The marine fabrication industry encompasses a wide range of businesses, from multinational corporations to small mom-and-pop and one-person operations run out of garages or basements. Regardless of size, there are hardworking people everywhere with a passion for making products and/or providing services to customers.

The work is rewarding, but it often includes long hours, and outworking competitors doesn’t always translate into a more profitable operation. There are many talented cutters and innovative manufacturers, but success in a for-profit business means profit; it funds payroll and accrued debt and often drives growth and innovation.

Many in the industry are honest people who want to charge a fair price for their work. However, some make the mistake of underbidding. There are several reasons why low estimates happen, but it generally comes down to the bidder inaccurately calculating costs into the job, including:

• Work requiring more labor hours than expected.
• Raw materials going up in price.
• Changes in regulations or laws.
• Profit margins being inadequate.
• Small business owners not paying themselves for the other jobs they do that aren’t directly related to the job on which they bid.

Business is business

Estimation issues are business issues. Even if you do excellent work cutting fabric, the business aspect is the bottom line for success. Of course, that equation will vary according to the business, overhead and market.

“One of the things that I have found most useful about being part of the MFA [Marine Fabricators Association] is that everybody in the group is really helpful,” says Mike Charpentier, co-owner of Paul’s Custom Canvas in Denver, Colo. “If I have questions about a specific type of job that I don’t know how to do, there are a number of people that I don’t mind picking up the phone and calling.”

Russ Griffin, co-owner of Northcoast Marine Specialties LLC in Port Clinton, Ohio, has been cutting canvas for more than two decades. The company also runs Canvas Training, a school that shows others locally, nationally and internationally how to do it.

“Every class we have, I fill the room with people, and some of them are entrepreneurial in nature,” says Griffin, who bids with the goal of 80 percent gross profit (the other 20 percent is for labor and raw materials). “But I’ll still get a couple of students that say, ‘Well, I’m here because I got an estimate for my boat and I thought it was outrageous. I want to learn how to do this so I can offer it at a much cheaper price.’ And I hear that. And I simply explain to them, ‘Well, that’s noble of you, but you won’t do it long. Because the expenses will eat you up, and then you’ll understand why we charge what we charge.’”

Jamie Marozzi, who held a roundtable on estimating at the 2025 Marine Fabricators Conference, took over his parents’ operation, Bayview Canvas in West Creek, N.J., in 2010. It was just him, his wife and a part-time employee. At first, Marozzi simply doubled material costs for his bids, but doubling the cost wasn’t enough.

To determine a fair labor rate, Marozzi argues that fabricators need to calculate their shop rate—which is the cost of operating their business, including payroll, utilities, internet and rent. A common method is to total annual operating costs (e.g., $100,000) and divide by the number of working hours in a year (typically 2,080), resulting in a base cost of about $48–$50 per hour.

From there, fabricators add profit margins, often aiming for another $30–$40 per hour, which means $80–$90. However, rates vary widely by region, demand and perceived quality. Still, even with that equation, Marozzi wasn’t charging enough to make it sustainable. He lasted longer than 10 years but substantially raised his prices over the last five or six years. While the money was better, the hours were still long, and he moved in a different direction to get a better work-life balance for his family. He took a job in sales at Keyston Bros in Roswell, Ga., and was recently promoted to branch manager for Keyston Bros Atlanta.

“A lot of guys are charging $100, $125, $150 an hour,” Marozzi points out. “I think somewhere in between there is probably where it should be, if not more. The work that we do is very difficult; it’s time-consuming, it takes a lot of practice—years and years and years of practice—to do a perfect job. And even then, sometimes it’s not perfect.”

Know your market

Whereas Griffin’s bread and butter is sailboats and larger boats that navigate Lake Erie, Paul’s Custom Canvas focuses on boats that live on a trailer rather than at the marina. Colorado doesn’t have a lot of lakes and navigable bodies of water, so ski boats, wake boats and fishing boats 27 feet and smaller are the company’s focus. Paul’s Custom Canvas does travel and storage covers, bimini tops and enclosures. The company also makes canopies for pontoon boats because there isn’t a significant online presence servicing that sector.

Paul’s Custom Canvas typically aims to complete between 20 and 25 boats per week. The company has enough space to handle six or seven boats (on trailers) at a time, which means maybe doing multiples if the dealer wants them outfitted. Dealers also get the boats back in two to three days, compared to a week for individual customers. With a 12-person staff, the shop can meet those production numbers.

“We basically have just kind of found our niche and have gotten really good at what we do within our niche,” explains Charpentier, who took over the business from his dad in 2016. “We get offers to do roll-up curtains for patio enclosures or automotive upholstery. We do marine upholstery, but we don’t do automotive upholstery. We don’t go outside of that because we know that it’s gonna cost us more than what we think it’s going to, and we’re not bidding it right.”

While Charpentier does use software to run the business, Paul’s Custom Canvas’ bidding process is straightforward, with adjustments for the type of boat and size. Fabric needs to be shipped, but the company keeps a few popular choices in stock. For Charpentier, the biggest challenge is keeping staff busy during the slow winter months, and he plans accordingly to account for the dip in business.

Handshakes are great, but writing is better

People who work with their hands often like to seal a deal with a handshake. That’s great for symbolism and tradition, but businesses are only as strong as their contracts.

Paperwork should include price and how long that price is good for, delivery date and all the usual caveats about materials, weather and other unanticipated events that could impact work. It’s also a good idea to itemize costs, especially on bigger jobs, so customers can see what they are paying for; it is also necessary when an insurance claim pays for the work. The contract should outline when payment is due and what happens if clients do not pay. Finally, there should be no cancellations after the materials are ordered.

“I did use QuickBooks^® for the software, for my estimating and invoicing software,” says Marozzi. “I also used it to send my contract, which I will say is another super important part of estimating. It’s not necessarily the price, but it lays out and protects you from all the things that can go wrong. Part of estimating is the time. If you tell somebody four weeks and you don’t have anything in writing—say you think you told them four, and the customer heard two—now it’s you versus the customer’s word, and you don’t have a leg to stand on.”

Unless the boat is on premises, where the boat acts as collateral, it’s a good rule of thumb to get 50 percent down. Although this may seem like a lot to ask, there are compelling reasons to do it.

Griffin waits for the customer to sign the contract and put 50 percent down before adding them to the schedule. After that, he says, “We order all the materials. And that’s another complaint about our industry: Somebody will say, ‘I gave them a deposit, and they never started the job.’ And then you find out that’s because they spent the deposit money, and then when it was time to do the job, they didn’t have the materials. Also, when we accepted a smaller deposit, people would keep shopping at other canvas shops. Trust me: If they put 50 percent down, they will pay you the other half.”

Work smarter, not harder

Tradition is great, but it’s not good business if outdated methods prevent success and growth. Computers have streamlined business operations for decades, with software such as QuickBooks and SAP helping companies run more efficiently. But enterprise technology has advanced far beyond traditional accounting tools. Artificial intelligence and automation are becoming everyday resources for business administration, supply chain and manufacturing—even for smaller organizations.

Today, companies such as Winston-Salem, N.C.–based Infopine offer full-scale enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions once reserved for global manufacturers to small and midsized textile firms. Infopine’s ERP is not just a production or sourcing tool; it’s also a complete accounting system, integrating 12 connected modules that manage every aspect of business operations, from finance, production planning and quality control to inventory, purchasing and customer management, all within a cloud platform.

“It’s a production planning system, a full sourcing system, a full quality control system and a complete accounting system—all in one intuitive package that an entire company can use,” says Todd Morgan, a 30-year textile industry veteran and Infopine’s chief growth officer.

Infopine’s small-business edition supports up to five users and costs about $30,000—roughly equivalent to a year’s salary for an entry-level employee performing data entry, yet is capable of transforming the efficiency and visibility of the entire operation. It may seem like a lot of money, but an ERP also has the added advantage that it doesn’t take vacations or move on after getting trained.

“They’re not building new spreadsheets. We’ve already done that for them,” says Morgan. “They can instantly see real-time revenue, costs, receivables aging 30, 60, 90 days and everything they need to manage their business right from a dashboard.” 

Tad Hendrickson is a freelance writer who lives in Minneapolis.

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SIDEBAR: Tricks of the trade

Russ Griffin, co-owner of Northcoast Marine Specialties LLC in Port Clinton, Ohio, offers these pearls of wisdom about estimating jobs:

1. The floating billboard: “I’ve always told students, ‘You have to have a floating billboard. Even if that means that you have to drop your price on one boat, do a great job on that boat.’ Then what happens is that people see the product, look around at the other boats in the marina and think, ‘None of them look like this one.’ I call it a floating billboard because at that point, the dock neighbors start calling, and the next thing you know, you’ve done every boat on that pier.”
2. Premium pricing: “Charge the premium for the last 20 percent of available jobs in a given month.”
3. Rainy-day projects: “These are for when there is literally rain or wind that prevents work on outdoor jobs. So the margin slides down a little bit, but we are still working.” 

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SIDEBAR: Time Standards Manual: A starting point

The Time Standards Manual, available to Marine Fabricators Association members, helps shops determine how long a job will take and suggests an hourly rate, which they can use to calculate an estimate. Jamie Marozzi, branch manager at Keyston Bros in Roswell, Ga., uses the guide as a great place to begin writing an estimate and encourages others to view it the same way.

“It’s not going to be exact, but it’s at least a starting point,” he says. “It’s a jump-off point for guys who are kind of unsure of where to start, and how many hours it should take them. … Not a perfect tool by any means, but it at least gets you in the ballpark of where you should be.”

Mike Charpentier, co-owner of Paul’s Custom Canvas in Denver, Colo., says that he uses it when quoting prices to insurance companies, noting they are less inclined to question the quote if he backs it up using the Time Standards Manual estimate. Charpentier also uses the manual for the rare occasions his shop takes on a project that isn’t the company’s bread and butter. 

“I do very little work on sailboats,” he says. “So if I have a question on how long it is going to take to build a dodger, I’ll refer to the Time Standards Manual to price out dodgers.”