Your First Quote

A credible first quote is written, complete and specific, takes a deposit, and prices the extras before they happen. Most trade businesses that struggle in year one do so not from a lack of skill but from a handful of predictable commercial mistakes: no deposit, verbal quotes, underpricing, and unpriced extras. Get the quote right and you avoid most of them. The rules below are the practical Canadian standard, with the consumer-protection points that apply to in-home residential work.‍‌​‌​​​​‌‌​​​​‌​‌‌​​​‌‌‌‌‌‌​​​‌‌‍

What every quote should contain

Treat the quote as the start of the contract. Spell out:

• Your name, business name and contact details
• A clear description of the work and the materials to be used
• Start and expected completion dates
• The total price, and whether GST/HST is included or added on top
• The payment schedule, including the deposit amount and what triggers each progress payment
• Who pulls and pays for permits
• Who is responsible for clean-up and waste removal
• Warranty terms and how disputes will be handled

A complete quote protects you as much as the client. Vague quotes invite scope creep and arguments you will usually lose.

Get it in writing

Verbal quotes are forgettable, unenforceable, and an open door to "but you said". For residential work, writing is often not just sensible but required. In Ontario, for example, any home renovation contract worth more than $50 must be in writing under consumer-protection law. Even where your province does not demand it, a written quote and contract is the cheapest insurance you will ever buy. Keep a signed copy.

Deposits: the Canadian norm

Taking a job with no deposit means funding someone else's renovation out of your own pocket until you invoice. If the client vanishes or pays slowly, you are exposed for everything you have already spent on materials and labour. The common Canadian practice:

• Fixed-price residential projects: 10 percent on signing is the widely used baseline, with the rest tied to progress milestones. For larger projects (over roughly $40,000) a 10 percent deposit is close to universal among experienced contractors.
• Small jobs (under about $5,000): a higher deposit, often 25 to 50 percent, is common to cover materials up front.
• Adjust upward for brand-new clients you cannot verify, unusual or long-lead materials, or complex timelines.

A deposit is not a sign of distrust; it is standard, and clients expect it.

The consumer-protection estimate rules

Where you do residential work directly for a homeowner, consumer-protection law can constrain your pricing and timing. Ontario is the clearest example and a useful model for the kind of rules to check in your own province:

• A 10-day cooling-off period. A home renovation contract signed in the customer's home, worth $50 or more, gives the customer 10 calendar days to cancel for any reason without penalty. This cannot be contracted out of. The practical effect: do not order custom materials or start demolition until the 10 days have passed, unless the customer signs a waiver agreeing to pay for work and materials used in that window.
• The estimate cap. Where an estimate is part of the contract, the final price cannot exceed the estimate by more than 10 percent unless the customer signs off on a change order. An Ontario Superior Court ruling (The Fifth Wall Corp. v. Tonelli, 2023) confirmed this applies even to cost-plus contracts directly between a contractor and a homeowner. The lesson: write careful, complete estimates and document every change in writing before you do the work.

These specifics are Ontario's. Other provinces have their own consumer-protection regimes for home renovation, so check the rules where you work. The underlying discipline travels everywhere: write a complete estimate, and do not exceed it without signed agreement.

Price the extras before you do them

Every job throws up changes: the client expands the scope, the site springs a surprise, a specified material turns out to be unavailable. If extras are not priced and signed off in writing before the work happens, you will either swallow the cost or fight to recover it afterwards. Where an estimate is capped (as in Ontario), you legally cannot charge more than 10 percent over without a signed change order anyway. A one-page change-order form, with a description, the extra cost and the customer's signature, takes five minutes and prevents almost every dispute. The rule is simple: nothing happens without paper.

Do not underprice

The most common first-year mistake. New tradespeople forget overhead (vehicle, fuel, insurance, tools, phone, accounting, slow days), quote on best-case timing, leave out permit costs and build in no margin for material price swings. A realistic rate: estimate the annual income you want, divide by the billable hours you can actually charge (often only 1,000 to 1,200 for a solo operator once admin, quoting and travel are stripped out), then add your overhead on top. Many discover their true break-even rate is $20 to $30 an hour higher than the rate they first quoted. Build the quote up from real costs, not from what you hope to charge.

Common mistakes

• No deposit. You become the client's interest-free lender, exposed for every dollar of materials and labour.
• Verbal quotes. Unenforceable, and in some provinces unlawful above a low dollar threshold for home renovations.
• Starting work inside a cooling-off period. In provinces with one, ordering custom materials or starting demolition before it ends, without a signed waiver, can leave you out of pocket.
• Unpriced extras. No change order means you absorb the cost or chase it after the fact.
• Underpricing. Forgetting overhead and billing on best-case hours is the classic year-one error.

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