Tutorial 14 of 21 · September 8, 2026
Two-minute tutorial: your day rate from a yearly target
How to work out a day rate to quote, based on your own income goal and the weeks off you actually take
"What's your day rate?" is a simple enough question that a lot of solo business owners still answer with a number they half-remember from somewhere, rather than one worked out properly from their own goals. Getting an actual figure — one built from what you want to earn and the weeks you realistically don't work — takes a lot less time than it sounds like it should, and it's a lot more useful the next time someone asks. This question also tends to land at the worst possible moment, mid-call, with a client waiting for an answer in a couple of seconds rather than a week to think it over. Having a real number worked out ahead of time means you're never caught doing rough maths in your head while someone's waiting on the other end of the line.
Do this now
- Decide the yearly income you'd like to earn from the business this year. Round numbers are completely fine — this isn't an exact science, it's just a starting point for the maths that follows in the next step.
- Estimate the weeks off you actually take in a typical year — holidays, sick days, the slow weeks where work just doesn't come in no matter how much you'd like it to. Be honest here rather than optimistic; this is the number most people quietly get wrong.
- Ask the tool to work out a day rate from those two figures. It'll divide your target evenly across the weeks you're actually available to bill, not across the full fifty-two weeks of the calendar year.
- Round the result to a number you're genuinely comfortable saying out loud on a call — a day rate only really works if you can quote it to a client without hesitating or apologising for it.
Try this
I want to earn [YEARLY TARGET] a year and take [X] weeks off. What day rate covers that?
What you'll get back
You'll get back a specific day rate, along with a quick breakdown of how it was worked out — your yearly target, divided across the weeks you're actually billing, not every week on the calendar. Seeing the maths laid out plainly makes the number feel solid and defensible rather than plucked from thin air. The breakdown makes it feel less like a guess you're hoping nobody questions and more like something you could explain line by line if a client actually asked how you got there.
That's a clear figure to quote, built from your own numbers instead of a guess or whatever a competitor happens to charge, which is exactly what the Pricing Calculator helper works out for you, with the template ready to reuse whenever your target income or your available weeks change — no need to redo the maths from scratch each time. Update the two starting figures whenever your goals shift and the day rate updates cleanly along with them, so you're never quoting a number that quietly went stale months ago.
The shortcut: use the ready-made helper
In the Sundayclear AI Business OS this is helper: Pricing Calculator
…plus the template it fills and a worked example.
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