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, and 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.