There are a lot of freelancers in the podcasting industry. They come from various backgrounds and offer different services. So when it comes to pricing their services, they have to think about what they can offer and what others are offering for that price.

Generally speaking, pricing is one of the most difficult parts about freelancing. It's a delicate balance between what you can afford to charge, what you think the market will bear, and getting paid enough to thrive, not just survive.

Setting your rates in a way that supports your overall lifestyle are important, even if you’re just getting started. There are several approaches to getting paid what you want, and they’re all valid. For the purposes of this article we’re going to focus on five approaches that are easy to figure out. 

Here are 5 ways you can price your freelance services and get paid enough to enjoy your life:

Figure Out Your  Day Rate and Hourly Rate

There are two ways to do this. You can work from similar full-time salaries in your field, or you can start by figuring out how much you need to live the life you want to live. Either way, we like the day rate approach because you set the terms regarding how much you need to work to afford your life. Here’s how to figure out your date rate:

Start with either your expected annual salary

If you found a full-time job doing what you do as a freelancer, what is the annual salary you would expect? If you’re not sure, do some research by checking out websites like Glassdoor.com, The Bureau of Labor Statistics, or Salary.com to find salary ranges for your level of experience in your area.

Let’s say you discover that the average salary for someone with your experience is about $50,000 per year and you’re okay with that salary. From there, you can turn that into your day rate with this simple equation: salary divided by the number of days worked.

Yes, there are 365 days in a year, but who works 365 days in a year and why would you want to? The next step is to figure out your total number of working days. For the sake of this example, we’ll say there are 250 working days in a year which is probably close to what most Americans work in a year.

Next, divide your annual salary by 250 days, giving you a day rate of $200. But… don’t forget that as a freelancer you have to cover your own expenses including sick and vacation time. That means you need to add an overhead percentage to cover those costs. 

Generally, the advice is to add 20% for overhead, but personal experience tells us that 20% is often not enough. We recommend that you add 50%, which brings your day rate $300. As they say, “know your worth, then add tax. 

Now, if you’re anything like us, one week of vacation just isn’t going to cut it and you’re going to need to fund more time off, that means you will need to reduce the 250 working days used in the equation to something more suitable to your lifestyle. 

Next, divide your date rate by the hours you work in a day. The average workday is about 8 hours, but if that doesn’t suit your needs you can change something you prefer. 

$300 (day rate) / 8 (work day) = $37.5 hourly rate (You can round up to $40)

Hourly Rate: $40

The Lifestyle Design Rate

This is another, more aspirational and way more satisfying way to create a day rate. 

With this approach, you take all aspects of your ideal life that you need to fund and factor those expenses into your rate. Here’s how to do it:

Write out all the expenses of your ideal life beyond bills, business costs, and the occasional vacation. Take into account the training you want to complete to invest in yourself, your gym membership, social life, travel, entertainment, etc. A bulleted list will do the trick.

After you make your list of ALL the expenses to support that life you can actually enjoy, add them all up. For the purposes of this example we’ll say the total is $5000.00 per month. 

Divide that number by the total working days in a month. The average is about 20 days.

The Lifestyle Design Rate

That would be what you need to earn to live comfortably. But, you also need to account for future expenses that you are planning. Maybe you are saving to buy a house or that month-long sabbatical in Bali you’ve been dreaming about.

You need to account for these items as well:

• $500 for sabbatical savings 

• $2000 for mortgage (assuming your down payment is already saved)

Additional Total: $2500

New equation: $5000 + $2500 = $7500

$7500/20 working days = $375

$375 = Your new day rate

Now, you can calculate a new hourly rate if you need it.

$375/8 (hours) = $46.8 

If you come out with a day rate that seems wildly out of sync at this stage in your business then extend your plan. Save for that sabbatical over two years, or give yourself more time to save for your house. 

Whichever way you choose to go to set a rate, you can do it with ease using either equation. 

To make things even easier, we put together a handy downloadable checklist for quick reference.