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Most freelance comms consultants undercharge. Not because they don’t know their worth, but because day rate calculations feel uncomfortably like guesswork. You pick a number that feels roughly right, check it against what a friend charges, and go with it. The result is a rate that might cover your costs in a good month but doesn’t account for the months when the work isn’t there.
Setting a day rate properly takes about an hour and a spreadsheet. It’s worth doing before you go to market, and worth revisiting every year.
Start with what you need to earn, not what the market pays
The common advice is to research market rates and position yourself somewhere in the range. That’s useful context, but it’s the wrong starting point. Start instead with what you actually need to earn, your target take-home pay, and work backwards to the rate that makes that possible.
Add up your costs. Tax and National Insurance are the big ones (roughly 25–30% of your income, depending on how you’re set up). Then business costs: accountancy, professional memberships, software, insurance, equipment. These add up faster than most people expect.
The number you’re working towards is not your day rate. It’s your required gross income. The day rate comes next.
Billable days are fewer than you think
A standard working year has around 230 working days after bank holidays. From that, subtract your actual holidays (be honest), a realistic allowance for sick days, and the time you’ll spend on non-billable work: proposals, invoicing, emails, business development, professional development. For most freelancers, non-billable time is somewhere between 20 and 40% of the working week.
What remains is your realistic billable day count. Divide your required gross income by that number and you have your minimum day rate. Not the rate you’ll always charge, but the rate below which you’re subsidising your clients.
Build in a buffer
Your minimum rate assumes you hit your billable day target every year. You probably won’t, at least not consistently. Work goes quiet. Projects get delayed. A client takes three months to sign off the brief.
A useful rule of thumb is to calculate three rates: your minimum (what you need to break even), a comfortable rate with a 20% buffer, and a target rate that gives you room for investment and growth. Quote at the comfortable rate by default, work towards the target rate with new clients, and know your minimum so you can make clear-eyed decisions when someone asks you to discount.
A calculator to work from
The day rate calculator walks through each step of this process in an editable Excel workbook: income requirements, costs, working days, and the three-scenario rate calculation. Comes with a PDF reference version.
Related articles
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- How to raise your rates as a freelance consultant
- Going freelance: what to expect in the first year
Day Rate Calculator
Editable Excel workbook with income, costs, working days, and rate calculation tabs, plus a PDF reference version.