Twh,
You are absolutely right. I've been afraid to mark up the small items because I figured all the homeowners can walk around the local hardware store and see that I din't pay that much for a keyless socket.
As for the more expensive items like fancy light fixtures, they are already so pricey I'm afraid the customers would freak out at a 40% mark up on a $400 light.I'm gonna have to get over that aren't I?
Steve,
From my point of view, billable hours are different from tech hours. I pay my guys 40 hours per week (tech hours) even though it is nearly impossible to keep them busy exactly 8 hours a day. Sometimes the calls don't take quite as long as I anticipated so what do I do? Piss loyal employees off; send them home and dock them an hour or two? Over book the day and piss the customers off because they took the day off work to wait for us, but we're not going to make it there until tomorrow because the last job took too long?
Billable hours are basically the number of hours the tech is actually on the job in front of the customer with the $ meter running. Traffic, trips to the supply house, etc., all cut into the billable hours. I do charge more for the first hour to make up for some of this lost time.
I saw one electrician on TV that charged customers a minimum of four hours no matter how small the job. That would cover most of the difference in tech vs. billable hours.Good solution, but you gotta be one hard son of a gun to charge a little old lady four hours to fix a bad receptacle.
Pat
[This message has been edited by Pat@Amber (edited 08-26-2004).]
