Updated 25.7.2026
Guide
Pricing guide for light entrepreneurs
Why isn't your invoicing price the same as a salary?
Straight to the point: your invoicing price needs to be clearly higher than the hourly wage you'd earn doing the same work as an employee. This isn't greed, it's just math. On top of an employee's hourly wage, the employer also pays for holidays, pension contributions, insurance and sick pay, and there's a steady flow of work under the employment contract. As a light entrepreneur, all of this has to be covered by your own invoicing.
From the amount you invoice, the invoicing service fee is deducted first — at Truster, that's 3.99% or the price of a monthly plan. After that, tax is withheld from your pay according to your tax card. From what's left, you still need to cover your own pension provision, any insurance and tools, plus the weeks when you're not invoicing at all: holidays, sick days and quiet periods.
Once you internalise this, pricing becomes much easier: you stop comparing your price to an employee's hourly wage and start comparing it to what your work would cost the customer through any other channel. Next, let's go through the two most common pricing models and what needs to be baked into the price.
This guide won't hand you a ready-made hourly rate, because the right price depends on your field, experience and clients. Instead, you'll get a method for calculating your own sustainable price, plus tools to check it. The method works just as well for someone pricing their first gig as for an experienced professional who suspects they're charging too little.
Hourly rate or project price?
An hourly rate is the safe choice when the scope of the work is hard to estimate in advance: a renovation where surprises only reveal themselves once you open up a wall, or ongoing help whose volume varies week to week. With an hourly rate, you don't carry the risk of the workload ballooning, but your earnings are tied to hours worked, and the customer benefits from your speed.
A project price, or fixed price, suits clearly defined scopes: designing a logo, building a website, tiling a bathroom, or a photography gig including delivery. Customers like a fixed price because they know the cost upfront, and you benefit from your experience: the more efficiently you work, the higher your effective hourly earnings become. In return, you carry the risk of the job growing bigger than estimated, so define the project scope in writing and agree separately on pricing for any extra work.
Many experienced light entrepreneurs use both: a fixed price for familiar, recurring scopes, and an hourly rate for everything else. It's also good practice to base your project price on your own hourly-rate estimate, multiplied by a realistic number of hours plus a small safety margin.
With either model, it's worth setting yourself a floor price: the point below which you won't go, because the work simply wouldn't be worthwhile anymore. This floor should be based on your own costs, not on competitors' prices. Once you know your floor, it's easy to hold your ground in price negotiations, and when needed, it's better to skip an unprofitable job than to work at a loss.
What does your hourly rate need to cover?
Go through this list when thinking about your pricing. Taxes: tax is withheld from your pay, so your net earnings are always lower than the gross amount. Service fee: at Truster, 3.99% of invoicing, or a monthly plan. Pension provision: as an entrepreneur, you're responsible for your own pension, and YEL insurance becomes mandatory once your income from work exceeds the legally set threshold. The pension contribution is a real cost that belongs in your price, not something to cut corners on.
Holidays and quiet periods: nobody pays for a light entrepreneur's summer holiday, Christmas break, or the month when gigs simply dry up. If you want to take time off the way an employee would, the price of your billable weeks needs to include the earnings of your holiday weeks too. The same applies to illness and gaps between jobs.
On top of that come the costs of doing the work: tools, software, phone, travel and any industry-specific insurance. And finally, unbilled work time: preparing quotes, communicating with clients and developing your own skills all happen during hours nobody pays for directly. These, too, need to be covered by the price of your billable hours.
Pension provision deserves a special mention, since it's the item most often forgotten. The entrepreneur's pension insurance, YEL, becomes mandatory once your income from work exceeds the annually set threshold, and its contributions are a real part of your work's price. You'll find the up-to-date thresholds and contribution rates from Ilmarinen, and through Truster your YEL matters are handled together with Ilmarinen.
Rule of thumb: figuring out the right price level
You can picture the price as a simple formula: your invoicing price is made up of the net earnings you want, plus the share that goes to taxes, the service fee, pension and insurance provision, and a buffer for holidays, quiet periods and unbilled work. In other words: if you want a certain amount to land in your pocket, you need to invoice clearly more than that amount, because every item on the list is drawn from the same invoicing.
You can also flip the formula around: start from your goal. Decide how much you want to take home per month, estimate a realistic number of billable hours per month, and calculate the hourly rate that would cover the whole list based on those hours. A realistic number of billable hours is lower than your total working hours, since some of your time goes to unbilled work.
You don't need to do the exact math by hand: Truster's calculators at truster.com/laskurit show how much of a given amount of invoicing ends up in your pocket after taxes and fees, and let you test out different price levels. Try out your own plan in the calculator before you send your first quote.
Finally, compare your result to the market: find out what experienced professionals in your field charge in your area, and position your price according to your skills. If the sustainable price given by the calculator feels higher than the market rate, the problem usually isn't the price itself but the number of billable hours or the target audience: look for clients who value quality, or increase the share of your time that's billable.
Justifying your price to clients, and raising it
A well-justified price rarely scares off a good client. Explain what's included in the price: your expertise, your own tools, insurance, and the fact that the client pays only for the work done, with no employer obligations attached. For a business client, a light entrepreneur's invoice is often, on the whole, an affordable and above all effortless way to buy work.
If you notice you've been pricing too low, fix it boldly. For new clients, you can start charging your new price right away, and for existing clients, let them know about the increase well in advance, preferably at a natural turning point, such as the start of a new project or a new year. Growing demand is the clearest sign that there's room to raise your price.
Finally, remember that the lowest price is rarely your best selling point. Clients buy reliability, quality and convenience. When your price covers all your costs and you have the energy to do your work well, your clients get better service too. Sustainable pricing benefits both sides.
Make it a habit to review your price regularly, at least once a year: your costs rise, your skills grow, and the market changes. A price that was right when you started is rarely still right a couple of years later.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use an employee's hourly wage as my invoicing price?
You shouldn't. On top of an employee's hourly wage, the employer also pays for holidays, pensions and insurance, but as a light entrepreneur you cover all of that yourself out of your invoicing. That's why your invoicing price needs to be clearly higher than the hourly wage for the same work as an employee.
Which is better: an hourly rate or a project price?
An hourly rate suits work whose scope is hard to estimate in advance, while a project price suits clearly defined scopes. With a fixed price, you benefit from your own efficiency, but you carry the risk of the job growing bigger, so define the scope in writing and agree on extra-work pricing separately.
What costs need to be included in the hourly rate?
Taxes, Truster's service fee, your own pension provision (YEL contributions once they become mandatory), insurance, tools and travel, and a buffer for holidays, illness and quiet periods. Unbilled work time, such as preparing quotes, also needs to be covered by the price of your billable hours.
How much of my invoicing ends up in my pocket?
It depends on your tax rate and the services you choose. The service fee — 3.99% or a monthly plan — is deducted from your invoicing, and tax is withheld from your pay according to your tax card. For an accurate estimate based on your own figures, use Truster's calculators at truster.com/laskurit.
How do I raise my prices without losing clients?
Tell existing clients about a price increase well in advance and time it to a natural turning point, such as the start of a new project. Justify the price with the quality and convenience of your work. New clients can be charged the new price right away. If your calendar fills up easily, there's likely room to raise your prices.
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