PRICING

Working out your rate

brisbane creative director

By Jozzelle De Jesus | Published on 2022/02/24 at 8:00 am

working out rates

Your clients ask you for your pricing, and you’re not completely sure how much to charge. A quick Google tells you that some freelancers charge an hourly rate which varies on experience. How do they even work this out? Here’s some simple steps that can help.

That’s right, this is one of those things where you have to use your brain. Most business planners would tell you to work out your business expenses, but I would like to propose something different. Work out ALL your expenses. Why? You enjoy this work and you want to be able to do it full time. When you’re full time, you have to earn enough to pay yourself your living expenses so it’s important you can afford it too. Make sure you include everything in your calculation. This means even your loan repayments or gifts that you buy for others during Christmas. They don’t have to be exact, just a close estimate so you can include them in your expenses.

However, if you’re meticulous like me, you can setup an Expenses Template using Google Sheets.

I’m not talking about the time you start and finish here. I’m referring to the hours you can use to spend on BILLABLE work. You’re wondering, “Aren’t all working hours billable?”. Not exactly. When you work with clients, they aren’t going to pay for you to work on your company budget, marketing, or project management. You still have to put time for those somewhere because they help make your workflow more efficient, but none of your clients will ever expect to pay for that time, so work out your billable hours.

Once you’ve worked out all your expenses in step 1, and your billable hours in step 2, it’s now time to find an hourly rate. Divide your expenses by your billable hours, and you will get a starting point for your rate.

 

For example:
Total expenses = $1,000 / week
Billable hours = 20 hours / week
1,000 / 20 = 50
You could start at a price of $50 per hour*

total expenses
$ 0
billable hours
0 H
hourly rate
$ 0

*Of course, there are two main aspects you would have to consider:

Once you have considered which one you fit in, then you can make some adjustments. 

Jozzelle De Jesus

Jozzelle De Jesus

Multimedia Designer

Jozzelle has been working professionally in the graphic design area since 2006 and tackled freelance design and animation officially in 2017. She has acquired a Bachelor of Interactive Entertainment (Animation) back in 2012 and completed a Cert IV in Training and Assessment in 2013. If you would like to work with Jozzelle, please email hello@e-studios.com.au