THE OPERATOR LAB
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THE RATE FLOOR

What your number
has to clear.

Enter what you earn now. We show what a fractional practice has to bill to replace it, and the retainer per client that comes out of that. It is a floor, not a price. Most first-time fractionals never run it, and then they price under it.

What you are replacing.

Use your last W-2, or the offer you would take. Benefits default to national averages. Change them if you know your own.

Average of the last two years, not target.
Health coverage your employer paid for
Employer share of the premium. Single is about $7,900 a year, family about $20,100.
Percent of salary. Zero if you had none.

How you will work.

Vacation, holidays, sick. Nobody pays you for these now.
Selling, proposals, admin, content. 25 to 35% is normal.
Most retainers run 10 to 15.
Practice costs and assumptions

The defaults are reasonable. Open this to change them.

Insurance, accountant, software, entity fees, marketing.
Engagements end. Replacing one takes 4 to 12 weeks.
Used only to value the half-of-SE-tax deduction.

See the full breakdown.

What your employer was paying that you now pay, and what to bank before you quit. We email you a copy and the assumptions behind it. One email, no sequence you did not ask for.

No income claims. We show the floor. What you earn above it is your work, not our promise.

HOW THIS IS CALCULATED
  • Self-employment tax is 15.3% on 92.35% of net earnings. The 12.4% Social Security part stops at $184,500, the 2026 wage base. We subtract the 7.65% you already paid as an employee and credit half the SE tax as a deduction at your marginal rate.
  • Health defaults are the employer-paid share of the 2025 KFF average premiums, less average worker contributions. Marketplace premiums vary by state and age.
  • Clients at once is billable hours per week divided by hours per client, rounded down unless you are within 15% of another full engagement.
  • Retainer floor is required revenue divided by 12, by clients, by 1 minus empty capacity. The hourly equivalent is the retainer times 12, divided by hours per client times working weeks.
  • Market band: 2026 fractional COO retainers mostly run $5,000 to $18,000 a month for 5 to 20 hours a week, which works out to roughly $150 to $275 an hour on retainer. We scale that to your hours per client.
  • Income tax is not modeled. You pay it either way. Entity choice can reduce SE tax, and that is a conversation for your accountant.

This tool is an estimate for planning. It is not tax or financial advice, and we make no client or income promise.

NEXT

The floor tells you what not to accept. It does not tell you what to charge. The program teaches pricing against a bounded outcome, which is how you clear the floor with fewer hours.

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