If someone asked you right now, "what do you charge per day?", could you answer with a number you can defend? A rate card is how you stop pricing on gut feel and start pricing from your actual costs.
A rate card does three things: it makes quoting fast and consistent, it protects your margin, and it stops discounting by accident. But a rate card is only as good as the costs behind it. So let's build one from the ground up.
Start with what a person actually costs you, not their salary.
Salary: £45,000. Add employer NI, pension, and a share of overhead, roughly 50%.
Now, how many days can you actually sell? Not 365. Take working days, then remove holiday, admin, and non-billable time.
About 220 working days, and say 80% is billable. That's 176 billable days.
£67,500 divided by 176 days is about £384 a day. That's your breakeven.
Below that, you lose money on their time. Full stop.
Add a target margin, say 40%. Your day rate becomes about £640.
Now you have a rate that covers the person, covers the overhead, and builds in profit. Do this per role: junior, senior, director. That's your rate card. When a client pushes on price, you're not guessing; you're showing them the floor beneath your number.
Build the card once. Price from it every time. Review it yearly as salaries and utilisation change.