If you want to earn $100,000 as a freelancer while operating at 50% utilization, your hourly rate needs to be much higher because only part of your working time is billable.
Freelancers need to account for taxes, business expenses, unpaid time off, admin work, downtime, and gaps between clients. A common planning rule is to increase your salary target by 30% to 50% before calculating your freelance rate.
At 50% utilization, only half of your working time is billable. That means your hourly rate has to cover both paid client work and unpaid business time, such as sales, admin, follow-up, revisions, and project gaps.
This calculator is useful for freelancers, consultants, and independent contractors who want to understand how non-billable time affects the hourly rate needed to reach a $100,000 income target.
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