PRICING · 2026

How much should I charge?

By The Zarla Team · Updated November 2026

The formula every service business prices from — your overhead per billable hour, the wage you want and a target margin — a free calculator for it, and the dated 2026 going rates for sixteen trades.

Work out my hourly rate

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The short answer

Charge your overhead per billable hour plus the wage you want, divided by one minus your target margin. That is the formula Housecall Pro's labor-cost calculator and Jobber's pricing guides publish: work out what an hour has to earn before you make anything (the break-even rate), then price above it.

The hours matter more than the rate. Housecall Pro calls billing 30% of your working hours good and 50% highly efficient — 2.4 or 4 hours of an 8-hour day; Harvest says most freelancers bill 50% to 70% of their time, about 720 to 900 hours a year. The rest — driving, quoting, admin — is paid for by the hours you do bill.

On margin, Jobber suggests a 10% to 20% net profit for a trade business, with about 12% typical and 50% gross profit as the rule of thumb (June 2026). For scale, NYU Stern's January 2026 data puts the net margin of US business and consumer services companies at 7.0% and the whole market at 9.7% — public companies, with public-company overheads.

Then check the answer against your trade: the going rates below link a sourced 2026 pricing guide with its own calculator for each of sixteen trades, from handyman rates to towing rates.

FREE HOURLY RATE AND PROFIT MARGIN CALCULATOR

What should I charge an hour?

Your overhead, the hours you really bill, the wage you want and the margin you're aiming for — the four numbers behind every hourly rate. Then check a job's margin and markup.

What do you want to work out?
Overhead is everything but wages: rent, the truck, insurance, software, marketing. Billable hours are the ones you invoice — not the ones you work.

Your hourly rate

$76

an hour, at a 15% net margin

Overhead per billable hour
$25
Break-even rate
$65

Your numbers, the published formula: break-even rate ÷ (1 − target margin). It's a floor to price above, not a quote for a customer — check it against your trade's going rate below and your local market.

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What your trade charges in 2026

Every line is the headline range from that trade's pricing guide — the hourly rate where the trade bills by the hour, otherwise the guide's first job — read off the publisher named, with a calculator built for that trade's unit (per square foot, per mile, per week, per act).

Not on the list? The formula above holds for any service business; the trade guides just save you the research.

THE FORMULA

How to set your hourly rate

Six steps from your costs to a rate you can defend — the same steps Housecall Pro's calculator walks through.

01

Add up your overhead

Everything that isn't a wage: rent or the share of your home, the truck and fuel, insurance, software, phone, marketing, licenses, tools. A month's worth, or a year's.

02

Count your real billable hours

Not hours worked — hours invoiced. Housecall Pro: 30% of working hours is good, 50% highly efficient. Harvest: freelancers bill 50%–70%, about 720–900 hours a year.

03

Work out overhead per billable hour

Overhead ÷ billable hours. Housecall Pro's electrical example: $90,000 a year over 3,000 billable hours is $30 an hour that every job has to carry.

04

Add the wage you want

What you want to earn per billable hour, before profit. Overhead per hour + wage = your break-even rate: charge less and the business pays you to work.

05

Price to a margin, not on top of cost

Rate = break-even ÷ (1 − target margin). At 20%, a $75 break-even is $75 ÷ 0.8 = $94 — not $75 × 1.2 = $90. The difference is why markup and margin aren't the same number.

06

Check it against your trade

Compare the rate with the going rates above. Far below and you're leaving room; far above and the work, the portfolio or the niche has to justify it.

The formula, worked through

Housecall Pro's labor-cost example: a five-technician company with $100,000 a year of overhead and $28 an hour in payroll has a break-even labor rate of $62.29 an hour; at a 30% net profit target the billable rate is $88.99 (Housecall Pro). The gap between $62 and $89 is the profit — and the buffer for the month a truck breaks.

Jobber's one-job version: a painting job with $380 of materials, $170 of labor and $90 of overhead costs $640. Charging $800 leaves $160 — a 20% operating margin on the price, or a 25% markup on the cost (Jobber). Same dollars, two percentages; the calculator above shows both.

A one-van business runs on smaller numbers than either example, and the formula doesn't care: $2,500 a month of overhead over 100 billable hours is $25 an hour before you've paid yourself.

FOR SCALE · JANUARY 2026

What margins look like across industries

NYU Stern's margins by sector for US public companies, January 2026 data. A floor for “is my margin unusual?”, not a target — a small business carries none of a listed company's overhead.

Gross, operating and net margins by sector, US, January 2026 (NYU Stern)
SectorGross marginOperating marginNet margin
Business and consumer services33.4%13.7%7.0%
Engineering and construction15.5%7.0%5.9%
Transportation24.1%8.5%8.2%
Retail (building supply)34.2%12.4%7.8%
Household products51.0%19.5%11.7%
Education45.8%16.7%8.8%
Total market37.8%14.4%9.7%

Operating margin is NYU Stern's pre-tax, pre-stock-compensation figure. Jobber's trade targets — 10%–20% net, 50% gross — sit above most of these because a trade business's cost of goods is mostly labor it controls.

Margin, markup and the flat price

Margin is profit as a share of the price; markup is profit as a share of the cost. A 25% markup is a 20% margin ($640 → $800, Jobber). Trade guides quote both, so know which one a figure is before you copy it.

Hourly or flat? Hourly protects you when a job grows; a flat price rewards you for getting faster and gives the customer a number up front. Most trades do both: flat for the jobs they do every week, hourly for diagnosis and anything they can't size until they see it. The flat price is still built from hours — your rate × the hours the job usually takes, plus materials.

Raising prices. A small increase every year, written into your price list, beats a jump after three years of absorbing costs. Your break-even rate moves every time your insurance or fuel does; recheck it each January.

How much should I charge: common questions

How much should I charge per hour?

Your overhead per billable hour plus the wage you want, divided by one minus your target margin — the calculator above works it out. Then check it against your trade: the going rates on this page link a sourced 2026 guide for each of sixteen trades.

How do I calculate my hourly rate for a service business?

Add up your monthly overhead (everything but wages), divide by the hours you actually bill a month, add the hourly wage you want, and divide the total by (1 − your target margin). Housecall Pro's calculator and Jobber's guides publish the same steps.

What is a good profit margin for a service business?

Jobber suggests 10%–20% net for a trade business, with about 12% typical and 50% gross profit as the rule of thumb (June 2026). For scale, NYU Stern's January 2026 data puts US business and consumer services companies at a 7.0% net margin and the whole market at 9.7%.

What is the difference between margin and markup?

Margin is profit ÷ price; markup is profit ÷ cost. Jobber's example: a $640 job priced at $800 earns $160 — a 20% margin and a 25% markup. To price for a margin, divide cost by (1 − margin); multiplying cost by (1 + margin) undershoots.

How many hours can I actually bill?

Fewer than you work. Housecall Pro calls 30% of working hours good and 50% highly efficient — 2.4 or 4 hours of an 8-hour day. Harvest puts freelancers at 50%–70% of their time, about 720–900 billable hours a year. Driving, quoting and admin are paid for by the hours you do bill.

Should I charge hourly or a flat price?

Both: a flat price for the jobs you do every week, so the customer has a number up front and speed pays you; hourly for diagnosis and work you can't size until you see it. Build the flat price from your rate × the hours the job usually takes, plus materials.

How much should I charge in my trade?

Each trade pricing guide on this page gives the 2026 US range from a named, dated publisher and a calculator built for that trade's unit — per square foot for pressure washing and painting, per mile for towing, per week for daycare, per act for a notary, per hour for handymen and electricians.

Should I put my prices on my website?

Yes — your hourly rate and “from” prices for the jobs you do most. It answers the first question before the call and gives an AI assistant a real number to quote. On a Zarla site, tell the editor “add a pricing section” with your prices, and change them any time.

Where these numbers come from

Every figure on this page is read off a published source, dated below. The trade ranges come from the trade pricing guides and their own source lists.

Put your prices on your website

Add what you do, your town and your business name, and Zarla builds the site from that one line. Your prices go in a pricing section you edit by chat.

No credit card · Pay when you publish

Already have a website? Bring it across →Zarla keeps your old page addresses where it can and redirects the ones that change, helping you keep the Google standing you've built.

See website examples for your business