removing roof decks?

Grumpy, The most important thing that you are going to have to learn as a freebird is to sell yourself. You have to look at the job from the aspect of what it is worth to the owner, not from what it is going to cost you.
If I was going against you for the job, I would go $2k over your bid and stress the quality of the work to be done. Unless the owners were total tightwads, I would get the job.
Don't forget the reverse attack (backdoor) 'I guess that you are working on tight funds', 'I would really like to help you but I guess that I am beyond your means,
Frequently customers show me bids that are just so wrong that I tell them that the guy would be better off flippin' burgers for a national chain and they go with him. Ya can't win 'em all and most times you're better off for it.
You're new, as we all were once and you are going to have to struggle just as we all have but in the end you should have a successful business, something to be proud of.

Hey Grump. I can't offer you any real advice other than whenever I'm looking at a new process/equipment/crew or complicated setup/takedown, I always bid heavy on the labor, then add the cost of two to three extra days onsite to trouble shoot the inevitable unforeseen monster problem that you couldn't have predicted. I should say that I am not a roofer, but more of a freelance structural designer, but this principle has always worked for me and I don't know why more contractors don't use it....Bid heavy on labor and add extra days onsite;and if you don't need them, honestly tell the homeowner you overestimated the labor costs and then give a refund. You will have so much good word of mouth advertising, you'll be booked for six months solid. It has worked for me, just thought I'd offer it up.

Mike Finley said:

Well, it probably isn't done much because business is very Darwinian in nature - what doesn't work usually gets discarded by natural selection. Another reason is that as a professional if the best you can do is just get relatively close to the figure by adding a bunch of padding to benefit yourself it doesn't really promote a sense of well being in a customer that you really know what you are doing. Further we live in the age of skepticism, not a lot of customers really believe that a person with a vested interest in making money is the best person to trust their open wallet to safe-gaurd.

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Ouch. Hey Mike, take it easy. My ego is easily bruised by thinly veiled insults. I was referring to new work, something that you've haven't worked on before. We can't know it all until we've had some experience. Personally, guys like me find philosophical cynics are just compensating for some inadequecy. I prefer to tell someone up front where I'm coming from and be as earnest and honest as I can. I would argue that people prefer the truth to overconfident arrogance. It has worked for me, probably because not all customers are as Calvinistic as you purport them to be. I would argue that people who are planning on changing their environment with their wallets, have already switched into cautious and hopeful open-minded mode. I think you are underestimating the average guy's ability to gauge a contractor for himself. Let me guess, you support term limits too. Lighten up! Woo-hoo! :cheesygri