I've been thinking of how I price stuff, and I think I've been giving myself the shaft, due to hourly pricing.
On the hourly system, the customer gets charged only for your prime time, the time that you have cleared everything away to work on his job. Then, all the work of running the business, fixing all your machinery, etc., doing the shopping and ordering, paying the bills ends up coming out of your profits.
I can barely get much done in a day, that is why I went with cnc, so I could still get a whole day's output, in half a day Minimum time to do anything of significance, is a half a day. So, pick a number, say $400 minimum per day, and stick with that, minimum charge, 1/2 day.
Sure, the odd job comes along where you can really produce a lot of work, but a realistic daily average for doing a variety of tasks (like a repair shop or a job shop) will probably be useful to you.
I think if you quote in tiny amounts, like, price per part or per hour, you just belittle yourself, and give the customer a chance to nitpick your pricing, and he also can then ignore your time and efforts taken to run your business.
So, shake them out of their paradigm, instill your own and get some respect.
First you get good, then you get fast. Then grouchiness sets in.
(Note: The opinions expressed in this post are my own and are not necessarily those of CNCzone and its management)