Sparky66,
In my area the going rate is between $40 & $60 per hour. I was charging $50 per hour doing T&M and was getting plenty of complaints about how much money I was making even though I was broke. When I switched to flat rate I went to $100 per hour and I'm getting fewer complaints.
Showing the customer the price in the book is very important. They seem to accept the price much better when then see it in a book. It gives them the impression that this price is standard in the industry.
I started making my own books but this was too time consuming and I decided I was better off spending my time getting and doing jobs not making books.
The software makes maintaining your books very easy. It's easy to update material prices, job prices or job times. You can add or delete tasks. Choose different ways to print out your books etc.
I didn't have $2500 laying around either but I don't think I could have told all my customers I was raising my rate from $50 per hour to $100 per hour without doing it this way. Now they get the exact price that they want and they see it in a book so they don't think I'm pulling it out of my a#*.
I've only been using it for about 3 months now but so far the results have been positive.
