A Simple Way to Check Your Freelance Project Quote

A client asks you to build a small website. You estimate the work will take about 10 hours, pick an hourly rate, and send over a fixed price.

Then come the emails, the kickoff call, the content that needs cleaning up, and a couple of revision rounds. None of those things are unusual, but they can make a 10-hour project take quite a bit longer than expected.

Before sending a quote, it helps to do a quick check on the numbers.
Start with the whole project
Say you expect a website project to take:

• 10 hours for design and development
• 2 hours for meetings, revisions, and delivery At a target pay rate of $50 per hour, that’s $600 for your time.

Now add $100 for project-related costs, such as software, assets, or outside help. Your estimated cost is $700.

These numbers are just an example. The useful part is listing what goes into the job before deciding on the price.
Leave some room above cost
If you quote $700, you’ve covered the estimated costs in this example, including your own pay. There’s nothing left over as operating profit.

Suppose you want a 30% profit margin. The calculation is:
$700 ÷ (1 − 0.30) = $1,000
At a $1,000 quote, the $700 cost leaves $300 in operating profit, or 30% of the price.

One small detail that’s easy to miss: adding 30% to $700 gives you $910. That’s a 30% markup on cost, not a 30% profit margin.
Check the scope before sending
The number is only as useful as the assumptions behind it. Before you send it, make sure both you and the client know what’s included:

• How many pages or features are covered?
• Who provides the content and images?
• How many revision rounds are included?
• What happens if the project grows beyond the original scope? A quote can look fine on paper and still go sideways if you and the client have different ideas about the work.

I built QuoteForProfit to make this kind of calculation easier. You can enter your own time, costs, fees, and target margin to see a suggested quote. It’s free to use, and there’s no account required.

The result is a starting point, not a price you have to charge. You’ll still want to consider the client, the scope, and what makes sense for the project.