Real Pricing Calculator
Free pricing calculator for service business owners — personal trainers, therapists, beauty pros, photographers, tutors, freelancers. Enter your salary goal, hours, costs, and holiday allowance. Get the minimum price per session you need to break even — and the recommended price that gives you breathing room.
Real pricing calculator for service business owners — includes owner salary, staff costs, holiday allowance and pension to find your true minimum price per session
See the minimum price per session you need to break even — and the recommended price that gives you breathing room above your costs.
Your hourly rate is not your hourly rate
When a personal trainer says they charge $90 an hour, that's not what they actually earn. The hour with the client is paid. The thirty minutes of session prep, the ten minutes of follow-up message, the five minutes of invoicing, the cancelled session that took forty-five minutes to reschedule — none of it is.
This calculator strips that back. You enter what you charge per session, then add the unpaid time that surrounds it. The output is your real hourly rate — the figure that should anchor your annual price review and your decision about whether your current pricing is sustainable.
Most owners discover their real rate is 35-50% lower than the headline number. That's not a problem in itself; what matters is knowing it. Once you know your real rate, you can decide whether to charge more, do less of the unpaid surround, or both. This calculator gives you the number to work from.
Common questions
Why isn't my advertised hourly rate my real hourly rate?
Because the rate only counts the hour with the client. The unpaid minutes around every session — prep, travel, comms, admin, rescheduling — bring the real rate down. Most service businesses lose 30-50% of their headline rate to that surround.
What hidden costs should I include when pricing my services?
The biggest ones are session preparation, post-session admin, client communication, invoicing time, software costs, and rescheduling overhead. Many owners also forget that empty slots and no-shows directly reduce the average rate per available hour.
How often should I review my service pricing?
At least annually — and any time you notice your real hourly rate has drifted below where it needs to be. Many owners go three or four years without a price review, which is roughly the time it takes for the real rate to fall a full tier behind the headline.
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