Is there an industry standard for hourly rates?
Yes, it does exist in most industries, but it is not certain that the industry standards are more accurate than the hourly rate you calculate using this calculator. Be aware that there can be large national differences in the level of expenditure as well as the level of income. For example, it will be significantly more expensive with office space in the capital rather than similarly in a location in a small town. Similarly, the willingness to pay may be significantly different in different regions.

Can I bill lunch?
There is no definitive answer to this, but if the duration of the assignment is more than five hours, it is natural that lunch is eaten. Whether to invoice this time or not should be agreed upon directly with the client. Rather than asking if you can invoice lunch, you can rather suggest invoicing a full working day of 8 hours rather than 7.5 hours.

Can I add administration cost to invoice?
You can if you want, but it's a bit old-fashioned. If the client makes the invoicing process unnaturally difficult, it is entirely up to you to add a surcharge. If it is a particularly difficult process, such as the client requiring hours to be entered in their system, you can invoice your regular hourly rate for this work.

Can I bill over time with a higher hourly rate?
If you want to invoice overtime work, weekend work or similar with a higher hourly rate, this must be clearly stated in the employment contract. The most important thing in this context is that the client does not receive any negative surprises when the invoice is received. Overtime work should in any case always be agreed upon specifically, it is not the client's "fault" that you have to work overtime to finish on time?

What's the best way to increase the hourly rate?
The absolute easiest way to increase their hourly rate is to give a fixed price for projects that you can certainly deliver within a known number of hours. If you know that you can get a project done in half a working day, then you can try to give a price for the assignment that corresponds to your daily price and thus double your hourly price.

What profit should I expect?
As long as you run your own company, either as a freelancer, consultant or self-employed, the company should always have a profit. The margin you have on the bottom line is important for your company to be able to grow. There is no industry standard for profit margin, but a norm is that it should be 10 to 25%. If your hourly rate is high, the margin is typically placed in the lower part of the norm.

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