Quoting a job without losing money on it
Margin arithmetic for people who build things: what a running system costs per month, how to price it, and how to test demand before you build.
The failure mode is specific and common: a fixed price quoted against a system with a per-run cost, discovered six weeks in when the invoice from the API is larger than the monthly fee. It is arithmetic, and it is arithmetic almost nobody does before signing.
This is the commercial half of building things — cost per run, the difference between selling hours and selling a thing, and the cheapest way to find out whether anybody wants it before you spend a month. No encouragement, just the sums.
Writing on this
- Work out the cost per run before you quote the job — The arithmetic that stops a fixed-price automation from quietly costing you money every month it keeps running. One formula, four inputs, done on the back of an envelope. (2026-07-14, 4 min)
- The 48-hour test that beats asking people if they'd use it — Enthusiasm is free, so it means nothing. Four validation tests that cost the other person something, ranked by how much signal they carry. (2026-06-16, 4 min)
Courses that take it further
- Price the work — Scope it, cost it, quote it — and know the number below which the job loses you money. (3 lessons, 80 min, 2 free)
- Sell the thing, not the hours — Why your rate has a ceiling, where the repeatable part of your work is hiding, and what a product costs you after the sale. (3 lessons, 85 min, 1 free)
- Validate it in 48 hours — Find out whether anybody wants it before you spend six weekends finding out they don't. (3 lessons, 65 min, 3 free)