Professional Rate Calculator

Make informed decisions about your pricing strategy. Our calculator helps you determine competitive rates based on your experience, market position, and business costs.

This helps us benchmark against market rates

$1,000$85,000$250,000

Understanding Your Rates

How We Calculate Your Rates

We start with your target annual income and work backwards to determine competitive rates that account for non-billable time, vacation, and various project factors. The goal is to ensure you're charging enough to meet your income goals while staying competitive in your market.

Your Rate = (Your Target Income ÷ Available Hours) × Adjustments

The Basics

Available Hours

We take your preferred weekly hours and multiply them by 48 weeks (assuming 4 weeks for vacation and unexpected gaps). This gives us your actual billable hours per year.

Overhead Time

We apply a 1.4x multiplier to account for non-billable activities like admin, marketing, and business development. This means if you need $100/hr to meet your target, you should charge $140/hr to account for unbillable time.

Adjustment Factors

Your base rate gets adjusted based on four key factors that affect the value and effort of your work:

Project Complexity

Standard1.0×
Complex1.3×
Highly Complex1.6×

Timeline Urgency

Standard1.0×
Urgent1.5×
Immediate2.0×

Client Type

Startup0.9×
Mid-Market1.15×
Enterprise1.5×

Engagement Length

One-off Project1.0×
3-6 Months0.9×
6+ Months0.8×

Reality Check

We compare your target income with what you'd earn in a full-time role to assess how achievable your goals are:

Conservative (≤1.2× FTE)

Easily achievable with standard rates

Realistic (1.2-1.5× FTE)

Achievable with good positioning

Ambitious (1.5-2.0× FTE)

Requires strong strategy and positioning

Stretch (>2.0× FTE)

Needs exceptional value proposition

Example

Starting Point

  • • Target Income: $120,000/year
  • • Working 40 hours/week
  • • 4 weeks buffer time

Calculation

  • 1. Available Hours = 40 hrs × 48 weeks = 1,920 hrs/year
  • 2. Base Rate = ($120,000 ÷ 1,920) × 1.4 = $87.50/hr
  • 3. Final Rates (rounded for professionalism):
  • • Hourly: $90
  • • Daily: $720
  • • Weekly: $3,600

Remember

These calculations provide a solid starting point, but you should adjust your final rates based on your unique circumstances, market conditions, and client relationships. The key is to find rates that are both sustainable for your business and valuable to your clients.

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