Welcome to the first Upstate Owner's Letter. Each month I'll send one practical idea for running a small business, one free tool, and one local item worth knowing, with the sources shown. If something helps or misses, reply and tell me. I read every one.
Theodore
Feature: Did your prices keep up?
Nationally, consumer prices rose 3.7% over the 12 months ending in September, up from 3.4% in August, and gasoline alone climbed 9.1% in September. In NFIB's national September survey, 20% of owners named inflation their single biggest problem, up 4 points from August. If your costs moved and your price list didn't, the gap comes out of your pocket, usually with no line on any report to show it.
The check takes ten minutes and uses your last five jobs: what you billed, what materials and subcontractors cost, and how many hours each job really took, including driving and quoting. Here is how it works, with a worked example and a free sheet.
How do I know if my prices are too low?
Check whether your prices kept up by looking at your last five jobs. For each one, add up what you billed, what it cost in materials, subcontractors, fuel, card fees and labor, and how many hours it took. Jobs below your target margin need a higher price or less time.
How do I check a job in 10 minutes?
Write down what you billed, before sales tax.
Add materials, subcontractors, and other direct costs such as fuel, permits and dump fees.
Add the hours: on site, driving, and quoting or paperwork, for everyone who worked it.
Multiply the hours by your labor cost per hour, which is wages plus payroll costs.
Subtract card fees.
Profit is what's left. Margin is profit divided by what you billed.
What does it look like with real numbers?
| Job | Billed | Profit | Margin | Earned per hour | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drain clearing | $285 | $154 | 54.2% | $127 | 1 |
| Water heater swap | $1,350 | $443 | 32.8% | $127 | 2 |
| Tune-up, 2 units | $320 | $181 | 56.4% | $111 | 3 |
| AC repair | $420 | $189 | 45.1% | $101 | 4 |
| Duct repair | $640 | $18 | 2.8% | $48 | 5 |
Target margin: 40%. Bold margins fall below it. Earned per hour is what the job brought in, minus everything except labor, divided by total hours.
A water heater swap bills $1,350. Materials are $640, other direct costs $35, and card fees about $41. Five hours of labor at $38.35 an hour is $192. That leaves $443 of profit, a 32.8% margin, against a 40% target. To hit the target, the price would need to be about $1,521. These numbers are made up, for illustration.
How much should I raise prices when costs go up?
To keep the same margin, raise prices by the same percentage your costs rose. If only some costs rose, raise prices by their share. If materials are 60% of your cost and rose 5%, that's about 3%. Card fees grow with the price, so the worksheet handles them for you.
Which jobs should I do more of?
Rank your jobs by what each earned per hour of work. Look at the top and ask how to get more jobs like those. Look at the bottom and ask whether a higher price, a trip charge, less time or a different customer would fix them. Work you enjoy can be worth keeping, but now you can see what it costs.
Add value today
Free: the Job profit check. A one-file Excel sheet that shows what your last five jobs actually earned, what price would have hit your target, and how much to raise prices as your costs rise. It takes about ten minutes and works for trades, studios, and project businesses. Download the free Job profit check.
From the CSS desk
In a past role, I ran a margin report by account and category. One fast-growing account, among about 2,000, was earning about 11% against a 16% target. The cause: an old contract price on one supplier line that never moved when our cost did. We repriced it, honored the old price on their next large order, and explained why. Margin returned to about 15%, and the customer stayed and kept growing. I'll accept thinner margin for growth, but I want to choose it.
Local: fuel in the Upstate
AAA data puts regular gas in the Greenville area at $3.89 on Oct. 5, up about 41% from a year ago, with diesel at $5.72, up about 72%. South Carolina's average was about $3.90 on Oct. 19, still among the ten cheapest states. If you run trucks or make deliveries, fuel moves faster than your price list. Enter it under "Other direct costs" in the Job profit check.
Numbers: the average hides the spread
Consumer prices rose 3.7% over the 12 months to September, but not evenly: gasoline rose 34.2%, while prices excluding food and energy rose 2.6%.
| Category | 12-month change |
|---|---|
| Gasoline | 34.2% |
| Energy (all types) | 20.4% |
| Vehicle maintenance and repair | 5.8% |
| Natural gas (piped) | 5.0% |
| Electricity | 4.4% |
| All items | 3.7% |
| Services, excluding energy | 3.1% |
| All items, excluding food and energy | 2.6% |
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index, U.S. city average, not seasonally adjusted. Consumer prices; your own costs may differ.
Work with us
Which jobs pay you best? The Job profit check shows you, so you can do more of those and fewer of the rest. To talk it through, book a free 30-minute discovery call, in person around the Upstate or by video.
Sources
1. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index news release, September 2026: bls.gov/news.release/archives/cpi_10142026.htm, and 12-month change by category: bls.gov/charts/consumer-price-index/consumer-price-index-by-category.htm
2. National Federation of Independent Business, Small Business Economic Trends, September 2026, as reproduced at wispolitics.com/?p=429983
3. AAA gas price data: Greenville area as of Oct. 5, via Stacker (santafenewmexican.com, "How gas prices have changed in Greenville in the last week"); South Carolina as of Oct. 19, via Woodall's Campground Magazine (woodallscm.com/aaa-gas-prices-remain-high-still-above-4-per-gallon). Current prices: gasprices.aaa.com
The Upstate Owner's Letter · Issue 01 · October 2026
General information only, not financial, tax or legal advice. Figures are rounded, and sources are linked above.
