Find your ideal hourly rate based on income goals, business expenses, taxes, and realistic billable hours. Stop leaving money on the table.
| Target Take-Home Income | $0 |
| Business Expenses | $0 |
| Subtotal (Pre-Tax Revenue Needed) | $0 |
| Taxes (30%) | $0 |
| Profit Margin (15%) | $0 |
| Total Revenue Needed | $0 |
| Billable Weeks Per Year | 0 |
| Billable Hours Per Year | 0 |
| Required Hourly Rate | $0 |
The most common mistake is dividing your desired salary by 2,080 hours (40 hours x 52 weeks). This ignores three critical realities: you can't bill every hour you work (admin, marketing, and invoicing eat 30-40% of your time), you have to cover your own taxes (25-35% of revenue), and you have business expenses that employees don't.
A freelancer who wants to take home $80,000 needs to generate roughly $140,000-$160,000 in revenue to cover taxes, expenses, time off, and a modest profit margin. At 25 billable hours per week across 48 working weeks, that's 1,200 billable hours, which means a rate of $115-$135/hour, not the $38/hour you'd get from naive division.
This calculator does the real math so you can set a rate that actually sustains your business.
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