What’s Your Hour Actually Worth?
I want you to stop treating your business like a mystery novel and start treating it like a maths problem you can solve on the back of a napkin.
Because there’s a number you need to know.
A remarkably magic number.
And once you have it, you’ll make better decisions for the rest of your working life.
Ready?
Get a pen.
Step one: how much money do you want to make?
Don’t overthink this.
How much money would you like to make in personal income next year?
Not turnover.
Not “if the market behaves.”
Not “what feels sensible.”
Personal income.
Write the number down.
Go.
Step two: how many weeks are you actually going to work?
There are 52 weeks in a year.
Subtract the holidays you want.
Want 4 weeks off? You’re working 48.
Want 10 weeks off? You’re working 42.
Write your number down.
Because your business is there to support your life.
Not the other way around.
Step three: how many hours a week do you want to work in those weeks?
20-hour weeks?
30?
50?
Pick your number. Write it down.
Now you’ve got three numbers in front of you:
- Income you want
- Weeks you’ll work
- Hours per week you’ll work
Step four: divide and discover your magic number
Take your income number.
Divide it by your working weeks.
Divide it by your hours per week.
What you land on is your hourly rate.
That’s not a “nice-to-have.”
That’s not “what you’d like to earn.”
That’s what your business must return for every hour you pour into it if you want the life you just described on your paper.
That’s the deal.
Step five: now triple it
Here’s what you already know if you’ve been in business longer than ten minutes:
You do not get paid for every hour you work.
About a third of your time makes money.
A third is admin and operations.
And a third is the stuff you wish you didn’t have to do.
So take your hourly rate and multiply it by three.
Now you have another number:
your wholesale rate.
That’s how much it costs to buy an hour of you… from you.
Once you’ve got that, the fog lifts.
Why this changes everything
Because most people are working below their rate and pretending it’s smart.
You’re sitting there doing tasks you could pay someone $60 an hour to do…
…while you’re a $4,500-an-hour person.
And you’re telling yourself you’re saving money.
No.
You’re leaking it.
The wholesale rate becomes your filter:
If the work is below your wholesale rate, it shouldn’t be yours.
Delegate it.
Automate it.
Delete it.
You don’t need more time.
You need better decisions about the time you already have.
Run it now
Two minutes. Three numbers.
- Desired personal income: ______
- Weeks you want to work: ______
- Hours per week: ______
Now calculate:
Hourly rate = #1 ÷ #2 ÷ #3
Wholesale rate = Hourly rate × 3
Write those down somewhere you’ll see them daily.
Then look at your calendar and ask one question:
Am I spending my time like someone who knows what an hour of me costs?
If the answer is no, brilliant — you’ve just found your next set of actions.
Here’s a final thought for you…
If you don’t know your magic number, you’ll keep making emotional decisions about your time.
And emotional decisions are expensive.
Find the number.
Respect the number.
Build around the number.
Your business gets easier the moment your maths gets honest.
