Guide
How much to charge to take home X
Most coaches price forwards — pick a number, hope it's enough. Pricing backwards from the take-home you actually want is more honest: decide what you need to keep, then add back the fees and tax that come off the top.
Start from the number you keep
Decide the after-fee, after-tax amount you want from a package — say you want to keep $1,000. That's your target. Everything above it is what the processor and the tax authority take before it reaches you, so you have to charge more than $1,000 to net $1,000.
Add back tax, then fees
If you reserve 28% for tax, $1,000 take-home means about $1,389 of pre-tax net is needed (1,000 ÷ 0.72). Then add the processor fee on top: at Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 the gross price works out to roughly $1,430. The exact figure shifts with your tax rate and processor — which is what the calculator solves instantly.
Sanity-check before you quote
Pricing from take-home stops you from accidentally working for a fraction of the headline number. Run your candidate price through the take-home calculator to see the keep figure before you send the quote. Adjust until the number you keep is the number you meant to earn.
Frequently asked questions
How do I price a package to hit a take-home target?
Work backwards: start from the amount you want to keep, divide by (1 − your tax rate) to add back tax, then add the processor's fee on top. The result is the gross price you need to charge.
Why do I have to charge more than my target take-home?
Because fees and tax come off the top of every payment. To keep $1,000 after a 28% tax reserve and Stripe's fee, you need to charge well over $1,000 — the calculator shows the exact gross.