Calculating Your Hourly Rate

When you freelance, time really is money. It is essential you track how much time you spend working, and this includes the time taken to do things like admin tasks and marketing. When you decide how to calculate your hourly rate, you need to take these things into account:

• how much you want to make a year
• time spent on other tasks which don't involve writing
• rental costs
• office equipment
• software
• resources etc

As you can see, you can't just think that you are going to charge X amount per hour of your time without knowing what it takes to run your business. Set correctly, your rate will allow you to make a healthy profit.
Set it wrong and you could be out of pocket without even realizing.

You also need to think about revising your rates every year. An excellent resource I use is an online calculator which works out your rates for you, including a rate which shows you the minimum you can work for just to break even.

Hourly rate calculator

This tool is highly invaluable for ensuring you get the most out of your money, and literally takes minutes to fill out.