The Build & Scale Academy · Free tool
What's your real hourly rate?
Find out what an hour of your time is really worth.
Most owners know what they charge a client and what they pay their team. Very few know what they earn per hour themselves. This shows you, and shows where your week goes.
Your hourly rate is not what you charge. It is what you keep, divided by every hour you give.
What the business pays you each year
(before personal tax)
What you pay yourself through payroll.
What you take out as dividends.
If you are a sole trader, what you draw from the business.
Pension, vehicle, phone and insurance paid for you.
Your hours
(be honest)
Count evenings, weekends, calls, quotes, driving and paperwork.
52 minus the holiday and time off you really take.
Your real hourly rate
£0.00
How it compares
Wage plus employer costs. Use your own figure.
Wage plus employer costs. Use your own figure.
Pick a number you would be proud to say out loud.
Where your hours go
(hours in a normal week)
OK, this matches your weekly hours.
These hours do not match your weekly hours (0 a week). Adjust one of them.
Your result is ready.
Your real hourly rate
£0.00
Your real hourly rate
£0.00
Below what you pay a skilled tradesperson. You are working at a discount.
Above a tradesperson, but below what you pay a manager.
Above a manager, but still below your target.
At or above your target. Protect it.
- Your rate against a skilled tradesperson
- £0.00 per hour
- Your rate against a supervisor or manager
- £0.00 per hour
- Gap to the rate you want
- £0.00 per hour
- What that gap costs you each year
- £0
What your number means
Below a skilled tradesperson
You are subsidising the business with your time. Price better and stop doing low value work yourself.
Between a tradesperson and a supervisor
You are paid like an employee but carrying an owner's risk. Hand over the biggest blocks of your week.
Above a supervisor, below your target
The business pays you fairly, but too much of your week is work others could do.
At or above your target
Protect it. Watch that growth does not drag your hours back up.
Where your week goes
What to do with this
- 1
Look at the two biggest blocks. Could someone who costs less than your target rate do them?
- 2
Any hour spent on work you could buy in below your target rate is an hour you are underpaying yourself.
- 3
Run this again in three months. The aim is more profit from fewer, better hours.
Take it further with Paul's spreadsheet and how-to guide
What comes next
Month 1 of the Build & Scale Academy is Cashflow Command.
It shows what the business can afford to pay you, and when, with a 13-week forecast you update every Monday.