Ashanti Johnson, PMP
August 28, 2026
Your old salary is not a freelance pricing strategy.
One of the first questions project managers ask when they start freelancing or consulting is, "What should I charge?"
The instinct is often to pull up your old salary, calculate the equivalent hourly rate, and use that number as your freelance rate.
It sounds logical.
It can also leave you seriously underpriced.
Independent professionals aren't employees paid through a different system. You're responsible for your own business expenses, non-billable time, professional development, administrative work, taxes, and periods between client engagements.
More importantly, clients aren't simply buying hours from you.
They're paying for expertise and the ability to get something done.
Your Salary and Freelance Rate Serve Different Purposes
A full-time salary compensates you as part of an organization.
The company may also be paying for benefits, equipment, software, paid time off, training, payroll taxes, and other expenses associated with employing you.
Freelancing changes that structure.
You may spend time finding opportunities, preparing for client conversations, managing invoices, completing administrative work, maintaining your business, and developing your expertise.
Those hours are still part of running your business, even when they aren't directly billed to a client.
That means dividing your previous salary by 2,080 working hours doesn't automatically produce an appropriate freelance rate.
Not Every Working Hour Is Billable
Imagine deciding how much you want your freelance business to generate in a year and assuming you'll bill clients 40 hours every week.
That's rarely how independent work operates.
Some weeks may be heavily focused on client delivery.
Others may include onboarding, business administration, professional development, preparing proposals, or gaps between engagements.
You may also intentionally leave room in your schedule so you can support multiple clients instead of allowing one engagement to consume your entire capacity.
Your pricing needs to account for the reality that working hours and billable hours are not the same thing.
Start With Your Revenue Goal
Instead of asking, "What was my hourly rate at my last job?" start with a different question:
"What does my business need to generate?"
Think about the income you want to earn, the expenses required to operate your business, and the amount of client work you realistically want to take on.
Then consider your capacity.
Someone who wants to work with one long-term client will structure pricing differently from a consultant maintaining several engagements.
A fractional leader working with three organizations may price differently from a contractor working 40 hours per week with one company.
Your pricing should support the type of independent career you're trying to build.
Your Experience Should Influence Your Pricing
Time isn't the only thing a client receives when they hire you.
They're also getting everything you've learned before the engagement started.
A project manager with extensive experience leading complex implementations can identify risks that someone newer to that work may overlook.
An operations consultant may recognize inefficient processes quickly because they've solved similar problems repeatedly.
A change management specialist may already understand why adoption efforts fail and what needs to happen differently.
Experience can help you solve problems faster and make better decisions.
Becoming more efficient shouldn't automatically make your work less valuable.
Your Niche Matters
Specialization can also affect what clients are willing to pay.
A general project manager may compete against a broad pool of professionals.
Someone with highly relevant expertise can be evaluated differently.
Consider the difference between:
"I provide project management support."
And:
"I manage enterprise CRM implementations for growing organizations."
The second professional has given the client more information about why their experience is relevant.
Clients often pay for confidence.
The more closely your expertise aligns with their problem, the easier it becomes for them to understand the value of bringing you in.
Hourly Isn't Your Only Option
Freelance project managers sometimes assume they have to charge by the hour.
You don't.
Depending on the engagement, pricing could be structured as:
An hourly rate
A daily rate
A fixed project fee
A monthly retainer
A fractional monthly engagement
Each model serves a different purpose.
Hourly pricing can work well when the scope or required level of support may change.
A fixed fee can make sense when the deliverables and boundaries are clearly defined.
Retainers can support ongoing advisory or project support.
Fractional pricing can work when a company needs consistent access to experienced leadership without hiring someone full-time.
The best pricing model depends on the work you're actually being hired to do.
Be Careful With Fixed-Price Projects
Fixed-price work can be attractive because both you and the client know the cost upfront.
But it requires strong scoping.
If you estimate that an engagement will require 40 hours and it ultimately requires 80, your effective rate has been cut in half.
This is why pricing and scope management are closely connected.
Before setting a project fee, understand the deliverables, stakeholders, dependencies, meetings, revisions, timeline, and client responsibilities.
A profitable project starts with knowing what you're actually agreeing to deliver.
Don't Lower Your Rate Just Because You're New to Freelancing
Being new to freelancing doesn't mean you're new to your expertise.
Someone with eight years of implementation experience doesn't suddenly become entry-level because they take on their first independent client.
The business side may be new.
The expertise isn't.
Instead of automatically discounting yourself, evaluate the experience you're bringing to the engagement.
What have you managed before?
What problems do you understand?
What outcomes can you help the client achieve?
What would it cost the company if the project were poorly managed?
Those questions provide much more useful context than simply asking what other freelancers charge.
Pricing Should Evolve With Your Business
The rate you charge for your first engagement doesn't need to become your rate forever.
As you develop deeper expertise, build demand, improve your positioning, and understand your capacity, your pricing can change.
You may also discover that different services require different pricing structures.
A short-term implementation project may be priced differently from ongoing fractional leadership.
Strategic consulting may be structured differently from embedded contract work.
There doesn't have to be one universal number attached to everything you do.
Your pricing should reflect the engagement.
Price the Business You're Trying to Build
Freelancing isn't about recreating your old job without the employee benefits.
It gives you the ability to make intentional decisions about what you work on, who you work with, how much capacity you sell, and how your expertise generates income.
Pricing is part of that strategy.
Don't start with what your former employer paid you.
Start with the expertise you're bringing, the work the client needs, the capacity you have available, and the business you're trying to build.
Your freelance rate should make independent work sustainable, not simply make it possible.
Find Your Next Project Opportunity
Once you understand what type of work you want and how you want to structure it, you need opportunities that align with your expertise.
The Freelance PM Club Job Board features freelance, consulting, contract, and project-based opportunities for project professionals across industries and specialties.
Explore current opportunities:
https://www.thefreelancepmclub.com/jobBoard
The goal isn't simply to land more work. It's to build an independent career where the work, clients, and compensation make sense for you.
