Calculate the exact hourly, daily, and project rate you must charge to hit your take-home salary after taxes, business expenses, and time off.
$859
$10733
Many freelancers make the mistake of dividing their desired corporate salary by 2,080 working hours (40 hours × 52 weeks). This ignores essential freelance realities: non-billable administrative hours, self-employment taxes, healthcare, software subscriptions, and unpaid vacations.
In a typical 40-hour workweek, only 20 to 25 hours are directly spent on client work. The rest goes to client discovery calls, invoicing, marketing, portfolio updates, and bookkeeping.
Always charge an extra 10% to 20% on top of your living costs. This safety cushion protects against late-paying clients, dry spells between contracts, and hardware upgrades.
Hourly billing is safe for open-ended or maintenance work, but fixed value-based pricing allows you to earn more as you become faster and more efficient without penalizing your speed.
Review and increase your rates by 10% to 20% every 6 to 12 months, or whenever your calendar is consistently booked above 85% capacity.