How to Set Your Freelance Rate (From Scratch)
6 min read
Start from the income you need, not the market
Most freelancers set their rate by copying someone else and hoping. Work backward instead. Decide the yearly income you want, then divide by the hours you can actually bill, which is far fewer than the hours you work. Admin, sales, and downtime are unpaid, so a 40-hour week might hold only 20 to 25 billable hours.
The quick math
Take your target income, then add 25% to 30% for taxes, self-employment costs, software, and the benefits no employer is paying for. Divide that total by your realistic billable hours per year. The result is your true minimum hourly rate, the floor below which you are quietly losing money.
Then move off the hour
Your hourly number is a tool for estimating, not the price you advertise. Once you know it, price most work per project: estimate the hours, multiply by your rate, then add a buffer for the jobs that run long. Per-project pricing pays you for results and stops punishing you for getting fast.
Charge for value, not just time
The same eight hours of work is worth different amounts depending on what it does for the client. A sales page that earns them six figures is worth more than its hour count, no matter how fast you wrote it. Let the client's outcome, not your clock, set the ceiling on your price.
Anchor your number in real data
Run your specialty through the free calculator to see where your trade's rates actually land, then use the math above to set a number you can say out loud without flinching.
Get your number first
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