Joey,
Occasionally you will have a job that you lose money on. Your prices have to be high enough to cover the occasional job that goes bad. When I was doing T&M I was losing on all my jobs. So which is better?
If you find that you are losing money on a job too often then you need to increase your labor time in your book.
Example: If your book says a job will take 2 hours but most of the time it takes you between 3 to 4 hours then increase the book time to 4 hours. If most of the time it only takes you 3 hours and your book says 4 hours you are now getting more than T&M. With T&M the faster you complete the job the less you get paid for doing the same job.
You could set your prices high enough that you would never lose on a job but you might not be able to sell it to the customer.
Some have their prices quite high and still seem to be able to get plenty of work. I guess it just depends on how good you are at selling.
I think of it like gambling in vegas. The house doesn't win every hand but the house always wins the game.
[This message has been edited by A-Line (edited 12-19-2004).]
