Most operators confuse markup and margin — and it's quietly killing their profitability. Use the calculator below to see the exact difference and run your own numbers in under 5 minutes.
Most operators learned to price jobs by adding a percentage on top of their costs. That percentage is markup — and it's not the same as gross margin. The difference between the two is where most landscape businesses quietly bleed money every year.
A 25% markup on cost gives you a 20% gross margin. If your target is 30% GM, you need a 43% markup. Most operators are systematically underpricing because of this math error.
On a $500K maintenance book, a 5% margin gap is $25,000 in missing profit — every year. This calculator makes the gap visible so you can close it.
Once you understand the relationship, pricing correctly takes the same amount of time as pricing wrong. This tool builds the habit and gives you a reference you'll use for every proposal.
Our team has built a landscape company from zero to $1.8M in four years and sold it, managed regional operations for a $135M national firm, and held P&L accountability across six divisions in an executive operations and finance role. We have originated $5.2M in new maintenance contract value, including multiyear terms, in nine months.
The Markup vs. Margin Calculator came out of a real problem: watching operators price jobs with the wrong math and wonder why their margin never matched their expectations. We built this tool so you don't make the same mistake.
It's free because the first win should be free. If it helps you, there's more where it came from.
Free. No strings. Just a tool that makes your pricing more accurate starting today.
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