Determine your market value: Here is how Pakistani freelancers can calculate their hourly rate (step-by-step)

What’s the best thing about being a freelancer? 

First off, there is no limit to what you can earn, unlike regular employment. If you’re getting regular work, you can set the hours, decide upon the clients you work for, and set your own rates.

However, setting the prices for the different jobs you are doing can turn out to be one of the most challenging aspects of Freelancing. Higher prices could cause you to become less competitive and lose business to others providing the same services for a lesser amount. On the other hand, set too low of a price, and you will end up devaluing your work.

So, what to do then if you’re scaling, making new earning records with each passing month but lack an effective mechanism that helps you arrive at an optimum hourly rate that you should be charging to make a profit after taking all the costs into account?

A Freelance Hourly Rates Calculator could be the solution to this issue!

Payoneer’s calculator, which has been exclusively designed for hourly charging freelancers, lets you determine a feasible ‘hourly rate’ to measure what you should be charging against your current business costs with this easy step-by-step guide.

Here is what you need to do:

Step 1: Enter your Estimated Yearly Earnings and the percentage by which you want to improve. For instance, you might currently make Rs. 50,000 and seek to improve by 100%, i.e., 100,000/-.

Step 2: Enter the billable hours, weeks, and days while accounting for the holidays.

Step 3 and 4: Come up with an estimate of the total costs you incur, including marketing, traveling, rent, internet, and other miscellaneous costs. (Note: if one of the costs you incur isn’t listed here, add it to any other cost available and enter the amount).

Step 5: Enter your contact and business details, for instance, the freelance marketplace where you offer your services, select a range for your average annual income (the lowest you can select is “Less than 5,000” and press “Calculate.”

Your PKR hourly rate will be calculated and become visible to you. 

Well, according to Payoneer’s hourly rate calculator, I should be charging Rs. 4,740/hour from my clients on Upwork, and surprisingly, it’s quite accurate once I consider the 20% commission deducted by Upwork.

Give the Payoneer calculator a try if you take more hourly projects than fixed-priced milestone ones.

Of course, if you think you are going in the right direction, the option to raise the rates with a fresh calculation is always there!

Happy Earning! 😊