In another post, (see here) I outlined the factors that you need to consider in arriving at a fee rate, and also what a budget looks like (see here). Here’s an example of how to work the figures.

Start with what you want to earn. Let’s say for this example, you want to earn €500 a week after expenses.

Next, work out what your expenses are. Practising therapy costs money. The costs of running a practice include: supervision, CPD, rent (and other costs associated with where you practice, such as light and heat, cleaning, rates), professional indemnity and public liability insurance, professional subscriptions, and promotional costs. If you have to travel to your place of work, you may incur motor or travel expenses, or the cost of eating in restaurants. It is useful to estimate what these costs will be, as a basis for how much you need to earn in order to break even (the point at which you begin to earn something for yourself). Let’s say you estimate your costs will amount to €5,000 a year. If you’re going to charge €50 an hour, you will need to do 2 sessions every week for the whole year in order to pay for these costs. That‘s before there’s anything left for you to use for your own day to day expenses of living (eating, clothes, running you home etc). (2 sessions @ €50 per week for 50 weeks = €5,000)

When you take into account that there is a seasonal nature to the work, with many therapists earning less during the holiday periods, and that there can often be times when clients are unavailable for any number of reasons, (before they start, when they’re winding down, or when they are sick, on holidays, or just doing something else) you can see that you need notionally to have more clients per week than the income you are aiming for. Using the figures above, if you want to earn €500 a week for yourself, you might work it out like this:

I want this income each week                       500

My costs each week are                                 100

Total each week                                               600

So in order to have €500 per week after expenses, that comes to approximately €30,000 in total that you need to earn in the year. (€600 per week for 50 weeks = €30,000)

If you take six weeks holidays during the year, that leaves you 46 weeks in which to earn your €30,000, so you need to bring in €650 for each week you’re working (€30,000 divided by 46 weeks). And in order to do that, you’ll need to see 13 clients each and every week that you are working in order to earn what you want to earn. If on average, two clients don’t show up each week, then you need to have at least 15 regular paying clients each week to achieve your target.

If you vary any of the figures, for example if you charge more per hour, or if you work more or fewer hours, the results will vary accordingly.

If you’d like to find out more about how to work out what you should charge, leave your comment or question below, or contact me for your free 20 minute consultation.