I'm just an employee, not an owner, but I do have some insight.
Set a shop rate that you can live with. Don't necessarily shop around and see what the market will bare. I think sometimes people forget when they are just starting that they should want to make a living, not a killing.
I think it's a good idea when you charge t&m to keep a log every day, to show your customer what they paid for. This helps justify your cost, and gives them a little more piece-of-mind.
Then just do what you do, and do it well. Word of mouth can bring you new customers fast. When you're just getting off the ground, take whatever work you can get.
When we first started, we even took jobs fixing farm equipment for some of the locals! But it didn't take long before we did the right jobs for the right customers. Now 4 years later we are SWAMPED.
I think the best way to make more money is to bring in more -of the right- employees. Your shop rate should be static, word will spread fast if you change it. We only increased it enough to cover the increase in our employees' wages.
All of this of course is just my opinion, but let me end it with this. If you treat everyone right, you will eventually be able to pull in the savvy customers. When you have a waiting list that's a year out, you can afford to wait for customers who will pay for the best.
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