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Freelancer to business starter kit

From selling hours to running a business: rate floor, productised packages, first-ten-clients outreach and the numbers that make it a business, not a job.

12 stepsOrdered by phase · personalized by your co-founder

1Find your rate floor before anything else

  • Start from take-home goal + business costs, grossed up for tax — that is the revenue the business must bill.
  • Divide by hours actually for sale (billable, not awake) after subtracting weeks off — that is your floor, the price below which you lose money on every hour.
  • Check the floor against your market's rates for the same promise; adjust the plan, not the floor.

2Turn the skill into packages

  • Build 2–3 fixed-scope packages at different prices — clients buy clarity, and you stop negotiating hourly.
  • Make the middle package the obvious choice; price the premium one to make it look reasonable.
  • Write what is NOT included in each package — scope creep dies in writing.

3The first ten clients

  • List 30 warm prospects (past colleagues, communities, local businesses) — warmer beats bigger.
  • Send one specific, useful message each — reference their situation, offer one concrete next step.
  • Deliver, then ask: every finished project ends with a referral request in the same conversation.

4Keep the business honest

  • Track monthly: billable hours sold, revenue, and what your effective hourly rate actually was.
  • Raise the floor every few quarters as proof accumulates — with evidence, not just courage.
  • Decide the hire point in advance: what volume justifies help, and what that does to your margins.

Don't guess your way through this

Tell your co-founder your idea and country — it will turn this checklist into your personalized Journey, run the market research, and produce the documents for you.

Start free with this template