How To Set Your Freelance Marketing Hourly Rate: Easy 10 Steps

You can’t run a business without setting rates. Sure, sometimes you’ll get the job no matter what your price is. But the more experienced you become and the more difficult it gets to survive as a freelancer, having a clear idea of how much money you need will be pretty much essential.

Finding your freelance marketing hourly rate can be tricky, though. It’s not like they teach this stuff in school (if they did, we would never have seen so many people struggling with their rates). And there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. This isn’t the type of thing where you can just go on Google and find an answer for yourself.

But don’t worry! We got your back. Throughout this article, we’re going to look at some key factors that will help you decide on a price for yourself in a way that makes sense for your situation, whether that means working from home or from abroad.

Table of Contents

1. Start With Your Salary

Before becoming a freelancer, you should know how much you earn per hour. This is really important, especially if you plan to leave your job. If your salary is $50,000 per year and you work 40 hours per week for 50 weeks every year (2 weeks of paid leave), then your hourly rate is $25. If you don’t take any leaves and work 52 weeks in a year, then it’s about $24.

Consider Other Benefits

Now that we have the hourly rate clear, let’s add some extras! Think about this: do you receive bonuses? Is there a company car that allows you to go from client to client? Do they pay for gas or give allowance for meals? Does the company pay for all business expenses such as stationery and Internet access? All these extras can be added to the annual income to get a higher outcome.

Let’s say that bonuses are around 10% of salary, business expenses worth 20% (it doesn’t sound like too much but can make a real difference), and another 5% if the employer pays for all business trips (public transport plus taxi or Uber). With this information, your salary could increase up to 45%. Your hourly rate would be around $36 instead of $25.’

2. Calculate Your Expenses

Now that you’ve figured out how much money it will take to both sustain your life and grow your business, it’s time to calculate your expenses. Think of this as the cost of doing business. You can use a basic calculator like the one provided by the Freelancers Union to get an idea of what you’ll need to pay for things like equipment, software, internet, rent, insurance, and so on.

Once you have a good idea of what these expenses will be over time (and don’t forget to include taxes), add up the total costs for a year. Divide that figure by Billable Hours Per Year (an estimate is fine), and then divide THAT number by 12 months in a year. And congratulations you’re now looking at your true monthly overhead!

3. Freelance Rate Calculator

Use this freelance hourly rate calculator to easily calculate your take-home hourly rate as a freelancer. You can use this calculator to get an idea of what your hourly rate should be (before taxes and other costs are taken out).

4. Calculate How Much You Would Like To Earn

To figure out what to charge, take the amount of money you would like to make in a year and divide it by the number of hours you will work. If you want to make $40,000 a year and work 40 hours a week, your hourly rate is $10 an hour.

Then, add in all the other expenses that come with running your business such as health insurance, rent for your workspace, and equipment needed for your tasks. If you need to buy new equipment that is not covered by your client’s budget for the project, then you will need to add that cost into your hourly rate.

Once you have a rough estimate of what it costs per hour for you to live comfortably and run your business smoothly, use this number as a reference point when negotiating with clients. If a client has budgeted less than what you require in order to complete their project efficiently then do not accept the job unless they agree on increasing pay overtime or providing compensation in services or products instead of cash.

5. Compare Your Rates To Other Freelancers In The Market

When you’re first starting out, it can be hard to know what to charge as a freelancer. Your capabilities as a freelancer or consultant may be brand new, and your rates will reflect that inexperience.

What’s Your Hourly Rate If You Can’t Decide?

A great way to figure this out is by comparing your services to other ones on the market. Are there other freelancers offering similar services? What do they charge? If the going rate is around $25/hour, you don’t want to begin your freelance career by charging $100/hour — that’s not how it works! (even if you are an amazing SEO consultant)

If there aren’t any other freelancers out there offering the same service, compare yourself to someone who does something similar. For example, if you’re writing copy for webpages and brochures but haven’t written copy for radio ads before, look at what radio ad writers charge their clients.

Look at your own workload and available time: how many hours per week can you work? How many hours would you like to work each week? How many hours do you need to work each week in order to achieve your goals?

6. Break It Down Per Month And Per Week

Breaking It Down Per Month (Every Two Weeks)

If you are an independent contractor, hourly rates can be a challenge to set. While hourly rates are easy to calculate in dollars, it’s harder to assess the worth of each project and task. However, breaking your hours down by month is an effective way to manage your freelance income. Put the largest expenses such as rent or mortgage on a monthly basis. The same is true for utilities, groceries, and other items that need to be paid on a monthly basis.

Breaking It Down Per Week

When building your budget for the upcoming week, break down what you need each day, in addition to how much time you will spend on each task. This will give an accurate estimate of the hours needed for each project and task so that you can budget effectively with no surprises when accounting at the end of the week or month. When first setting up this monthly breakdown structure for your income, review any expenses at the end of every quarter or month: should there be any changes or additions needed?

7. Consider Your Experience And Skills

I’m guessing you’re new to the freelance world and want to know how much you can expect to earn. To help you get started, here are ten things to think about:

What Do I Bring To The Table?

First, think about what your experience is in relation to other freelancers. Do you have a specific skill that sets you apart from others? Has someone hired you before? How many people are familiar with your work? And as for earnings… Well, that’s going to depend on a number of factors. Someone who has been in the game for a while can make more money than someone who has only just begun their career. It all comes down to experience and skills.

What Kind Of Projects Have I Worked On?

Another big factor is what kind of work you’ve done before. Have you done any projects similar or related to what it is that you’re looking for? For example, if your clients ask for something very specific (like personal essay writing), then this may be one way where your inexperience shows. On the other hand, if they ask for white paper development or resume format customization, then this would be an area where they see your experience in developing these types of products as an asset rather than a liability.

8. Create A Rate Card Or Price List For Your Services

Create a rate card or price list for your services. A rate card is a simple one-page sheet that includes all of your prices and packages. If you work with clients in person, print off a few copies and leave them in an easy-to-find a spot at home or in your studio. If you have an online business, create a page on your website that details all the services you offer along with their individual pricing.

For example, let’s say I’m being paid by the hour to clean someone’s house. I may charge $30/hour for myself and $15/hour for any additional help I bring with me (like my son). If someone asks me how much it’ll cost to clean their whole house, I can simply tell them that it will take 4 hours and the cost will be $150 ($30 x 4 hours + $15 x 4 hours).

If you want to provide discounted rates for bundle packages say cleaning kitchens separately from bathrooms you can either create a second rate card or just include those as separate lines on your regular rate card/price list.

When writing out your price list, try to use phrases similar to “per person” or “per hour” instead of “flat fee.” Flat fees are typically reserved for projects such as website design where you’re charging based on time plus materials rather than strictly hourly labor costs.

9. Track Your Time And Bill By The Hour Or By The Project

There are a few things you should consider when deciding whether to bill by the hour or the project. Billing by the hour is usually viewed as more traditional and standard, while billing by the project can be a better choice if you have very specific deliverables that need to be completed by a certain date. Project-based billing is also often more attractive to clients because it provides them with an upfront estimate of how long something will take, making it easier for them to budget their own resources.

It’s important to note that regardless of how you bill your clients, tracking your time on each task is necessary for making sure your business is profitable. Time tracking allows you to make notes of the wasted time on non-billable tasks such as administrative work and client email correspondence so that you can adjust your fees accordingly.

You should also keep track of how many hours each week go towards personal development and training so that you can factor in continued learning into your billable rate.

Luckily, time tracking software has made this process much less painful than it used to be. Today there are several free and low-cost apps designed specifically for small business owners like yourself, who want an easy way to calculate their hourly fee based on their professional experience and skill level.

10. Set Your Minimum Hourly Rate For Freelance Work

It’s troubling to have a big job that you have to do every day, and it seems like your boss is trying to get rid of you. But before you say goodbye and quit, let’s look at the possible solutions. Do you see those people who deal with the same thing all day long? They’re doing something they like and they’re good at it.

And they’re making a good living! So what if your boss wants you to take on more work or give up time for overtime: maybe he can’t sit back and watch quality work going undone anymore. Perhaps he feels sorry for you. Or maybe he just doesn’t know how anymore, because people are always asking him for advice from freelancers now too!

Whatever the case may be, it helps to know how much money it takes to live decently on freelance work alone (especially if this is your first chance at freelancing). For example, let’s say that you make $20 per hour as a web developer but want to go into business for yourself as a full-fledged entrepreneur.

You can convert $20 into a number of different units (e.g., cents or slices of pizza), which will become less important later since we need only focus on what we need every month: our total income needs to cover all expenses in order for us not only survive, but also thrive.

First, we’ll calculate total expenses by adding monthly fixed costs (e.g., rent) and monthly variable costs (e.g., food). Then we’ll figure out each specific expense by multiplying ourselves by the number of hours used per day:

Total Monthly Expenses = Rental + Food + Utilities + Phone + Health Insurance + Other Monthly Expenses

So our total monthly expenses would be: $650 (including rent) x 12 months = $7800

Now that we know how much money we need remember, this is after taxes think about how many hours are needed each day in order for us not only

This Will Help You Set A Goal And Mental Guide Point For Charging Clients

Your minimum hourly rate can act as a guide to help you determine whether or not you should take on a project. As an example, let’s pretend you have been contacted by a client who wants to hire you for your freelance marketing services.

They pay you $150 and give you the following tasks:

Create 50 social media posts (content and images) according to their brand guidelines
Create 3 email newsletters with graphics that are relevant to the content of each newsletter

Creating 150 social media posts will probably take up 30 hours of your time when factoring in research and image creation. Likewise, creating 3 email newsletters with graphics will probably take up 10 hours of your time. The total amount of work this client is asking for would be 40 hours (30+10)

If your minimum hourly rate is $25 per hour, then the total cost for this project would be $1,000 ($25 x 40). If that is too much money for how much work is involved, then it may not be worth it to take on the project.

Final Thoughts

When you start freelancing, you’re probably going to be doing a whole lot of research and researching what your market is willing to pay. This will take some time, but it’s important to get your rates right at the beginning. Here are 10 steps to take when setting a freelance rate.

Update Your Rate Card Every Year

When you launch into freelancing, you’ll want to update the value of each service on your rate card with the new value that reflects changes in salary expectations and market trends over time.

Make Sure There’s Room For An Increase In Salary As You Grow In Skills And Experience

You may have set a starting rate so that even though it’s relatively low, it encourages people who can do more with their services to hire you instead of going elsewhere. However, if this is the case for you then it makes sense, for now, to make room for an increase over time using the next step below.

Consider Your Skills And Experience

Your current skill set at entry-level might not be enough for clients or employers to continue working with you without making adjustments along the way; similarly, clients may not be willing or able to pay a premium that matches how much they’d like their work done unless they know what they’re getting. So think about both of these factors before setting your first-rate. Don’t just assume everyone can afford what you’re charging—you’ll need to adjust everything upwards overtime if necessary!