Oh yeah, the money just rolls in in heaps I tell ya. Them profits are just so easy to achieve.
You don't have a clue
It guess it depends on the business. Ours is software development and consulting.
When we bid on a job, we figure the benefits, profit, overhead, and G&A into our rate. We only do time and materials (T&M) type contracts, do we get our profit regardless.
We have very low overhead and G&A, so we tend to get the work. Effectively, we have no office—just laptops and servers. Lately, we’ve just been using software hosting services, so soon we won’t even have our servers. Very low overhead. I’m a full-time professor and part-time business owner, so my benefits are already paid for.
If the customer wants to pay more, he can go somewhere else. We are also in a state “development” zone, so we tax credits based on our annual revenue increase and number of employees. Effectively, we make $$ instead of paying taxes.
You can accuse me of not having a clue, but we’ve increased revenue and profits every years since inception (5 years).