Agreed. I don’t look at competitors pricing as it never the same job being quoted. It’s different if you (and forgive the very basic analogy) were hired to just go and change a 60 watt incandescent light bulb from a standard keyless light with easy access to the fixture from the ground. Everyone would see the scope as the same. Attend, supply and change bulb, dispose of original and test complete. Simple right. So everyone could charge based on that but then what about the back end. How did the call come in, through a service, through your own admin system, how was the lead generated, through marketing or a lead generator, how far was the location from your location, how much fuel or were toll roads used, how much does it cost to carry the vehicle (insurance and monthly payments), how many people are sent per truck regardless the task, and on and on.
you have to price based on your costs. Your a business, you report earnings and pay taxes so you know what your costs are per job as well as per month on the admin side.
this all most comes down to a conversation of Margin vs Markup (both with a factor of 35% as most businesses in the services industry should be aiming for 30-35% overall) which to me is the way you are able to include your admin costs into each job - in choosing Margin over Markup pads the costs by about the same about needed for admin, marketing, insurance and fuel of running a business.
this is a long way of saying that pricing a project is based on your business and if your too high then you should look at your costs and determine how to reduce the overall overhead. If your too low the you should also look at the same overhead and consider updating vehicles or tools and create a obsolescence plan for these things so that your not caught off guard when you have to replace them or hire more people.
