AGENCY PRICING CALCULATOR ========================== From SoloStack | solostack.madethis.app/resources/freelance-agency A plain-text worksheet for calculating agency pricing. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ PART 1 — THE CORE FORMULA ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SUB COST + OVERHEAD MARGIN FORMULA ──────────────────────────────────── STEP 1: Establish sub cost for the project Sub hourly rate × estimated hours = sub cost Sub rate: $________/hr × ________ hours = $________ sub cost STEP 2: Apply the multiplier Sub cost × 2.5 = MINIMUM FLOOR PRICE (tight but acceptable margin) Sub cost × 3.0 = STANDARD PRICE (healthy 40-45% gross margin) Sub cost × 3.5 = PREMIUM PRICE (for complex/high-demand work) Your floor: $________ × 2.5 = $________ Your standard: $________ × 3.0 = $________ Your premium: $________ × 3.5 = $________ STEP 3: Check against value Ask: What is the outcome worth to the client? If floor price >> client value → wrong-fit client or wrong pricing model If floor price << client value → you may be leaving significant money on the table MARGIN BENCHMARKS Gross margin < 25% = Not worth it (coordination overhead eats all profit) Gross margin 25–35% = Acceptable for high-volume, low-complexity work Gross margin 35–50% = Healthy agency operation Gross margin 50%+ = Strong, sustainable — you're selling outcomes not hours GROSS MARGIN FORMULA Revenue - Sub Costs = Gross Profit Gross Profit / Revenue × 100 = Gross Margin % Example: $5,000 project - $1,800 sub cost = $3,200 gross profit $3,200 / $5,000 = 64% gross margin ✓ Strong ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ PART 2 — PROJECT MINIMUM CALCULATOR BY NICHE ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Project minimums exist because small projects carry disproportionate overhead. Onboarding, briefing, communication management, and quality review cost you 4–8 hours regardless of project size. Below a minimum, overhead-to-revenue inverts. COPYWRITING AGENCIES ───────────────────── Typical sub rates: $40–$90/hr or $0.10–$0.25/word Common project types and minimums: Blog post package (4 posts/month): Sub cost: 4 posts × $200/post = $800 Floor price (3x): $2,400 Recommended minimum: $2,500–$3,000 Sales page (long-form): Sub cost: 8–12 hrs × $65/hr = $520–$780 Floor price (3x): $1,560–$2,340 Recommended minimum: $2,500 Email sequence (5 emails): Sub cost: 5 emails × $150/email = $750 Floor price (3x): $2,250 Recommended minimum: $2,500–$3,500 Monthly content retainer: Sub cost: 12 hrs/month × $60/hr = $720/month Floor price (3x): $2,160/month Recommended minimum: $2,500–$3,500/month Agency project minimum: $3,000 for any new client engagement DESIGN AGENCIES ──────────────── Typical sub rates: $50–$120/hr Common project types and minimums: Brand identity (logo + brand guidelines): Sub cost: 20–30 hrs × $75/hr = $1,500–$2,250 Floor price (3x): $4,500–$6,750 Recommended minimum: $5,000 Website design (5–10 pages, no dev): Sub cost: 30–40 hrs × $75/hr = $2,250–$3,000 Floor price (3x): $6,750–$9,000 Recommended minimum: $7,500 Monthly social graphics (15–20 assets): Sub cost: 15 hrs × $65/hr = $975 Floor price (3x): $2,925 Recommended minimum: $3,000–$4,500/month Agency project minimum: $3,000–$5,000 for any new client engagement WEB DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES ───────────────────────── Typical sub rates: $60–$150/hr Common project types and minimums: Simple marketing site (5 pages, custom): Sub cost: 40 hrs × $80/hr = $3,200 Floor price (3x): $9,600 Recommended minimum: $10,000 E-commerce build (Shopify/WooCommerce): Sub cost: 60–80 hrs × $90/hr = $5,400–$7,200 Floor price (3x): $16,200–$21,600 Recommended minimum: $15,000–$25,000 Website maintenance plan: Sub cost: 5 hrs/month × $80/hr = $400/month Floor price (3x): $1,200/month Recommended minimum: $1,500–$2,500/month Agency project minimum: $7,500–$10,000 for any new client engagement MARKETING AGENCIES ─────────────────── Typical sub rates vary by specialty ($40–$120/hr) Common project types and minimums: SEO audit + 90-day roadmap: Sub cost: 20 hrs × $65/hr = $1,300 Floor price (3x): $3,900 Recommended minimum: $4,000–$6,000 Paid ads management (monthly): Sub cost: 10 hrs × $75/hr = $750 + management time Floor price: $2,250+ Recommended minimum: $3,000–$5,000/month + ad spend Social media management (full service): Sub cost: 20 hrs × $55/hr = $1,100/month Floor price (3x): $3,300/month Recommended minimum: $3,500–$5,000/month Agency project minimum: $3,500–$7,500 for any new client engagement CONSULTING / STRATEGY AGENCIES ──────────────────────────────── Typical sub rates: $75–$200/hr Common project types and minimums: Strategy sprint (1-week intensive): Sub cost: 15 hrs × $100/hr = $1,500 Floor price (3x): $4,500 Recommended minimum: $5,000–$10,000 Fractional executive services (monthly): Sub cost: 20 hrs × $100/hr = $2,000/month Floor price (3x): $6,000/month Recommended minimum: $6,000–$12,000/month Agency project minimum: $5,000–$15,000 for any new client engagement ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ PART 3 — RETAINER FLOOR CALCULATION ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ RETAINER PRICING FORMULA ───────────────────────── STEP 1: Calculate monthly sub cost Deliverables/hours needed per month × sub rate = monthly sub cost Monthly sub cost: $_________ STEP 2: Add 40% margin Monthly sub cost × 1.4 = base with margin Base with margin: $_________ STEP 3: Add 20% buffer (for scope creep, admin, owner time) Base with margin × 1.2 = retainer floor Retainer floor: $_________ EXAMPLE: Monthly sub cost (writer, 15 hrs × $60/hr): $900 + 40% margin: $900 × 1.4 = $1,260 + 20% buffer: $1,260 × 1.2 = $1,512 → Round up to $1,500–$2,000/month retainer RETAINER HEALTH CHECK □ Gross margin > 40%? If not, renegotiate scope or raise rates □ Owner hours per month < 8 hrs? (Target: management only, not execution) □ Client is on a 3+ month agreement? (Month-to-month has cancellation risk) □ Clear scope defined? (What's included AND what's not) □ Rate increase trigger at renewal? (12-month renewals get 15–25% increases) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ PART 4 — 5 PRICING SCENARIOS WORKED END-TO-END ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SCENARIO 1 — SMALL PROJECT Agency: Content agency Project: 3 blog posts (1,000 words each) Client: B2B SaaS company Sub cost: 3 posts × $180 = $540 Owner time (briefing, review, delivery): 3 hrs × $0 (your time, not paid out) Tools/overhead allocation: $30 Total costs: $570 Floor price (2.5x sub cost): $1,350 Standard price (3x sub cost): $1,620 Recommended quote: $1,800 (includes your management overhead) Gross margin: ($1,800 - $570) / $1,800 = 68% ✓ Note: For 3 posts, consider your project minimum. If your minimum is $3,000, this project doesn't qualify unless it's a trial leading to recurring work. ───────────────────────────────────────────── SCENARIO 2 — MID PROJECT Agency: Design agency Project: Brand identity for a startup (logo, brand guidelines, 3 social templates) Sub cost: - Lead designer: 25 hrs × $75 = $1,875 - Production: 6 hrs × $45 = $270 Total sub cost: $2,145 Owner time: 8 hrs (briefing, client calls, review, delivery): not paid out separately Tools/licenses: $50 Total costs: $2,195 Floor price (2.5x sub cost): $5,363 Standard price (3x sub cost): $6,435 Recommended quote: $6,500–$7,500 Gross margin at $7,000: ($7,000 - $2,195) / $7,000 = 69% ✓ ───────────────────────────────────────────── SCENARIO 3 — LARGE PROJECT Agency: Web development agency Project: Custom marketing website (8 pages, CMS, contact forms, analytics) Sub cost: - Senior developer: 60 hrs × $95 = $5,700 - Designer: 20 hrs × $75 = $1,500 - QA: 8 hrs × $50 = $400 Total sub cost: $7,600 Owner time: 15 hrs (discovery, PM, client management, final review) Tools/hosting setup: $200 Total costs: $7,800 Floor price (2.5x sub cost): $19,000 Standard price (3x sub cost): $22,800 Recommended quote: $22,000–$28,000 Gross margin at $25,000: ($25,000 - $7,800) / $25,000 = 69% ✓ Note: Large projects should include a signed SOW, 50% deposit, and milestone payment schedule. Never start without deposit. ───────────────────────────────────────────── SCENARIO 4 — ONGOING RETAINER Agency: Marketing agency Project: Monthly social media management + email newsletter Monthly sub costs: - Social content (12 hrs × $55): $660 - Email copywriter (6 hrs × $60): $360 - Design for social (8 hrs × $65): $520 Total monthly sub cost: $1,540 Retainer pricing: $1,540 × 1.4 (40% margin) = $2,156 $2,156 × 1.2 (20% buffer) = $2,587 → Quote: $2,750–$3,500/month Owner time per month: 10–12 hrs (PM, strategy, client calls, QA) Effective owner rate at $3,000/mo: ($3,000 - $1,540) / 11 hrs = $133/hr ✓ Gross margin at $3,000/month: ($3,000 - $1,540) / $3,000 = 49% ✓ ───────────────────────────────────────────── SCENARIO 5 — PRODUCTIZED PACKAGE Agency: Copywriting agency Package: "Launch Copy Package" — website homepage + about + 3 service pages + hero email Sub cost (standardized): - Copywriter: 14 hrs × $70 = $980 - Editor: 3 hrs × $45 = $135 Total sub cost: $1,115 Fixed package price: $3,500 (posted on website, no negotiation) Gross margin: ($3,500 - $1,115) / $3,500 = 68% ✓ Benefits of productizing: - Faster sales cycle (no custom scoping) - Consistent delivery (same brief every time) - Easier to staff and train - Higher perceived value (package name > hourly rate) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ PART 5 — COMMON PRICING MISTAKES WITH CORRECTIONS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ MISTAKE 1: Discounting by default The mistake: Dropping price when a prospect pushes back, without asking why. The correction: When a prospect says "that's a lot," ask: "What were you budgeting for this?" Their answer tells you whether it's a budget problem (wrong-fit client) or an anchoring problem (they need to see the value). If it's the latter, walk them through the ROI, not the features. Script: "I understand it feels significant. Let me walk you through what you'd typically see in outcomes — [case study example]. Does that context help?" MISTAKE 2: Charging time not value The mistake: "I'll spend 40 hours on this at $75/hour = $3,000." The correction: Price what the outcome is worth to the client, not what it costs you to produce. A sales page that generates $300k in revenue is worth far more than the 20 hours it took to write. Start with the value, work backward to price. If the outcome justifies $10,000, charge $10,000 even if delivery takes 15 hours. MISTAKE 3: Forgetting overhead The mistake: Pricing at sub cost × 2 and being surprised you're barely covering expenses. The correction: Track overhead explicitly: your management hours, tools ($500–$2,000/month at agency scale), admin and accounting time, proposal time for projects you didn't win, sick/vacation/buffer. These are real costs. At minimum 35% gross margin, you're covering overhead and paying yourself for your management role. Under 25%, you're probably working for near-nothing after real costs. MISTAKE 4: Quoting before understanding scope The mistake: Giving a price in the first 5 minutes of a call. The correction: Run a discovery process. Understand the full scope before any price is discussed. Use: "I'd love to give you a sense of investment, but I want to make sure I understand the full scope first so I can quote accurately. Can I ask you a few questions?" Then quote after the call, in writing, with a detailed SOW. MISTAKE 5: Not raising prices annually The mistake: Same rates for 2+ years because "clients seem happy." The correction: Costs rise. Your experience grows. The market moves. If you haven't raised rates in 12 months, you've effectively taken a pay cut. Build a 15–25% annual rate increase into your business as standard practice, not an exception. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ PART 6 — WHEN TO RAISE PRICES: DECISION TREE ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Answer these questions: 1. Do you have a waitlist or more leads than capacity? YES → Raise prices immediately. Scarcity warrants premium. NO → Continue to Question 2 2. Have referrals been coming in consistently for 3+ months without outbound effort? YES → Raise prices. Strong referral flow = strong positioning = price power. NO → Continue to Question 3 3. Have your rates stayed the same for 12+ months? YES → Raise prices by minimum 15%. Cost of living + experience = annual increase. NO → Continue to Question 4 4. Are your best projects (high-margin, great clients) filling your calendar? YES → Raise prices to filter toward more of these. NO → Continue to Question 5 5. Are prospects accepting your quotes without negotiation more than 70% of the time? YES → Raise prices. Acceptance rate this high means you're underpriced. NO → Your pricing may be right. Focus on improving close rate first. HOW MUCH TO RAISE Minor increase (rates haven't changed in 12 months): 15–20% Moderate increase (strong demand, consistent referrals): 25–35% Major repositioning (moving to agency/premium tier): 40–60% HOW TO IMPLEMENT Existing clients: 30–60 days advance notice. "As of [DATE], my rates will be [NEW RATE]. I wanted to give you advance notice and honor current rates on any projects we kick off before then." New clients: Just use the new rate. No explanation needed. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ RESOURCES • Agency guide: solostack.madethis.app/resources/freelance-agency • Pricing guide: solostack.madethis.app/resources/freelance-pricing-guide • Retainer guide: solostack.madethis.app/resources/freelance-retainer • Full template library: solostack.madethis.app/lp/freelance-templates © SoloStack. Free to use and share.