What should I charge per hour?
Most new operators price off what a competitor charges and quietly lose money. Work backwards instead: start from the pay you want to keep, add the hours you can't bill, and add tax.
Quoting, driving, and admin are not billable. 20–25 is realistic solo.
Insurance, software, fuel, supplies, phone.
Holidays, sick days, weather, slow season.
Minimum rate you need to charge
$84/hour
- Revenue you need per month
- $7,367
- Billable hours per month22 hrs × 48 weeks ÷ 12
- 88 hrs
- Pre-tax pay you need25% set aside for tax
- $6,667
- Overhead covered
- $700
- Safe quoting rate (+15% buffer)Covers re-dos, no-shows, underestimated jobs
- $96/hour
- Half-day (4 hr) job
- $385
- Full-day (8 hr) job
- $770
All figures are modelled estimates based on public data and typical operator ranges — not a guarantee of what you will earn or spend.
Get these numbers in a full free planHow this is calculated
- · Unbilled time (driving, quoting, invoicing) is excluded from billable hours on purpose — it's why hourly rate ≠ wage.
- · The buffered rate is the one to quote from; the base rate is your walk-away floor.
- · Tax set-aside is a planning figure, not tax advice.
Inputs come from our published dataset. Read the methodology or use the free API.
The tool that does this for you
Running the math once is easy; keeping it accurate on every job is the hard part. This is what we'd set up first.
Take a card, tap, or Venmo on the spot instead of chasing a your city customer for a check next week.
Set up StripeFree reader, tap-to-pay, invoices — get paid the same day you finish.
Questions people ask
Why is my hourly rate so much higher than an employee wage?
An employer covers your unbilled hours, payroll tax, insurance, equipment, and downtime. Self-employed, you cover all of it out of the same rate — which is why $25/hr as an employee is roughly $55–$70/hr as a solo operator.
Should I quote hourly or flat rate?
Quote flat per job, price it from your hourly floor. Customers compare flat prices more easily and you keep the upside when you get faster.
How many hours a week can I really bill?
Solo operators typically bill 20–25 hours in a 40-hour week. The rest goes to driving, quotes, follow-ups, invoicing, and equipment care.
Pressure-test this with an AI
Copy this prompt into ChatGPT or Gemini to stress-test the numbers on this page against your own situation — then come back and build the real plan.
Using LaunchLoop's hourly rate calculator (launchloopio.com/tools/hourly-rate-calculator), work out a local service business: Turn the take-home pay you want into the rate you have to charge.