Repair / Service hourly Rate

I charge $150 an hour. I started out charging $100 an hour. I have put $150/hour in my current contracts and have started charging some of my customers with older contracts $150/hour as well. No issues. I usually tell people either “cheap is expensive” or “wait until you see what I will charge to fix it again after XYZ company screws it up”

You will always have the “I know a guy who can do it cheaper” customers, and you can tell them to call him.

Thank you for this. Are you in the Northern California area? $150 is what I was going to raise my hourly rate to. 

I’m sorry I didn’t read the very beginning of your post, I’m from Houston, Texas. Lots of my customers are Cali transplants and even the locals don’t seem to have an issue with the pricing. I work with a few companies in Austin, TX where rates are similar (a bit higher) and customer base is a lot of Cali transplants. Not apples-to-apples but just providing a data point. Your time and experience are more valuable than you may think.

One thing I will also suggest is we have moved recently from completely itemized invoicing/by the hour labor to an “install fee” for certain jobs especially things that are close to only 1 hour. We include a lot of information on the invoice about what we are doing/what they are paying for. It seems to work well and prevents them from trying to pick it apart.