Work out the minimum you should charge per hour, per day and per package, then see how many clients, calls and leads that price needs every month. Works for freelancers too. Everything runs in your browser.
Your minimum rate
What this price needs from your pipeline
Your minimum hourly rate is the money you need in a year (take-home pay, plus tax, plus business costs) divided by the hours you can actually bill. For most coaches and consultants that is only about half their working hours. Then check how many clients that price needs each month, because that is usually the real problem.
Who this is for: Coaches, consultants and freelancers setting or checking their prices.
Work backwards from the life you want, not forwards from what others charge. The calculator above does these five steps for you.
This is a floor, not a price. It tells you the least you can charge and still hit your number. Your actual price should be set by the value of the result you deliver, which our guide on how to price your coaching or consulting offer covers in detail.
Because a self-employed week is not all client work. You write proposals, take discovery calls, post content, chase invoices, answer emails and learn. None of that is paid directly, but all of it has to happen.
Many new consultants divide their target income by 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, and end up with a rate that only works if they never sell, never rest and never get ill. Fifty per cent billable is a sensible starting point for most solo coaches and consultants. Some established people with steady referrals get closer to 60 or 70%. If you are still building your client base, it can be lower.
Most coaches do better selling packages or programmes than single hours. A package is easier to buy, easier to deliver and lets you price on the change you create. Use your hourly floor as a check: a package should never work out cheaper per hour than your floor once you count every session, message and bit of prep.
The price also decides how many clients you need. Here is the same target of 7,500 a month in revenue at different package prices, assuming 1 in 4 sales calls becomes a client and 1 in 5 leads books a call.
| Package price | Clients a month | Sales calls | Leads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 750 | 10 | 40 | 200 |
| 1,500 | 5 | 20 | 100 |
| 3,000 | 2.5 | 10 | 50 |
| 5,000 | 1.5 | 6 | 30 |
Your own close rate and lead-to-call rate will differ, so change them in the tool. The pattern holds either way: a higher price needs far fewer leads.
Whichever you pick, work out the hourly floor first so you know when a deal is not worth taking.
This is the step most rate calculators skip, and it is the one that matters. A rate is only real if enough people buy at it. Take your monthly revenue target, divide by your package price, and you have the number of new clients you need. Divide that by your close rate and you have the sales calls you need. Divide again by the share of leads who book a call and you have the leads you need.
When people run these numbers honestly, the answer is often the same. Most coaches and consultants do not have a pricing problem, they have a pipeline problem. They need a steady way to turn strangers into leads and leads into booked calls. That is what a sales funnel for coaches and consultants is for, and a marketing audit shows where yours is losing people today.
There is no single good number, because it depends on your market, your results and your costs. A useful floor is the rate this calculator gives you: what you need to cover your pay, tax and costs across the hours you can actually bill. Your real price should sit above that floor, set by the value of the outcome you deliver.
Multiply your minimum hourly rate by the number of hours in your working day. If your hourly floor is 120 and you work seven hour days, your day rate floor is 840. Many consultants round it up, because a full day booked by one client saves you the sales time of finding several smaller ones.
Yes. If you only aim for your take-home figure, the tax bill comes out of it and you end up short. The calculator grosses your take-home up by your estimated tax rate, then adds your business costs. Use a rough blended rate and check the real figure with an accountant.
Then you have three levers: bill more of your hours, cut costs, or sell packages priced on outcomes rather than time. Dropping the price below your floor only means working more hours for the same money, so fix the offer and the pipeline before you cut the rate.
Tell us what you sell and how people find you now. We will show you where your pipeline leaks and what to fix first. Free, no pitch.