A quote gets accepted for two reasons. The number is right for the customer, and the number is explained well enough that they trust it. Most trades spend all their effort on the first and none on the second. The second is where quotes are won.
Start with what the job costs you
Before you think about what the customer will pay, know what the job costs. That is labour, materials, consumables, travel, the fee you pay to the tip, the hire gear, and a share of the things that do not show up on any one job: the ute, the insurance, the licence, the phone, the tools you replace every year.
Most sole traders know their hourly rate and nothing else. The hourly rate is not a cost. It is a price. Your cost is what you have to bring in per hour to cover everything above and still take home a wage. Work it out once a year. Add up the overheads for twelve months, divide by the hours you actually bill (not the hours you work; the hours you bill, which is fewer than you think), and that is the overhead you carry on every billable hour. Add your wage. Add a margin. That is your rate, and it is usually higher than the one you have been charging.
Price the job, not the hour
Customers do not buy hours. They buy a fixed tap, a working power point, a dry roof. Where you can, price the outcome. A fixed price for a standard job is easier for the customer to say yes to, easier for you to defend, and rewards you for being fast rather than punishing you for it.
Keep a list of the jobs you can price without thinking: the call-out, the standard replacement, the per-square-metre rate, the per-point rate. Price each one to include the time it really takes, the time it takes to get there, and the material you always use. This list is your price list. In Quote Desk it is the first thing you set up, and it is why a quote takes two minutes instead of twenty.
Keep the hourly rate for the unknowns: the fault you have to find, the thing behind the wall, the extra the customer adds while you are there.
Write the lines so they explain themselves
A single number on a quote asks the customer to trust you. A list of lines shows them where the money goes. Show the call-out fee as a line. Show the materials as a line. Show the labour as a line. A customer who can see that $1,200 is $120 to come out, $680 for the unit and $400 to fit it will accept $1,200 more readily than one who sees $1,200 and nothing else.
Lines also protect you later. When the customer says they thought the old unit was being taken away, you point at the quote. It either says so or it does not.
Say what is not included
The note under the lines is for the things that cause arguments. What is excluded. Who supplies what. When you can start. How long the price holds. Whether GST is in. Whether the customer moves the furniture. Write the note like you are explaining it to the customer on the doorstep, because that is what it replaces.
A quote with a clear note loses fewer jobs to misunderstanding and wins more against a competitor whose quote is a number on a text message.
Do not price for the customer who will never say yes
Some customers want a price that does not cover your costs. You will not get that job at a price you can live with, and if you do get it you will wish you had not. Price for the customer who wants the job done properly and is prepared to pay what that costs. Those customers are more common than the other kind, and they tell their neighbours.
Round sensibly
$1,187.50 looks calculated and is. $1,190 looks confident and is easier to read on a phone. Round your fixed items to numbers a person can hold in their head. Keep the per-unit rates exact where it matters, such as a per-square-metre rate that gets multiplied by 58.
Send it today
The best-priced quote in the world loses if it arrives after the customer has said yes to someone else. The customer is comparing you against the plumber who texted a number from the driveway. Your quote needs to arrive before you have left the street, with lines, a note and a way to accept. That is a tooling problem, not a pricing one, and it is the one Quote Desk fixes.
Check your win rate, not your gut
After twenty quotes, look at the Won and Lost groups. If you are winning nearly everything, you are cheap. If you are losing most of them to price, read the decline reasons. A customer who types cheaper quote elsewhere tells you something. A customer who types decided not to go ahead tells you something different. Adjust the list, not each quote.
Pricing is a habit, not a talent. Know your costs, price the outcome, show the lines, write the note, send it fast. Then read what comes back.