Tool 1 of the Get Paid Kit · For sign writers

Sign Writer hourly rate calculator

This free calculator works out the hourly rate a freelance sign writer should charge, starting from the income you need — then builds the per-job prices clients actually pay out of real working hours. Nobody books “an hour of sign writing”; they book a fascia with their name on it, a van that advertises itself, a board that points the way. With the honest presets below the rate lands near $77 an hour, $616 for a full day — and the conversions that price is built from: an A-board, both sides, is about two hours, $154 of labour, vehicle livery runs about five hours, $385 — with boards and special finishes billed as their own lines on top.

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The pricing reality for freelance sign writers

Signs are bought per job and earned by the hour, and the two only agree if the job price was built from the hours in the first place. The quote is given from a photograph and a measurement, before anyone has stood over that pavement in the rain or found out what the old fascia is hiding. Inside the flat price sit the layout, the layout again after the client’s cousin has an opinion, the painting and the fitting — and a price copied from the last similar shopfront carries all of it whether it covers it or not. Price the working hour first, and the job price becomes an assembly: so many hours at the board and the brush, at a rate that adds up.

This is a mixed studio-and-site trade, and the mix is the pricing trap. Design, proofs and measuring are skilled hours that happen away from the brush, and flat job prices quietly assume they are free. Demand also moves in waves — spring refits, new businesses opening, the pre-Christmas rush on every high street — and the waves hide the cost of the slow jobs. The presets below use a 60% billable share: the hours painting and fitting bill, and proofs, measuring and travel take theirs first.

The numbers below are starting presets, not a survey: a $50,000 target income, $9,800 a year of expenses — studio rent leads, with paints and materials, tools and equipment, the vehicle, insurance and marketing — a 22% tax estimate, four weeks of vacation, a 38-hour week and 60% billable time. Boards and special finishes beyond the working float are billed to the job as their own lines, as the maths section explains. With those starting numbers the calculator lands near $77 an hour.

Your numbers — sign writer presets

Your recommended rate

$0 / hour
$0Day rate (8 hours)
0Billable hours per year
Income + expenses needed$0
Grossed up for tax$0
With profit margin$0
Working weeks0
Total working hours0
Billable hours0

Your rate is saved on this device only, so the Proposal Generator can show it when you price a project.

Easy to miss

Costs sign writers forget to put in the rate

  • The layout nobody sees. Lettering is designed before it is painted: spacing, scaling, the proof, the second proof after the name gets longer. Design time is skilled time — it belongs in the rate or on the quote as its own line, and the one place it cannot live is nowhere.
  • Working over the pavement. Ladders, a tower or scaffold hire, barriers, and the second visit when the weather turns halfway down a fascia. Site conditions eat hours that a flat quote from a photograph never itemises.
  • Paint and brush stock. Enamels, gold size, varnishes, and sable brushes that are consumables wearing a tool’s clothes. Every job consumes some of all of them and almost no job is billed for any of them — tiny per board, constant across the year.
  • The measuring trip. Two journeys for most jobs — measure, then fit — in the van, at fuel prices, before a brush is wet. A “studio price” quietly includes a courier service, and its time belongs in the rate.
  • Weather days. Exterior work is rained off on somebody’s schedule, and it is never the client’s. A washed-out week still pays rent; the margin across the good weeks is what carries it, which is what the margin is for.
The maths

How this calculator works

Start with the hours you can genuinely sell. Take 52 weeks, subtract your vacation weeks, multiply by your hours per week, then multiply by your billable percentage. With the sign writer presets — four weeks off, 38 hours a week, 60% billable — that is 1,094 billable hours a year: the hours at the board and the brush that clients can pay for, once proofs, measuring and travel have taken theirs.

Next, work out what those hours must bring in. Add your desired income and your annual business expenses together — $59,800 on the presets — gross the total up for tax by dividing by one minus your tax rate — at a 22% estimate, divide by 0.78 to get $76,667 — then add your profit margin to reach $84,333 and divide by your billable hours. That final number, $77, is the rate below which the year stops adding up.

Now translate the hour into the per-job prices clients actually pay. An A-board, lettered both sides, is about two hours — two hours at $77 is $154 of labour. Lettering a van runs about five hours, $385. A shop fascia board takes a full working day, $616. The boards themselves, any gold leaf or special finish, and scaffold hire sit on top of those figures as their own lines: the client chooses the finish, the finish’s price is the client’s, and burying it in the labour figure would hide both numbers from both of you.

Disclaimer: This is a planning estimate, not tax advice. Tax rates, deductions and allowances vary by country, state and business structure. Enter the rate you expect to pay, and check significant decisions with a qualified accountant.
Next: build a proposal with this rate Use the general rate calculator
Questions

Sign Writer rate questions

Because the job price is built out of working hours whether you count them or not: the layout, the painting, the fitting. The hourly rate is how you check a price you quoted from a photograph — or copied from the last similar shopfront — against your own rent, your own paint bill and your own diary. Sign writers who skip the check often find their busiest spring was their worst paid, and the job prices, not the workload, were the reason.
Because the brush is not the whole week. For every hour painting there are proofs to draw, a shopfront to measure, a van run to make and a client approving artwork at the pace clients approve artwork. Sixty percent is a realistic start for a solo sign writer. A studio week of production boards bills a higher share; a week of site work with travel bills less. Set the number that matches your diary, not your best month.
The layout is skilled work, not a warm-up act: letterforms spaced wrong are wrong at ten feet tall. Either the rate carries it — which only works if your billable share is honest about how much of the week is design — or it appears on the quote as its own line, which many clients prefer because they can see what they are buying. What it cannot be is free: free design is how a fairly priced painting job becomes an underpriced week.

Rates differ by trade — the same maths runs with different presets for graphic designer rates, freelance writer rates, web developer rates, marketing consultant rates, photographer rates, video editor rates, virtual assistant rates, social media manager rates, bookkeeper rates, translator rates, business coach rates, illustrator rates, copywriter rates, UX designer rates, SEO consultant rates, data analyst rates, motion designer rates, technical writer rates, podcast editor rates, email marketer rates, life coach rates, proofreader rates, event planner rates, voice actor rates, online tutor rates, personal trainer rates, interior designer rates, music producer rates, grant writer rates, UX researcher rates, book editor rates, transcriptionist rates, presentation designer rates, brand strategist rates, video producer rates, art director rates, WordPress developer rates, mobile app developer rates, 3D artist rates, game developer rates, Shopify developer rates, online business manager rates, podcast producer rates, data entry specialist rates, UX writer rates, copy editor rates, wedding photographer rates, resume writer rates, data scientist rates, instructional designer rates, business analyst rates, email designer rates, interpreter rates, audiobook narrator rates, landscape designer rates, wedding planner rates, wedding videographer rates, personal chef rates, dog trainer rates, music teacher rates, florist rates, cake baker rates, tour guide rates, pet groomer rates, house painter rates, handyman rates, locksmith rates, home organizer rates, pressure washer rates, carpet cleaner rates, chimney sweep rates, pool cleaner rates, window cleaner rates, tattoo artist rates, massage therapist rates, barber rates, makeup artist rates, hairstylist rates, nail technician rates, tailor rates, house cleaner rates, electrician rates, plumber rates, pest control technician rates, ppc specialist rates, content strategist rates, wedding DJ rates, dog walker rates, audio engineer rates, caterer rates, mover rates, appliance repair technician rates, nanny rates, piano tuner rates, garage door technician rates, bicycle mechanic rates, house sitter rates, upholsterer rates, jeweller rates, cobbler rates, blacksmith rates, farrier rates, mobile car detailer rates, genealogist rates, saddler rates, arborist rates, travel agent rates, watch repairer rates, doula rates, sleep consultant rates, home stager rates, wedding officiant rates, college admissions consultant rates, mobile notary rates, personal shopper rates, welder rates, carpenter rates, glazier rates, plasterer rates, tiler rates, roofer rates, bricklayer rates, HVAC technician rates, dressmaker rates, concrete finisher rates, drywall installer rates, flooring installer rates, gardener rates, fence installer rates, gutter installer rates, solar installer rates, stonemason rates, deck builder rates, insulation installer rates, cabinet maker rates, paving installer rates, furniture restorer rates, blind installer rates, driving instructor rates, picture framer rates, aerial installer rates, car mechanic rates, clock repairer rates, oven cleaner rates, smart home installer rates, alarm installer rates, drain cleaner rates, curtain installer rates, irrigation installer rates, shutter installer rates, artificial grass installer rates, fireplace installer rates, bathtub refinisher rates, snow removal professional rates, landscape lighting installer rates, radon mitigation specialist rates, home inspector rates, mold remediation specialist rates, window tint installer rates, paintless dent repair technician rates, home energy auditor rates, knife sharpener rates and mobile tyre fitter rates, or start from the general freelance hourly rate calculator.