The money side

We cannot work out a day rate yet, and we are not going to guess one.

A day rate is a year's money divided by the days you actually get paid for. We do not know your second number, and picking one for you would hand you our guess with your name on it. Tell us roughly how many days a year you expect to be paid to work (not days worked, days billed) and the rest of this page fills itself in.

The one number we cannot do without

How many days a year you expect to be paid for. Days billed, not days worked. It is an easy number to overestimate, and it is the denominator of the whole calculation.

Go straight to that question

What is still blank

These are the other things we would need eventually. None of them is urgent next to the day count above. Without that, there is nothing for them to add up to.

Replacing and repairing your gear: you have not put a number on this yet. Whatever it is, it can only push the figure up.
Insurance: you have not put a number on this yet. Whatever it is, it can only push the figure up.
Software and subscriptions: you have not put a number on this yet. Whatever it is, it can only push the figure up.
Computer, drives and backups: you have not put a number on this yet. Whatever it is, it can only push the figure up.
Getting to the work: you have not put a number on this yet. Whatever it is, it can only push the figure up.
Being findable: you have not put a number on this yet. Whatever it is, it can only push the figure up.
Learning and staying current: you have not put a number on this yet. Whatever it is, it can only push the figure up.
Somewhere to work: you have not put a number on this yet. Whatever it is, it can only push the figure up.
Your accountant, and anyone else you have to pay to stay legal: you have not put a number on this yet. Whatever it is, it can only push the figure up.
The cut the payment takes: you have not put a number on this yet. Whatever it is, it can only push the figure up.
What you want to be left with for the year: until you say, the figure below pays you nothing at all. It is the number you break even at, not the number you live on.
What you set aside for tax: we do not assume a figure, because the honest answer depends on how you are set up and where you are. Ask your accountant what applies to you; whatever the answer is, it pushes the figure up.

Fill in a few more and the figure gets truer.

What this page does not know

What anybody else charges. We have no figures on that yet, and we would rather say so than put a plausible-looking range on the screen. Everything above is your own arithmetic, and none of it is a claim about your market.