I can understand everyone feeling miffed at low quotes. However, some business(wo)men work out the budget for the year, predicting all costs, then looking to what the work demand profile is likely to be during the year. If you employ 4 tilers at £10/hour then you pay that come rain or shine - if you know Jan-March has few jobs, then a job at £6.50 per sq m pays more than not doing the job. As the year progresses and more work around, they up their prices and recover their losses from earlier in the year.
Shops do this a lot - sell off stock very cheap during lean times to encourage any purchase, but bump the prices up when demand rises.
Shops do this a lot - sell off stock very cheap during lean times to encourage any purchase, but bump the prices up when demand rises.