What does your work have to cost?

Enter what you need to earn, what the business costs, and the hours you can actually bill. The page works out the floor — the price per engagement below which a job costs you money. About twenty minutes, most of it finding your fixed costs.

Nothing you type leaves this page. Print it when you are done; the floor goes on the first page of your binder.

What you need to pay yourself each monthCAD, after taxWhat the household runs on. Not what you would like.

Tax set-aside% of revenueIf you do not know, 30 is a defensible start in Canada.

Fixed monthly costsCADSoftware, insurance, phone, workspace, fees, the accountant.

Variable cost per engagementCADMaterials, subcontractors, travel. Zero is common for a service.

Hours you work in a normal week

Weeks a year with no billable workHoliday, sick, and the weeks that are all admin. Eight is realistic.

Hours a week on selling and marketing

Hours a week on admin, finance and email

Hours a week on unbilled craft and learning

Hours in a typical engagementOne job, start to finish, including what you do not invoice.

What you charge for that engagement todayCAD

Fill in the fields above. The floor appears here.

The other nine instruments, as they ship. The floor is the first page of a ten-page operating manual. Join the list and you get the next instrument's worksheet each fortnight, in this voice, with no sales pitch until the last one. Express consent; one click to leave.

Runs On One is Kenneth M.F. McGrath's one-person company operating manual, published by CIONAOD Inc. in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Edition 1, 2026. You will be emailed for the reason above and no other.

The book and the Binder Read the chapter behind this page