Two new pricing tools available

We're always hearing what a challenge it is to price custom woodwork. Shops are worried that if they price too high, they won't get the work, and if they price too low, they won't make any money. Compounding the problem is the nature of custom work itself. Frequently it involves specifications that a shop has not handled before exactly in the same way. That can really throw a monkey wrench into the pricing process. Here are a couple of tools that might help you out.

The first is a new cloud based labor hours estimating tool announced by AWI. You can read about it here. The tool promises to provides "answers for over 400 woodwork labor operations at your fingertips online, anytime, anywhere you need them." I can't vouch for how well it works, but it certainly looks like it is worth checking out.

The second tool is our annual Pricing Survey. This is the only tool in the industry designed to compare pricing on custom work. We take real jobs done by real shops and ask everyone to bid on them. Then we print the itemized results in the magazine and online in October. But we need your help now to "bid" on the survey projects. Maximum participation ensures maximum value in the results. You can download the survey bid package here. Please take a few minutes to check it out and bid.