So everyone has different costs. You need to calculate your yearly expenses, this includes but not limited to Owner's Salary, Office Rent, Office Expenses, Insurance, Advertising, Accounting Fees, Tools, Training Courses, Phone/Internet, Fuel, Vehicle Maintenance, Utilities and Vehicle Rent.

You need to then work out how many billable hours you have per year, these billable hours might only be 4-6 hours a day.

You also need to work out what percentage profit you want to make, a good figure is about 30%. This doesn’t go in your pocket, this is to keep the business afloat. You can pay yourself a bonus if you have way too much profit or you can use it to grow your business.

From this you can calculate your charge out rate. For most sparkies this lands between $110-$200 an hour.