Ran into my old boss at Home Depot and he changed how I look at estimates

I was grabbing some fittings at the Home Depot on 3rd street last Saturday and bumped into my old boss from 10 years back. He noticed I was still writing estimates the same way he taught me, all detailed and broken down by material. He laughed and said "nobody reads that stuff, they just want the bottom line and a handshake." Has anyone else had a senior person totally flip your approach to estimates?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_robin7d ago

Oh man, that hit me right in the gut. I spent years writing these crazy detailed estimates with line items for every single screw and then I find out nobody even reads past the first page. It's like I've been wearing a suit to go swimming or something. I remember once I handed a client a three page estimate and he just stared at the bottom number for a solid minute before saying "okay" and walking away. Your old boss is right, people just want to know the total and feel like they can trust you. Makes me wonder how many jobs I probably lost because my estimates looked like a tax return.

torres.leo7d ago

That line about looking like a tax return is too real. My buddy Mike spent a week on a commercial bid once, color coded everything with tabs. The guy threw it in the trash right in front of him and asked "how much." He learned fast.