True Hourly Rate for an Independent Trainer After Expenses
Your true hourly rate as an independent trainer is your net income, after business costs, divided by all the hours you work, not just the hours you bill; for a trainer charging $100 a session it often lands well below that number. The figure is the honest answer to “is this working?” You can model your own with the cost calculator after you read the method below.
The formula
True hourly rate = (revenue minus business costs) divided by (billed hours plus every unbilled hour).
Revenue is what clients paid you. Costs are everything you spend to deliver and sell: the room, insurance, software, certifications, marketing and accounting. Unbilled hours are programming, messaging, booking, billing, content, travel and anything else the job requires. Use a week or a month, but use the same period for all three parts.
A worked example
These numbers are illustrative; swap in yours.
| Line | Weekly |
|---|---|
| 20 sessions at $100 | $2,000 |
| Rooms at $22 per session | minus $440 |
| Insurance, software and other costs, spread weekly | minus $60 |
| Net before tax | $1,500 |
| Hours: 20 billed plus 12 unbilled | 32 hours |
| True hourly rate | about $47 |
The headline rate was $100. The room and overhead take it to about $75 per billed hour, and the unbilled time takes it to about $47. That is before income tax and self-employment tax, so the take-home figure is lower. None of this means the work is a bad deal; it means the sticker rate is the wrong number to compare to a salary.
Counting the hours honestly
Keep a time log for two weeks, in 15-minute blocks, with five labels: coaching, programming, messages, admin and travel. Most trainers find the unbilled column larger than they guessed. Non-billable hours shows what those hours contain and how to plan for them. Do not count idle waiting time between sessions as unbilled work unless you use it for something; if you cannot, it is a signal that your schedule has gaps worth filling.
Three levers to raise it
- Cut unbilled hours. Templates, batch programming and scheduled messaging each save time without changing price.
- Trim cost per session. Book rooms only for confirmed sessions and compare line items in the margin guide.
- Raise your rate. Because the unbilled hours stay the same, extra rate goes almost straight to the true hourly figure. A $10 increase on the example above lifts net by $200 a week, from $1,500 to $1,700, and the figure from about $47 to about $53.
How to use the number
Compare it with your alternatives: a salaried or hourly job at your skill level, adjusted for benefits you would lose or gain. Track it monthly in a single cell. If it falls while your sessions rise, you are adding hours of work without adding income, which is the classic trap. If you want the plan for how many sessions your rate needs to cover your life, the full-time client math is the next read.
A trainer who knows this number makes better choices about every new client, every new package and every extra hour.
Related questions
Should I include my own workouts as work hours?
Count them if you do them because the job requires it, such as demonstrating exercises, and leave them out if they are your personal recreation. Be consistent either way so your figure compares from month to month.
Is true hourly rate before or after tax?
Calculate it before income tax to compare with your rate, then do a second version after the self-employment and income taxes you expect to owe. Keep both numbers.
What is a good true hourly rate?
There is no single answer. Compare it with what a job at your skill level would pay per hour, and with the number you need to support your life, rather than with another trainer's.