If you're not good at business, you will fail whether you use T&M or fixed bids. Both can be screwed up! I much prefer to give a fixed bid because I then have a chance to turn the job into pure profit by bringing it in under budget and faster than planned, but this is not always the best way to bid. As I stated in another post, I recently finished the rough on a tough project that I made very good money on by using T&M, but I would've lost my a$$ on a fixed bid because it was worse than my wildest imagination.
As someone else just stated, no matter how you bid, you need to spell out who's responsible for what ahead of time. And realistically on T&M or C+, you charge for everything you do, from permits to plan, etc.
[This message has been edited by Electric Eagle (edited 07-22-2002).]
