I am just starting to work on my own, so my work will be primarily residential and some commercial. I know some electricians give estimates based on the number of devices and the square feet.
Before doing a job, do you give and estimate or a proposal? To me, and estimate is just a guess as to what it's going to do the job and implies that if it takes more (or less) there will be a price change. If you do this, it seems to me that you might as well work T&M.
To me, a proposal is a scope of work defined and a price to perform the scope of work. It implies that you have checked the job conditions and you have a good understanding of what you need to do. This is where you make money because the customer can't come back and ask for an accounting to compare to the estimate.
So, I can see someone using a quick method to give an "estimate" and if the customer would like to move to a contract, then the proposal would be written with a fixed price attached.
I used to give estimates on wiring marinas (Mr. Customer I think it will cost about $250,000 to wire your marina), and if the customer was not put off I would then do takeoffs and some design criteria and give them a proposal that stated specifically what I was giving pricing on and what I was not including.
Just the way I look at things.
