The first recurring contract most Builders sign is priced by feel, at a discount, with no end date and no scope, and it takes about seven months to turn into the account you resent. Not because the customer is difficult. Because on month one it was a favor, and by month nine it's a job you gave yourself at a rate you'd never accept from a stranger.
Recurring work is the best thing that can happen to a service business. It's revenue that shows up without you selling it again. It's also the easiest place to hand away every dollar of margin you have, because it happens once, quietly, in a conversation where you're excited.
Here's how to price it so it still works in month nine.
What counts as a recurring service?
Anything a customer buys on a schedule instead of one at a time. Monthly cleaning. Quarterly pressure washing for an HOA. A weekly social post. Bookkeeping every month. A retainer, a route, a maintenance plan, a subscription. If the customer's next purchase is already decided, it's recurring.
The reason it matters is that recurring work changes what you're selling. A one-off job sells an outcome. A recurring contract sells reliability, which is a different product with different costs, and it needs to be priced as one.
Why can't I just price it like a normal job?
Because three things change when the work repeats, and two of them are working against you.
In your favor: you stop paying to find this customer again. Every one-off job carries a hidden cost, which is the estimate you drove to, the two that didn't close, and the ad or the hour of outreach that produced them. Recurring work spreads that cost across every visit for as long as the contract runs. That's real, and it's the honest argument for a lower rate.
Against you: your costs move and your price doesn't. Fuel, materials, insurance, and your own wage will not be what they are today in eighteen months. A one-off job reprices itself every time you quote. A contract locks you in until you do something about it.
Also against you: scope drifts. Nobody adds work to a one-off job. Everybody adds work to a recurring one. "While you're here" is the most expensive sentence in service work.
So no, it isn't a normal job with a smaller number on it. It's a normal job plus a promise, and the promise needs a price and an end date.
What does one visit actually cost me?
This is the floor, and most people have never worked it out. Take one single visit and add up everything.
- Materials and consumables for that visit.
- Fuel, and the vehicle wear you're pretending isn't happening.
- Drive time, both directions, paid at your own rate. It is work. It's just work you can't bill.
- The hours on site, at what you'd have to pay someone else to do it.
- Insurance, licenses, phone, software, divided down to a per-visit number.
- Payment processing. Card processing commonly runs about 2.9% plus 30 cents a transaction (Stripe), and on a recurring plan you pay it every single month.
- Tax. Self-employment tax is 15.3% before any income tax (IRS). Money you owe the government was never your margin.
Now you have a real number. Everything above it is yours. Everything below it is a hobby you're funding with a card.
One more line to add: your own hourly floor. Decide what an hour of your life is worth in this business and put it in the cost stack, not in the leftovers. Businesses that treat the owner's time as free are the ones that can't hire, because there's no room in the price for a wage.
Should I discount for the contract?
You can. The question is how much, and the answer is: only up to what the contract is actually worth to you, which is usually less than the customer is asking for.
Name what recurring buys you and put a number on each one:
- Selling cost you don't repeat. If it costs you three hours and a hundred dollars to land a customer, and the contract runs twelve visits instead of one, that's real savings per visit. Calculate it, don't feel it.
- Route density. Four accounts in one neighborhood on one morning are worth more than four scattered across the county, because you're not paying for drive time between them. Density is worth a discount. A single account across town is not.
- Predictability. Knowing what next month looks like is genuinely valuable, and it's the reason contracts are worth having. It is not worth 40%.
Add those up. That's your discount ceiling. If a customer wants more than that, they're not asking for a contract, they're asking you to subsidize them.
The version of this that works and doesn't cost you: hold the price and add value instead. Priority scheduling, a guaranteed window, one included add-on a year, no travel charge. Customers accept those, and none of them come out of your rate.
How do I actually set the number?
Five steps, in this order.
Price the one-off first. Quote the same job as a single job at your market rate. That's your anchor, and you need it even if nobody ever buys it. For a pressure washing route that might be the $155 to $190 a driveway commonly goes for (HomeGuide). For consulting it's your day rate.
Subtract only your named savings. The ones you calculated above. Nothing else.
Check it against the floor. If the recurring price is under your true cost per visit plus your hourly floor, stop. That contract is not a contract, it's a subscription to losing money, billed automatically, which is a hell of a product to have built.
Multiply by frequency and look at the annual number. Twelve monthly visits at $180 is $2,160 a year from one customer. Now ask whether that number deserves the calendar space it's about to occupy. Sometimes the answer is no, and that's worth knowing on day one instead of month nine.
Write down the term. Six months, twelve months, or month to month with 30 days notice. A contract with no end date is not a commitment, it's a rate you can never change.
What terms protect me?
Four lines, and they take ten minutes to write.
Scope, written narrowly. Exactly what's included, exactly how often. Then one sentence: anything outside this is quoted separately. That sentence is what makes "while you're here" a conversation about money instead of a favor.
Frequency, stated as a number. Monthly means twelve visits a year, not "whenever it needs it."
Term and notice. How long it runs, how either side ends it, how much notice. Notice protects you both, and customers respect it.
The annual adjustment. One sentence in the first agreement: the price is reviewed annually and adjusts with costs. Put it in on day one and raising the price later is a calendar event. Leave it out and it's a negotiation you'll avoid for three years.
How do I raise the price on a customer I already have?
Carefully, in writing, with notice, and without apologizing.
Give at least 30 days. Tell them the new price and when it starts, in one short paragraph. Say what changed, honestly, which is usually that costs went up. Don't explain for six sentences and don't ask permission, because a question invites a negotiation you didn't intend to have.
Expect to lose one. That is not a failure, that's the mechanism working. The customer paying your oldest, lowest rate is usually the one taking the most time, and the space they free up is worth more than the invoice.
If you never raise a price, you're not running a stable business, you're running a shrinking one in slow motion.
Frequently asked questions
How do you price a recurring service?
Start with your true cost for one visit, including drive time, your own hourly floor, payment processing, and self-employment tax. Price the same work as a one-off job at market rate. Then discount only by the amount recurring actually saves you, which is the selling cost you don't repeat plus any route density you gain.
Should recurring customers get a discount?
Only up to what the contract is worth to you, and often the better move is to hold your price and add value instead, like priority scheduling or a guaranteed window. A discount you can't name a reason for is just a lower price.
How long should a service contract run?
Six or twelve months, or month to month with 30 days notice. The important part isn't the length, it's that there is one, along with a written annual price adjustment.
How do I raise prices on an existing recurring customer?
Give at least 30 days notice in writing, state the new price and the start date, say briefly that costs went up, and don't ask permission. Expect to lose one customer and treat that as the system working.
What if a customer wants to pay monthly for work I do quarterly?
That's fine, and it's often easier for both of you, but bill it as a plan with a stated number of visits per year rather than as an open-ended monthly fee. Otherwise you'll be asked for a visit in a month you never priced.
Price it inside BUILD
Pricing is the place where being close to your work stops helping you. You know exactly what the job takes, which is precisely why it's hard to charge for it like a stranger would.
BUILD gives you the tools to build and price the thing, and a community of Builders who'll tell you your number is too low, because it usually is. Membership is $49 a month.
Go set the number. You got this.