Re: Second opinion: Emergency 100 Amp service lateral repair
I usually kept 3 technicians full time on service work, and in this we would do a service change every two weeks on average, this is rural California. Our price ranged from $900-$2000 and the client purchases the permit. All jobs are priced before we render service, NEVER T&M.
It is best to pass rather than provide T&M. T&M is a "lose-lose" situation, you will always compromise your costs and the client will never understand the costs of your repair, in other words you are submitting your costs to your client for their approval? Even if they have been in the trades they no NOTHING about legal application.
Keep in mind if you are a one man shop ALL your labor charge is profit, NONE of it is cost, if you charge $5 @ hour this is $5 @ hour profit $60 @ hour is ALL profit in a one man shop, you will find this out through taxes and your CPA. It is untrue to say "my job costs like: gas, truck, small tools...are in this rate," this is the most common statement yet look at the 3rd word in this statement. It is more accurate to say something like, "this is our shop rate" but with this you are not submitting your cost!
If you are a company with staff you have costs associated with company labor rate. If you pay a technician $25 you will have an additional 22% so this example the labor cost is $30.50 per hour minimum, and in this example at $60 @ hour shop rate the company made a gross profit of about $29.50 per hour. ALL time incurred to you is attributed to the service rendered, you should NEVER split tasks out like purchasing,?unless you pay this way but again if you stay out of the T&M world you won?t need to worry about this.
The equation is not as simple (nor is it accurate at all) as picking a rate and multiplying it annually, if you are a business you are responsible to choose accurately based on your demographics, if you don?t you will not exist into the future very far, luck does not exist long here only viability.