As a private event bartender, calculating rates for your mobile bartending service will definitely need to be a priority. Time really is money when you will be consulting with your client, you will be working weekends. If you offer custom menus or specialty handmade syrups you will have to take into account the time to create those.
As a freelance mobile bartender, you will need to squeeze as much profitability out of your business. Calculating rates for your mobile bartending business is an important step, you will need to know what to charge accordingly and still make money. You can charge a flat rate, you can charge an hourly rate, or you can offer value-based pricing. However, you chose to calculate those rates you will need to know your minimum hourly rate.
One of (if not)the most common ways when it comes to calculating rates for your mobile bartending business and most other businesses is to divide the salary you want by the number of hours you will be working each year. Let’s use the example of pursuing mobile bartending full time, you will be working a full 40 hours a week. There are 52 weeks in a year and if you did the math you will come up with 2,080 hours in a year. If your desired income is $100,000 a year you would divide that by 2,080 hours. Simple right you will charge $50 per hour.
If you use this common thinking as a way of calculating rates for your mobile bartending business you will get yourself into trouble. Business, in general, is about the quality of life that you want for your family and your employees and their families. Thinking like what we just did above will make you fall short of your annual goal of $100,000 and maybe put you out of business.
When calculating rates you should be thinking about annual income and total annual profit. What are your (company) overhead expenses? Now, look at your total billable hours each week. Salary is an expense, salary is not profit. Profit is what you have after salaries are paid. Let’s revisit the original question. How do you calculate rates for your bartending business? There are 4 simple steps to making this calculation and getting it fairly accurate.
Step 1: Expenses – what are your expenses?
Step 2: How much does it cost you to do business?
Step 3: How many hours will you be working?
Step 4: Calculate your hourly rate – Taken steps 1-3 into consideration you can now get a clear idea of what to charge.
This practice of calculating rates really goes with any type of freelancing that you do. It will take time to come up with the numbers. It takes time to build your business. Patience is what will get you to the finish line.
