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It is interesting to me, having had lots of discussions both in person and on boards like this one, is that smaller landscape contractors believe that they make more money with flat contract prices and larger contractors and especially general contractors can't wait to have something go into T&M billing. It clearly says to me that they are not both doing it the same way.
I see the big advantages of a contract price as:
1. it is much easier to sell because it removes doubt of the final price to the client.
2. it allows the contractor flexibility because he is not is not under the microscope about how productive each billable minute is, or time spent off site related to the job.
3. the more efficiently you work, the more profit is kept.
T&M:
1. you get paid for everything including client changes and the unexpected.
2. effeciency is not what determines your profit.
The hardest thing about T&M is that it gets greater scrutiny by the client. Billing is more often than not, challenged by the client. It is more difficult to defend the billing in a court situation. It is also much easier for a client to bring you in for the setup of a project and get the best out of you early and then dump you before you get into moving some of you more profitable materials. This is especially true with planting which holds a lot of the jobs material profit and comes very late in the project and something that most people believe they can get anyone to do and they have access to plants (wholesale in the case of a builder or GC).
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