...I might meet with disagreement on this site
yeah, when you're wrong, people here usually let you know...
It comes down to the numbers. But unless you know what your market is charging, than anything else is simply a guess.
numbers? damn straight... competitors rates? Absolutely NOT the most important numbers by any means, and quite near irrelevant..
The numbers that matter are the ones that keep YOU in business & happy to be in business.. not everyone can make it in this business, or in their market, or with their current business model... you may learn this the hard way, AND the competitors you take a reading off may be learning this the hard way right now, killing themselves with numbers some would tell you to study...
...working to "keep the employees busy" can be the death of you, & I know this all too well to be fact. If you take your eye off the REAL numbers that should matter to you, you can drive yourself deep in a hole in a short time. Sometimes you need to let employees go, and pricing low to give them hours might be good for them, but might lead to them being out of a job anyway, along with yourself...