It is said that if you don’t present a professional-looking estimate to your clients, you risk losing customers. Because of that, you need to be prepared before you start offering your services. These things are important for both big companies, and for people who are self-employed.
If you are not sure how to create these documents, and if you don’t know where to start, we are here to help! Follow our tips and you will learn how to create and present the best-looking estimates that will draw in your customers.
1. Services
The first thing you need to have in your document is the things you are going to be doing. Consider this as a job description and make sure you put all the details. These things are important because people want to be aware of the services they are going to get and how everything will end up looking.
For example, if you are offering building and construction services, then you need to write down everything you are going to be doing, from start to finish. This does not mean that you need to go into the smallest details and give an estimate that is going to be 20 pages long. The best way to approach this is to list the number of things that are going to be done, and how the whole process is going to look.
The reason for this is that you are going to save yourself and your client a lot of time. This way, when they have some questions, they will first check the document and see if there are already answers to their questions. And, when they see how things are going to go, they will feel more relaxed and they will not bother you about the progress when you are already working.
Another important thing is that your client will be able to address issues or ask questions before the project starts. They can come to you and ask about the things they are unsure of, and you will be able to talk to them and explain everything.
2. Materials and Workers
The next thing that should always be added in the estimate is the materials you are going to use while working on the project. Remember that while you add the most important things, you should not go into too many details.
For example, you can add that you are using wooden floors and stainless steel doorknobs, but you should not write down how many screws you are going to be using for the project. You should also put down the costs for each part of the materials you are going to use, and it would be good if you write down the name of the company that you are going to get those materials from.
If you are going to use special equipment that needs to be rented for that project specifically, you should put that in the document as well. Don’t forget to put the cost of it and if it is charged by the day, or for the whole project.
Depending on the number of workers that are needed for the task, you should add information on what they are going to be doing and the hourly rate for them. Once again, put the most important information, but don’t go into too many details.
3. Costs
Another important thing that needs to be added to the professional estimate is the overall costs of the project. In this part, you should add everything we already mentioned, and other costs that are not part of the previous bullet point. Make sure you are clear and on point with this part and that everything can be seen right away.
You can also add information about payment methods, any terms, conditions, and when is the payment due. If you agree on partial payment or milestones, you should also put that in the agreement. These things may sound confusing, so myBilldu suggests that one of the benefits of using an estimate generator is the fact that you can track everything down before, during, and after your project.
4. Time Frame
It is said that the time frame is the information everyone is looking for. No matter how good your offer is, or how quality the materials you are going to be using are if the project takes too long to be done, your potential clients might go somewhere else.
If you don’t put this info in your document, they might think that you don’t know how long it will take and that you don’t have the needed experience to predict the time frame. You can also write down how every part of the project will take, and how long it will be before everything is done.
You don’t have to give specific information and specific dates, but you can try to give an estimate on how long everything should take if things go according to plan.
5. Business Information
Last but not least, in the document you should always put your contact information, including open hours, customer support information, email, and phone. The reason why you have to do this is that potential clients can reach out to you and talk to you about the project, or ask any questions they have.
If you don’t put this information, clients may just go to your competitors because they don’t want to bother looking up your information online. You should always make things easier for customers and help them contact you with ease. Don’t forget to add the website, location, and other necessary information.
Creating a professional-looking estimate is not a hard task. The only thing you need to do is sit down and spend some time making it look good. Make sure that there are no typos, or grammar or spelling mistakes. If you don’t want to spend time doing this, you can always use a generator that will help you create the document in almost no time. The great thing about generators is that they can be used for pretty much every business, and the only thing you’d need to do is put the needed information in.
In case you decide to do it on your own, make sure you save the template the first time around so that you can just follow it every other time you create the professional estimate.
