As Contractors Set 2027 Pricing, Henry Goudreau Warns the Markup-Versus-Margin Error Is Quietly Eating Their Profit

With overhead averaging about 25% of sales, a job priced on the wrong math can be a loser the day it is signed — free Business Evaluations open

SARASOTA, FL, UNITED STATES, November 14, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- As construction company owners across the United States build their 2027 budgets and set next year's pricing, Henry Goudreau, C.S.L., founder of Contractor Coaching, is warning that the most expensive mistake in the industry is made before the first job is ever sold: confusing markup with margin, and pricing work that never recovers the company's overhead.

"Markup and margin are not two words for the same number," said Goudreau. "Margin only measures gross profit against price. It says nothing about whether your overhead got covered — and overhead takes its share of every sales dollar first. For the average contractor, that share runs about 25% of sales."

The arithmetic is unforgiving. A $100,000 job with $80,000 in job costs produces $20,000 of gross profit — what most owners would call a healthy 20% margin. But that job's share of overhead is roughly $25,000. Before any cost overrun, the job is already a $5,000 loser; the "profit" was spent before the job began. Priced correctly — with markup on job costs calculated to pull overhead and a target net profit into the selling price — the same work carries a materially higher price and an actual profit at the end.

"This is why I see owners who are busy, backlogged, and broke," Goudreau said. "Full schedules, hard-working crews, and nothing left at the end of the year. The problem is rarely effort. It is structure — and pricing is the first structure that has to be right."

Goudreau has laid out the math, including the margin-to-markup conversions contractors can apply to their own numbers, in a new article, "Markup Is Not Margin: The Math Error Quietly Eating Your Profit," published on the Contractor Coaching website.

To help owners check their own pricing before 2027 work is sold, Contractor Coaching is offering a free Business Evaluation. Built around Goudreau's S3 Diagnostic, the evaluation identifies a company's biggest profit leaks, missing or broken systems, and pricing and markup gaps, and shows the owner in plain dollars what those gaps are costing. Owners can request an evaluation at https://contractorcoaching.com/free-consultation/

"An owner does not need more work," Goudreau added. "He needs work that is priced to carry the whole business — job costs, overhead, and a net profit worth having. Get the math right in November and December, and 2027 takes care of itself."

Contractor Coaching was founded by Henry Goudreau, C.S.L., a veteran contractor turned nationally recognized construction business mentor. With over 40 years of experience as a contractor, business owner, and consultant, Goudreau has worked with more than 400 contractors through his Street-Smart Structural System (S3), the S3 Diagnostic, and the Golden Hard Hat Mentoring Program — helping owners build construction businesses that work for the owner, with the systems and structure to grow profitably without the business depending on their every hour. For more information, visit https://contractorcoaching.com

Henry A. Goudreau
HG & Associates, Inc.
+1 941-356-9605

Legal Disclaimer:

EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.