attend 2 local builders’ or remodelers’ association meetings. Offer three proposals at half price so they can see the quality. Expect 4 to 8 trials and 2 to 4 regular clients.

Hi Rick, I write proposals for roofers overnight. You send me a voice memo, photos and measurements after a site visit; by 7 the next morning you have a clean proposal priced from your own price book, with options and exclusions, for you to check and send. I don’t set prices, you approve every number. Want to try three at half price ($40 each) this month? Jordan Park, 555-0119

Channels, best to worst.

1. Supply houses: the counter staff and the bulletin board see every local contractor every week.
2. Referrals from contractors you serve: trades talk at the supply house and on job sites.
3. Local home builders’ and remodelers’ associations: meetings and member directories.
4. Bookkeepers and insurance agents who serve contractors, as referral partners.
5. Trade Facebook groups and forums: help with a scope question, then mention what you do.
6. Google Business Profile: modest, for "proposal writing for contractors" searches.
7. Fiverr and Upwork: global, low-price "estimate" gigs; not where local owners look.
8. Paid ads: last.

Case studies and referrals. With permission, keep a before and after: the contractor’s handwritten notes next to the finished proposal, prices blurred. Ask each regular for one name at the supply house. More in the launch and marketing playbook.

Running it week to week

Clear the overnight queue before morning and confirm each contractor got their proposals. Keep a log of open questions you flagged and their answers, so the price book gets better each time. Update prices whenever a contractor tells you a material cost changed, and do a full price-book review each quarter. Keep each contractor’s files in their own account. Invoice monthly plans on the first of the month and single proposals weekly.

Rules to check

Licensing lines. Formatting and writing a proposal for a licensed contractor who prices, approves and signs it does not make you a contractor. Do not present yourself as one, as an estimator who sets prices, or as the person homeowners negotiate with. Some states regulate people who sell home improvement contracts for a contractor; California, for example, requires home improvement salespersons to register. Stay behind the contractor: no homeowner calls, no price talk, no signatures.

Contract terms belong to the contractor. States set what a home improvement contract must contain, such as the license number, start and finish dates, payment schedule and notices, and some cap the down payment; California, for example, limits it to $1,000 or 10% of the price, whichever is less. The contractor’s attorney-approved language goes into the template unchanged. You never write or edit legal terms.

Cancellation and safety notices. When a sale of $25 or more is made in the customer’s home, the FTC’s Cooling-Off Rule gives the buyer until midnight of the third business day to cancel, and the seller must give notice of that right and two cancellation forms; emergency repairs the buyer requested are exempt. Many states add their own rules. For homes built before 1978, EPA’s lead renovation rule requires certified firms and the "Renovate Right" pamphlet before work starts. Put reminders in the template; the contractor handles them.

Claims and data. Copy product and warranty details exactly from the manufacturer; never let AI invent a warranty or a spec. Keep homeowners’ names, addresses and photos in the contractor’s account, and use an AI plan whose business terms you have read. See contracts, client data and AI rules.

What goes wrong

AI drafts 24 squares when the measurements say 28, or drops tear-off and disposal, and the contractor eats the difference; check every quantity against the source, every time. A price book goes stale when shingle or lumber prices jump; schedule the quarterly review. A contractor stops reading your proposals before sending them, and a mistake goes out under their name; insist on approval and keep the record of it. A homeowner calls you with questions; send them to the contractor. Contractors pay late in slow months; take card on file for monthly plans. And winter is slow for outdoor trades, so mix in indoor trades.

Questions people ask

Free help

SCORE mentors and your local Small Business Development Center help with pricing and contracts at no cost. Your state’s contractor licensing board publishes home improvement contract requirements, often with a checklist. The FTC’s consumer pages explain the Cooling-Off Rule, and EPA’s lead renovation pages explain the pre-1978 rules. Local builders’ and remodelers’ associations are good places to learn how your trade prices.

The FTC Cooling-Off Rule details and software notes were checked in November 2026. State contract rules, down payment limits and registration rules differ by state and change; check your state’s contractor board before you build a template.