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What do you actually need to charge?

Start from the salary you want to keep, not from what the market "feels like." Taxes and expenses get added back, then divided by the hours you can honestly bill. Nothing is sent anywhere — the math happens on this page.

Target annual take-home pay

What you want to keep after taxes and business expenses, per year.

Tax set-aside (%)

Self-employment plus income tax, roughly. 25–30% covers most solo operators; the tax set-aside calculator gives you a sharper number.

Annual business expenses

Software, hardware, insurance, coworking, accounting — everything the business pays before you do.

Billable weeks per year

52 minus vacation, sick days, and the dead weeks between contracts.

Billable hours per week

Most people overestimate their billable hours — use the average from your last three months, not your intentions.

Your floor rate

— / hour

Day rate (8 hours): —
Revenue needed per year: —
Billable hours per year: —
If you bill 20 h/wk instead: —

Enter your numbers.

After the number

The rate is half the negotiation. The other half is the paperwork.

The Client-Ready Business Templates are the ten documents this studio sends under its own name — proposal, MSA, SOW, change order, invoice — $19, with the standing 14-day refund. Related reading: moving from projects to retainers, which is where a floor rate stops mattering and a monthly number takes over.