Sparky 1,
Take a close look at your costs, hours of work done in a week, and what you want in pay, vacation, and proffit. An emploiee in IL that makes say $24 an hour will cost me $33 per hour with taxes, vacation & workers comp insurance IF he billed out 100% of his hours. At a 75% efficentcy my labor cost is $44 an hour with out any over head.
To bill out $35 an hour -24% for tax and WC, vacation, at 75% efficency would pay a electrician $12 an hour and give the company $0 for OH and proffit. If the other EC are always charging a strait $35 an hour eather they have a huge material MU or they are not doing very well. If they are not doing well then don't follow them.
You could charge $35 an hour and have a big mark up. There is a formula for working your numbers backwords to the MU needed for your bisness to work. I am guesing because your a new EC you don't have last years numbers to work off of. You might end up guessing what your nubers are and would not be much good.
Like A-line said you might have a better time just selling a price. I understand it is hard to come up with good estomates for you costs and time especially starting out or doing a different type of work.
To make things simpler try breaking down your costs, pay, & proffit per day. Estomate the number of days you'll have and then your material MU.
A-line,
What flat rate software do you have?
