Small jobs carry almost the same fixed costs as big ones. Here is how hourly, minimum-plus-hourly, and flat-rate pricing each handle that, and which one holds up.
Utilities and big landlords handle overhanging limbs and disputed lines hundreds of times a year. The habits that make that work are mostly free to copy.
A funeral bill is a stack of separate decisions, not one price. Here is how to tell the required line from the four that are yours to accept or refuse.
Most small operations know the total for the year and nothing about which work produced it. The difference between those two facts is usually an entire category of job.
Legal work is priced three ways, and the structure you are quoted says what kind of problem the attorney believes you have. That is useful information by itself.