Why your shop feels busy... but isn't making the money it should
You build quality cabinets. You stay busy, but the profit doesn't match the effort.
That's not a craftsmanship problem. It's a math problem, and it starts with knowing your shop rate.
Calculate Your Shop Rate
Most shops discover they've been underpricing by 20-40%.
Takes less than 60 seconds using your shop's real numbers.
Calculate Your Shop RateIf this feels familiar, you're not alone.
- "That job should've made more."
- "Where did the margin go?"
- "Why does job this feel tighter than it should?"
You try to adjust pricing somewhere else, increasing material costs, running lean, or estimating a little higher on the next job to cover it.
But nothing really works, and you're still not making your target profit. It's because you're adjusting the result instead of fixing the number that drives every job. That number is your profitable shop rate.
Every estimate you create is built on one number.
If that number is wrong, everything downstream is wrong.
Costs + Time + Capacity → Baseline Rate + Profit Margin → Profitable Shop Rate
Your baseline rate is what it actually costs to run your shop for one hour.
That's your break-even point.
From there, profit is added intentionally, not guessed.
It includes your fixed overhead, your consumables, your real working hours, and your true capacity.
Not guesses. Not averages. Not what someone else on the internet is charging.
Because their shop is not your shop.
If this number is off, every quote you produce is off and you'll never consistently achieve your goals.
You don't fix pricing by guessing better. You fix it by knowing your exact shop rate number
Calculate your profitable shop rate number in under 60 seconds.
No spreadsheets. No complicated setup. Just the real numbers your shop runs on.
Start with your break-even rate. Then unlock your full profitable shop rate.
This is the number your estimates should start from, not end at.
Step 1 of 3 - Your Foundation
Start with the numbers that actually run your shop.
What do you want your shop to earn this year?
Fixed overhead
Costs your shop carries whether you're busy or not.
Fixed overhead
Costs your shop carries whether you're busy or not.
Variable overhead
Annual shop consumption spread across your billable hours.
Billable hours
Use your real capacity, not your optimistic capacity.
Advanced revenue modeling
Break-even is not the goal. It is your floor.
This is the rate you should be charging just to break even.
Use this as your baseline labor rate when you price cabinet work.
Test different overhead, hours, or utilization assumptions and see how your rate changes.
This is now your shop rate. Use it as the starting point for your estimates, then adjust for project risks, material exposure, backlog, and the kind of reinvestment your shop needs next.
Now imagine every job starting from the right number, your profitable shop rate.
Every estimate grounded in the real cost to run your shop.
Every material decision aligned with your baseline rate and profit margin.
No second guessing. No hoping the numbers work out.
Just confidence going into every job, before you even make the first cut.
That's where CabinetCalc comes in.
CabinetCalc doesn't just calculate materials or generate cut lists. It gives you a system to run a tighter, more predictable shop.
- Turn cabinet dimensions into production-ready cut lists instantly
- Reduce material waste with optimized layouts
- Eliminate hand math and spreadsheet errors
- Build repeatable, consistent production workflows
Because once your pricing is right, your production needs to match it.