I do think you’ve left one thing out of your formula, however. When you work for yourself, not all 1,960 hours in a year are billable. In the freelance world, much of your time is spent outside billable development. These are admin/business owner tasks such as getting business in the door, billing, and so forth.

I found if you’re lucky, you can spend maybe 75% of your time as billable hours. Considering most people say these salaries are on the high side, maybe these two things cancel each other out, and leave you with a nice, neat formula. But definitely consider the benefit of a guaranteed 2000 hours a year (salary) and make your hourly rate reflect this. So if 2000 hours a year results in 1500 billable hours, divide your hourly rate by 0.75, and you’ll have your true cost.

Of course, I understand in the real world all the justifications in the world won’t convince a client to pay more than they want

I would also agree that salary range is a bit high. My first web design job 4 or 5 years ago right out of college was much less than the low end range.

I even think the high end is dropping as schools pump out more and more students who are web-savvy, who’ve grown up with the web….who think that just because they know a smidgen of CSS and can use Photoshop to crop an image that they are “web designers”.

if u found your job through an agency, u might have to pay that agency every time your paycheck comes

You make a couple great points.

One that 51k is probably a little optimistic for someone just entering the field, though possible if you can sell it.

And two, many clients will want a flat rate for a large project. This, of course, is a much harder formula to dream up. Since the formula for determining the amount of hours a project will take has many more variables than determining your rate per hour.

I hope to post a few thoughts on billing using Time and Materials and using a Retainer soon.

Again, thanks for taking the time to post such an insightful comment!

But, I’ve been in this business for almost 10 years now…in the real world of workign stiffs, 51k to start (in any area of the USA) is way to high!

Many professional web designers will retire just above this figure…and it’s only getting harder as more-and-more trade schools pump out new “designers” every two months.

So for anyone else reading this post…you should calculate your figures as stated above…THEN gauge what your client can afford, and charge accordingly.

Also, for large projects many clients will want a per-project fee that possibly turns into hourly once the project is complete, or if they require features not outlined in the original proposal.

So take what you can get, without being greedy…after all, Capitalism isn’t illegal.