Obviously there are limits, George.  The market would obviously not bear a price that steep and thus, long before you reached $250 for a current owner you would be out of business.  By the same token, figuring "it takes one hour to do a current owner and $35/hr is pretty good money" will also land you out of business when you only get one order every three days. 

I'm not sure which part of my fancy logic confused you, but it is really quite simple... If you don't make a decent "profit" when you have the work, you won't survive long when you don't.  "Most firms" plan to make a profit, and they don't expect the "good times" to last forever - at least the ones with any sense.  If you merely charge for your time, how will you feed your family when things are slow?

Best,
Robert A. Franco
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