Ask a builder what their business is worth and they'll tell you about turnover, maybe their margin. Ask them what one more job is worth, one extra kitchen, one more bathroom, one more extension, and most go quiet. That's worth fixing, because it's probably the most useful number in your business.
What one extra job is actually worth
The renovation market here is big and still growing. Homeowners are spending an estimated $50+ billion a year on renovations, and renovation lending is now almost three times what it was before the pandemic. With rates easing, more homeowners are ready to pull the trigger.
Job by job, that looks like this. A standard bathroom reno runs at a national midpoint of about $15,300. Kitchens sit around $14,300 on average, though plenty run past $20K to $80K depending on scope. A full home reno typically starts from $120,000 for internal works on a standard three-bedder, and can go past $300,000 with extensions or structural changes.
So one more job isn't a small change. It's a five-to-six-figure bump in revenue for the year, before you even count the flow-on: referrals, repeat work, and subbies who want to keep working with you because the last job went smoothly.
The number that actually counts: profit, not revenue
Revenue is the number everyone talks about, but it's not the one that matters most. What counts is how much of that extra job actually lands in your pocket once the bills are paid.
Here's why that matters:
- Your overheads (insurance, the ute, the office, admin, your own wage) don't really change whether you run 8 jobs a year or 10.
- Once those costs are already covered by the work you've got on, an extra job keeps almost all of its margin. You're only really paying for materials and labour on that one.
- That means the next job you win is often more profitable than the ones before it, dollar for dollar.
Work it out like this: take your average job value, take off direct costs (materials, subbies, site labour), and what's left is your profit on that job. Multiply that by however many extra jobs your crew could realistically take on this year.
For a lot of SME builders, that lands somewhere between $20,000 and $60,000 of extra profit per job, depending on size. Grab a calculator and run your own numbers. It's ten minutes well spent.
What it costs you when you don't win the job
Here's the bit builders often miss: missing out on a job isn't neutral. It's a cost, not just a non-event.
- Your ute, your tools, and your best tradie are either earning money or they're not. There's not much of a middle ground.
- A quiet patch doesn't just cost you this month's work. It costs you the referral that client would have sent your way, and the repeat call when they finally get around to the kitchen after the bathroom's done.
- Almost one in four homeowners say they regret how their renovation went, usually down to poor planning or picking the wrong builder. That's a gap you can fill if you're the one talking to them early, not the one waiting for the phone to ring.
It's about timing, not just marketing spend
Most builders think "more work" means "spend more": Google Ads, a directory listing, more social posts. That can help. But the bigger win is usually showing up earlier in the process, not shouting louder.
Homeowners are often deep into planning, sorting out permits and designs, well before they start ringing round for quotes. That gap between "we're planning this" and "we're getting quotes" is where the good jobs get won, because you're talking to them before three other builders are fighting you on price.
That's the gap Buildscout is built for. Instead of waiting for homeowners to find you, Buildscout shows you renovation and construction projects at the planning stage, so you can get in touch while you're still one of the few builders they're talking to, not the fifth quote sitting in their inbox.
Work out your own number
Before you spend another dollar on marketing, work out your answer to the question in the title. Three things to figure out:
- What's your average job actually worth, based on the last 12 months of real jobs (not the ones you wish you'd won)?
- What's your profit on that job once the direct costs come out?
- How many more of these could your crew realistically take on this year?
Multiply those together and you've got your number: exactly what it's worth spending to win one more job, and exactly what it costs you every time you miss one.
Buildscout Australia helps SME builders find and win renovation and construction projects earlier, using planning data to connect you with homeowners before the quoting queue forms. If you want to see what that pipeline could look like for your business, get in touch.
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