How to calculate your freelance day rate, step by step
Work out the day, half-day and hourly rate your studio needs from take-home pay, costs, tax and the days you can bill, in one worked US example in dollars.
Editor and lead writer
Corinne Halvorsen
Corinne Halvorsen is a graphic designer who has run her own one-person studio for fourteen years, designing identities, packaging and print for small businesses after six years at a branding agency. She writes every proposal, contract and invoice she sends, and the documents in The Studio Kit started as hers.
As editor she writes the Freelancing, Clients, Pricing & Money and Branding & Portfolio sections: going freelance, quotes and contracts, getting paid, and the portfolio that brings in the next client.
Articles by Corinne Halvorsen
What to include in a freelance contract, clause by clause
The clauses a creative freelance contract needs, from deposit and kill fee to usage rights and portfolio use, the laws requiring one and when to see a lawyer.
HoneyBook vs Dubsado vs Bonsai vs Moxie for freelancers
What one person pays for proposals, contracts and invoices in each app, from the makers’ own pages, with exports, where each works and the free route.
How to write a freelance proposal clients say yes to
Write it the day after the discovery call: the client’s goal in their words, exact deliverables, what’s left out, three priced options and the deposit to start.
How to handle scope creep without losing the client
Check each new request against the signed scope, tell a revision from a change, price the change from your day rate and get it signed before the work starts.
How to ask a client for payment when an invoice is late
Chase a late invoice in four dated steps, from a friendly reminder to a final notice, with wording for each and what a US freelancer can do if it stays unpaid.
How to plan paid time off as a freelancer
Nobody pays a freelancer to be away, so pay yourself: count the days off, price them into your day rate, save a share of each payment and book the weeks early.