Before you can price a single job, you need to know one number: what your household must generate every month.
Every contractor who has ever failed at pricing made the same mistake: they started with the market. BASE stands for Basic Amount Survival Expenses. It is the minimum amount your household must generate every month to keep the lights on and your family stable.
When you are self-employed, that number is higher than you think because you pay both halves of Social Security and Medicare. BASE is roughly your monthly expenses multiplied by two.
Once you know your BASE, it transforms into your floor rate — the minimum hourly amount you must earn. That floor rate goes into every estimate as a direct cost. Your time is not free just because you own the business.
The contractor who lives on BASE for the first two years builds a business that can eventually pay them far more than employment. The one who takes every dollar out builds nothing.