Price the whole project, including the invisible work.

Your production time is only part of the project

A four-hour deliverable might require an hour of discovery, an hour of revisions, and an hour of administration. If you price only the making, those extra hours quietly reduce what you earn. Estimate the full engagement: meetings, preparation, production, review, handoff, and follow-up.

Use your own target compensation and realistic time estimates. The examples here explain arithmetic; they are not suggested market rates, income forecasts, or tax advice.

Calculate a planning floor

First multiply total project hours by your target hourly compensation. Add direct project expenses such as licensed assets or project-specific software. Then account for percentage fees using division, rather than simply adding the percentage to your costs.

Illustration: 10 hours × $60 = $600. Add $40 direct costs. With an illustrative 10% percentage fee, the gross quote needed is $640 ÷ 0.90 = $711.11. At that quote, the fee is $71.11, leaving $600 after the fee and project costs, before taxes and general business overhead.

A contingency percentage can represent time uncertainty, but it is not the same as profit margin. The calculator applies your contingency to estimated labor before adding direct costs and grossing up for the entered percentage fee. Minimum fees, currency conversion, subscriptions, and taxes can require additional adjustments.

Check whether the scope supports the price

A calculation tells you what the work costs you to deliver. It does not prove what a buyer will pay. Compare the proposed deliverable with the client's problem, alternatives, urgency, and internal capacity. If the budget is too small, reduce scope or decline. Quietly removing quality checks is not a sustainable discount strategy.

For a fixed-fee package, define the output, inputs, timeline assumptions, revision limit, and change process. For hourly work, set communication expectations and an approval threshold before exceeding an estimate. Use actual time records.

Learn from every completed engagement

Calculate realized project earnings per hour: payment received minus project fees and direct costs, divided by actual hours. Keep it distinct from take-home pay: taxes, insurance, unpaid sales time, and broader overhead still matter. Track estimates against actual time so your next quote is based on better evidence.

Do not let AI speed become a pricing trap

AI may reduce some drafting time while adding verification, tool setup, or client review. Measure the complete process. A fixed-fee service can reflect scope and value, but hourly invoices must remain accurate. Clients should know what they are buying and what standards the finished work will meet.