The difficulty with Square foot pricing is that you don't know what your actual costs are and further more you really have no way of tracking it either.
In order to run your business successfully, you need to be able to determine the number of hours a project will take, and the value of the materials in order to ensure that you are going to make any profit.
In my area, we have electricians who are pricing houses for GC's at $2.25 per sq ft and they don't add extra for pots or service or, or... and think they are making money.
If you are new to residential wiring and you are doing the work yourself, you can take a chance on one house but you need to track how many devices and fixtures you are installing and the time for the service and take a close look at your materials costs once you are done. Then you can work backwards and figure out what your price should have been.
In my area, I use a rule of thumb of $2.50 per sq ft and then add for service and potlighting at $50 to $75 ea depending on size and style, etc.
Hope that helps.
Glen
PS I am looking for a couple of contractors to help me work some bugs out of my business. I have developed a customized estimating program and am in the process of getting ready to start an estimating coaching business. I am looking for a few contractors who are willing to go through the set up process and run some trials on my software. If anyone is interested, please feel free to contact me.
