If you are self-employed/ freelance, what do you do and what is your rate?

[LoveMyJackRussells]

I’m interested because I know it’s a way many parents, and especially mothers choose to work for the flexibility. And the tradesman day rate thread was interesting too. Given the cost of living and labour shortages, I wonder if rates are generally on the rise?

I’m happy to start. I’m a clinical psychologist (paediatric specialism) and my fee is £130 an hour. I don’t charge for every hour I work. About a quarter of my time is admin/ CPD. I am also employed in a long-term university research project for 1.5 days a week, which is fun but pays much less.

Other self employed I know about (because we pay them) are:

Cleaner (16/hour)
Gardener (25/hour)
Golf coach (50/ hour)
Counsellor (45/hour)
OT (90/hour)
Gundog trainer (90/hour)

Sports massage, £40 an hour although that’s going to go up soon. I’m studying for a more advanced qualification and I’ve done a lot of other CPD as well, so with that and my rising overheads I feel I’m
justified in making a price increase.

Specialist proofreader/ copyeditor £29 p/h

Working for a tech company has been a revelation for me. I only set my rate so high because the guy doing it before me got a permanent job and recommended me to take his place, and he told me what he charged.

Working for Americans is helpful too because people do earn more there. The time difference is also useful for me personally. I am a SAHM and do paid work from 7pm so it works well.

It's crap but the discrepancy between industries is so pronounced.

If I was a perm member of staff I would be on around £130k a year minus bonus etc.

Tech pays really well.

People I pay per hour

Osteopath £60PH
Cleaner 15PH

DH has a salaried job but has done some consultancy work for renewable energy and earned 1k per day. The best offer he ever had was 5k for a days work but it involved flying to Japan and he was dubious about the morality of the work, it was endorsing a product as an expert, basically advertising it and he wouldn’t have been able to actually use it beforehand.

I pay a freelancer £60 an hour to edit my marketing material. I think it’s a bargain considering she takes my slightly clunky content and applies a style and tone that completely lifts it.

11+ tutor.
£35 per hour

but it is after school, so not one for parents of young kids. Realistically I can only do 2 hours a day (2 students) and no point in doing it on Fridays as kids have no brain left.

I could do saturday morning, but don't want to.
So max form this is £280 per week.

I also do other work during the day but that doesn't have an hourly rate.

So it's copywriting you get £60 p/h for, not copyediting?

Or do you edit technical writing for the £60 p/h?

Sorry to be pedantic, but I am genuinely interested. I'm also a proofreader/editor. I charge approx £25 p/h. I've got a regular gig where I charge a fixed fee per document and that sometimes works out at closer to £30 p/h as sometimes the documents are very short.

I edit technical writing, I can DM more specific details if you like.

Thanks @HiddenGiraffes. That sounds like a great gig!

@yogaretreat

''Tech companies or financial services companies - there's lots of money to be had''

Thank you!

I am getting so tired of being taken advantage of by charities.

They hire a marketing professional and then expect one person to do everything from creating the overall strategy, graphic design, web design, copywriting, media relations, marketing, social media, internal comms for the entire organisation. Usually over part-time hours. That's not a one-person job...

I don't think I can afford to stay in that sector unfortunately so looking at where I can transfer my skills/experience.

@Greenfairydust
Oh definitely come over to tech! I love it. Fast paced. Great money.

@Greenfairydust Worked in the charity sector (doing public affairs) for years, can certainly relate to your post. Get out before you burnout is my advice.

I concur about working for a charity. I remember being told my hourly rate was unacceptable as they were a charity to which I replied "but I'm not a charity".
I think the expectation is that as it's a charity you should charge less.

I'm a graphic designer and charge £35ph.

Forgot to say my DH is in a role similar to a design engineer in the building services engineer is on a £32ph contract at the moment. His job is way more highly skilled and stressful than mine!

Maths tutoring - £40 an hour (I only do GCSE and A Level as find KS3 and below tedious). I could be essentially full-time with this (if I worked 4 - 8 every evening and full days Saturday and Sunday) but I just do the hours that suit be so I normally have around 8-10 hours a week in total

Maths content creation - between £21-25 an hour. High demand for this, mainly from EdTech companies and other platforms offering homework help

I do other work too within education that falls under PAYE although I am in 'control' of the employment - occasional days of subject specialist supply in a few schools I have a relationship with (my day rate is £250) as well as exam marking for all the major exam boards (normally 3 x £1100ish, once per year, although it's quite a lot of work so I imagine the hourly rate wouldn't come out that high if I actually worked it out)

Copywriter, £400 a day.

Counsellor £45 per 50 mins.
only see 4 clients max in a day.
Its tiring but I love it.

Another freelance writer and editor, my hourly rate is $50 per hour for writing, $20 for editing.

DH is a gardener, £20 per hour.

I have a cleaning business and my partner works with me. I recently increased my prices for any new customers, but my books are full, so nearly everyone was an existing client so I won't be raising the prices for them, they will still be charged £15-£20 per hour.

For new clients, general cleaning is now between £16-£21 per hour and £25 for commercial or deep cleans. This is still lower than what the larger companies are charging, but slightly more than other small companies or individuals, but we're in an unusual position because we were management and senior management in 3 of the largest UK cleaning companies, so the rate really should have reflected our experience and training from the beginning. We're lucky enough that in our area demand is still sky high and there's not enough companies to accommodate, so it seemed sensible to increase slightly and anyone we can't take on, we recommend some other companies in the area.

Sound engineer.

For corporate/music I charge between 300 and 350 a day for up to 12h.
For theatre the rate is lower, but the work is also more long term, so around 900/1000 a week.

I’m self employed and have staff to pay.

Our rates are £19-£25/hr.

I hear lots of ‘I’m a So & So, I don’t earn that much’

I don’t earn the above amount either. I don’t think employed people appreciate the costs involved for their employer. The rate to employ them is much higher than the rate they’re paid. Much like the costs that come from a self employed persons earnings.

DH is an IT contractor and charges £475 a day. I'm £25ph as a a risk assessor.

$50 per hour but I’m putting it up for new clients. Designer - mostly web and graphics.