Image: Josh Olalde
CostCertified is a construction estimating software company offering a new service to streamline payments for contractors.
The new feature, CostCertified Payments, will provide contractors with the ability to invoice and receive payments all within the estimating platform.
The company came to fruition when CEO and founder Mike Bignold saw an opportunity to simplify and create an easy estimating process for his own contracting company.
Michael Bignold, CEO and Founder, CostCertified
He initially developed a platform to allow contractors to send out estimates in minutes, while keeping costs low and profits high, as well as ensuring every element of the project was managed in a timely manner.
Bignold also designed the end product, the quote, to look and feel like an online shopping experience for his clients. He found success in his own business and decided to take CostCertifed to the broader market, and help contractors and their customers. He took an overly complicated process and simplified it.
Since its launch in 2021, CostCertified has received tremendous support and funding by tech incubator program Y-Combinator, and is on track to become one of the fastest growing companies in North America.
Bignold recently spoke with Church.Design about his creation.
Church.Design: How does CostCertified hit the sweet spot for builders and contractors at this time of economic turmoil in our country?
Bignold: These days costs are ballooning and it’s important to have a handle on that from the start. We’ve kept this in mind as we’ve designed our software. The most important thing for builders and contractors is ensuring that they aren’t losing money on a project. They are able to qualify their customers properly ahead of time so everyone’s time is used effectively. The proposals are easy for all parties to understand and simplified in a way that ensures transparent, accurate pricing every time.
The contractor can be sure they are efficient with their time and costs while making profits and their customer can be sure they are getting the best, localized pricing, with the options to make changes all from the comfort of their home. Contractors are also able to invoice and collect payments all within the platform, which eliminates the need for additional software or trips to the bank.
Church.Design: What does it do exactly?
Bignold: CostCertified is a software platform that gives the contractor the ability to give the homeowner [or other client] a real-time interactive buying experience at the point of sale. Our platform allows contractors to create and send estimates in minutes, which is interactive and allows their customer to select options and upgrades. Contractors are also able to invoice and collect payments directly through the platform and provide access to their customer to track progress. This eliminates any miscommunication between contractors and their customers and makes the project less stressful.
Church.Design: Why are builders interested? What are the pros and top selling points?
Bignold: It takes estimating from four hours on average to under 10 minutes; it enures profitability on each job; they can wow their customers with an interactive buying experience; they increase the percentage of projects they win because customers actually know what they’re buying (increase of over 30% on average); they increase the value of the job for the same reason (increase of net job profit by over 7% on average); and owners can have someone else do the estimating, even if they know nothing about construction, without risking errors.
"It takes estimating from four hours on average to under 10 minutes."
Josh Bignold, Ceo and Founder, CostCertified
Church.Design: Why would church designers and builders be interested in the software?
Bignold: We feel that CostCertified helps with so many different facets of the project. With so many moving parts, it helps the project flow and has the ability to manage many different trades that are involved. It ensures the subcontractors are getting paid on time, keeps the projects on schedule, and gives the customer real-time updates on the progress.
Church.Design: Do you have an example of a successful utilization?
Bignold: We pride ourselves in the growth of our clients' businesses. A small business success story that stands out to us is a fencing contractor. He was ready to give up on his fencing business until he came across CostCertified. He managed to go from ready to give it all up to making $80,000 in two weeks.
We also had a client whose husband passed away and she inherited his construction company. With no experience in the industry, CostCertified was able to help her with the transition and guided her along the way [to] continue on his legacy of the company.
Church.Design: Is there a big learning curve?
Bignold: Our concept was designed with all demographics in mind, all the way from painters to home builders. It’s an intuitive tool that can also be customized to what suits each individual contractor and ensures that its original DNA is incorporated into it. We have an entire customer success team that is available for support all the way from onboarding, [up] to right when an invoice is sent off.
Church.Design: What else is important to know?
Bignold: CostCertified is a nimble, product-centric company that values excellence and continuous improvement. Accelerating growth and delivering transformative value-add to our customers is a priority.
Here's where you'll find more information on CostCertified.
