Are you charging enough?
Most trades work out their rate by asking what the next man charges. Here's the other way round: start with what you want to earn, take off the holidays, the costs and the days you can't bill for, and see what's left.
It's usually higher than people expect.
Before tax. What you want left after the business has paid its bills.
Van, fuel, tools, insurance, phone, accountant, materials you don't bill on.
Holidays, illness, quiet spells.
The rest goes on quotes, invoices, driving, chasing.
You need to charge
£249a day
or £31 an hour
- You need to invoice
- £43,000
- Days you actually work
- 230
- Days you can bill for
- 173
- Days you can't
- 58
This is turnover you need to invoice, before tax. It isn't tax advice — what you keep depends on whether you're a sole trader or a limited company, and your accountant will know better than we do.
The bit most people get wrong
It's the billable timefigure. A five-day week isn't five billable days — somebody has to do the quoting, the invoicing, the material runs and the chasing of people who haven't paid.
If you price as though every working day is billable, you're quietly working the unbillable ones for nothing. That's the gap that turns a busy year into a disappointing one.