Electricmanscott,
Everyone knows you're marking stuff up, it is no secret. Keeping the amount a secret creates mis-trust. So if the customer knows how much a circuit breaker cost, as they can easily find out, and reverse engineer an invoice, as people do. They look at it and say, "Hey, I just paid $50 for a $30 item! Wonder what else they're #%^king me on? Was that light fixture really $500?" If they know right off the bat, that you are marking up, and how much, you'll find yourself doing a lot less negotiating/bickering at the end. Not to mention if the customer trusts you, he'll be a lot more likely to call you back. This for T&M invoices, bid prices are different ball game. Tell them you'll charge an hour to break it down for them.
And, you can not tell people NOT to do side work. But they should understand that their day job suffers because of it. If the local going rate is $75-80, and they're out there on the week-end charging $35 cash as your compitition. (No license, permit, insurance, taxes or 'comp.) They have no right to whine when they ask for a raise and don't get it, or bussiness is slow and they get laid off! The underground economy accounts for big losses to the market. If we were not competing with our employees, we could charge more, and pay them more! Right now, I'm an employee, but been on both sides as an employer too. (Still do some side BUSSINESS on the up and up, at market rate.) Had to close because as a start up, I was competing with that underground, and go back to work for someone else.
