A tricky question in my opinion, as I myself have wrestled with determining my hourly rate. Sure, you can decide what you want to earn, but will clients be willing to pay it, and are you worth your hourly rate? In this article, I explain how I came to determine my hourly rate and offer tips on how you can determine yours.
View the Hourly Rate of Your Sector
The first step is to conduct market research within your sector to find the average hourly rate. For this, you can consult a website like hoofdkraan.nl. Here’s a breakdown of the average figures (including hourly wages for salaried employment) for several sectors. Min-max.
| IT Project Manager | € 50 | € 110 | ||
| Stockbroker | € 50 | € 150 | ||
| Brand Manager, Product Manager | € 50 | € 150 | ||
| Financial Advisor | € 60 | € 160 | ||
| Information Consultant | € 50 | € 95 | ||
| HR Advisor | € 65 | € 120 | ||
| Psychologist | € 40 | € 80 | ||
| Lawyer, Legal Advisor | € 70 | € 180 | ||
| Business Organization Specialist | € 80 | € 150 | ||
| Organization Advisor | € 80 | € 150 |
Source: loonwijzer.nl
If you’re an online marketer like me, then you should look at Information Consultant. Between €50 – €95, then.
It’s somewhat of a benchmark for how you can determine your hourly rate, but it’s not all-encompassing. There are also other factors you need to consider:
– Your experience;
– How good you are;
– Your personal market value;
– Your added value to the client’s business;
– Your reputation.
Let the sector average be not a guideline but a starting point from which you can weigh the additional 5 points I mentioned above.
How Did I Do It?
Alright, when I started my business in 2018, I thought a lot about how to determine my hourly rate. Yes, I have a master’s in Communication Sciences, yes, I’m reliable, blah blah. All well and good. But actually, those arguments add nothing in the beginning. People want proof of your track record. So, I figured you just have to start somewhere.
I set my very first hourly rate at €65,-. Because it was market conform at the time, I had 4 years of experience in online marketing, and with the first clients, I had a good personal connection and felt I could contribute to the growth of these clients.
Over the course of the three years that followed, I consistently raised my hourly rate. First from €65 -> €75, after about a year. At that point, I felt I had improved, learned more, gained a good reputation, and could increasingly contribute to the success of the client.
Another year later, I even went from €75,- to €90,-. And not just because I wanted to earn more. It was also with the intention of filtering out certain clients. That can also be an approach for your hourly rate. Aim for clients who really have a budget. Who want to invest. In landing pages, Ads, SEO, and more. So you can really make progress. That’s an aspect I find very important. Making progress together. In addition, there was a scarcity of hours on my part, I was almost fully booked so I could afford to turn down certain clients.
Naturally, this last increase in hourly rate was also a result of getting better at certain things. I started to report in a quite professional way (I offered this for free), was available 24/7, and always wanted to go the extra mile. That should also partly be reflected in an hourly rate, I believe. It ultimately contributes to your reputation. A higher hourly rate ultimately also contributes to matters like being able to move away from the hour-billing model a bit. You can say, “Hey, I’ll just take care of that for you. I’m happy to do it”. That creates more sympathy and ultimately a better reputation in the market.
Hopefully, you find this explanation on how I ultimately determined my hourly rate useful. Ultimately, I think the best scenario is when you move towards a rate where you’re not bound by hours. I’m still wrestling with this. To be continued!