How To Set Your Freelance Rate
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The 5-input formula
Target: $80k net take-home. Health insurance + retirement + PTO-equivalent: $20k. Overhead: $5k. Taxes: 30% total.
A worked example
Gross needed = ($80,000 + $20,000 + $5,000) / (1 − 0.30) = $150,000/year.
Why you’re probably charging too little
Billable hours at 65% of a 2,000-hour year = 1,300 hours.
Value-based vs hourly pricing
That’s what you’d need to charge to match a W-2 job at $80k net — not “equivalent” to the old salary, but producing the same lived income after all the freelance overhead.
Market sanity checks
Three traps common in first-time freelancers:
When and how to raise your rate
Hourly rates cap your earnings at hours in the day. Value-based (project or retainer) pricing lets you charge based on impact to the client, decoupled from hours.
Deposit and scope-creep protection
A SaaS client paying you $10k for a week’s work that lands a $100k enterprise deal is getting a 10× return. That’s often more palatable to them than $150/hour for 40 hours ($6k) — same work, higher price, because the frame is outcome-for-money instead of time-for-money.
Run the numbers
Start hourly to calibrate what your time is worth, then shift to project pricing as your work gets predictable enough to estimate accurately. “Estimate project hours, multiply by 1.3 for buffer, quote at your hourly rate, present as flat price” is a common starter approach.