Thank you guys for your responses. I have been thinking about switching to a flat rate system and this is pushing me further to make the switch.
Thanks again,
+1 on the flat rate.
flat rate when you can define the scope of the work, T+M when
you can't.
customers usually want to know three things:
how much will it cost?
how long will it take?
when can you start?
they don't want to know that you are god's gift to the electron,
that everyone who worked on their property before you sucked,
or, that you don't know how much it will cost, 'cause you don't
know how long it will take.
rounding up? let's get real. if you go off on a service call, and
get it done, then you have a second service call, and get it done,
guess what? the day is pretty much over. can you get to a third
service call and get it done?
can you get THREE different people to have their schedules line up
so you can make that day a full and productive one? sure you can. :lol:
so, each of those service calls is half a days work, 'cause it's eating
half a day of your life, and that is gone forever.
so, whats half a day of your life worth? write that down.
how much is the material? add markup. write that down.
add them together. write that down.
that is your service call amount. now, you have to write a bill that
has a number that looks like that number, but doesn't cause the
customer to have a stroke.
flat rate is how you do that. a paragraph describing what you are
doing, and an amount at the end of the paragraph saying how much
it is, for service call type work.
now, go to the spreadsheet of your costs of doing business...
(you made it when you did your business plan, remember?)
and see what your REAL cost of doing business is.
you don't have one of those? ok, either quit reading opinions
here and do a sheet, NOW, or just save yourself the grief
and close your business now, rather than wait until you are
deeply in debt to fail. save yourself some money.
if you are selling something that you don't know how much it
costs to buy, this isn't gonna go well.
when i ran my numbers, it came up $128 an hour to maintain
level flight. not get rich, just level flight. i have no overhead to
speak of. most electrical contractors are closer to $200.
and my pricing is middle of the pack for quotes, based on what
i've seen.