Most fractional executives either underprice out of nerves or pluck a number from thin air. Neither holds up in a negotiation. This walks through the same logic a full-time salary goes through — base pay, the cost a business would otherwise carry on your behalf, and the actual number of days you're able to sell — so the rate at the end is one you can explain, not just state.
1
What's your target equivalent salary?
As if employed full-time in this role
2
What would a business otherwise carry for you?
Benefits, NI, pension, equipment, office — costs you cover yourself
Total annual value you need to recover
£0
3
How many days a year can you actually sell?
After holidays, admin, and time between engagements
Your minimum defensible day rate
£0
This is the floor — the rate at which you fully recover your target value across your actual sellable days. Most operators price above this to account for risk, demand, and the flexibility clients are buying.
4
Does your rate taper for bigger engagements?
More days bought usually means a lower rate per day
Set to 0% to use one flat rate across every tier. There's no single verified industry figure for this — it's a judgement call about how much you discount for committed volume, and it's yours to set.
5
What does that look like across engagement types?
| Engagement |
Days / month |
Day rate |
Monthly retainer |
Annual value |
How this works: step 1 sets the income you're targeting, as if salaried. Step 2 adds a loading to cover what an employer would otherwise pay on your behalf — pension, employer NI, insurance, equipment, and the gaps between contracts that a salary absorbs but fractional income doesn't. Step 3 converts that annual figure into a realistic number of billable days, since most fractional operators sell considerably fewer than 260 working days a year once non-billable time is accounted for. Step 4 lets you apply a volume taper, so heavier engagements can carry a lower day rate than light, occasional ones — reflecting the reduced sales effort and overhead of a committed client, if that's how you choose to price. The taper scales smoothly between your lightest and heaviest tier; there's no independently verified market figure for the right discount, so this is presented as an adjustable assumption, not a researched benchmark. This is a planning tool, not advice — actual market rates vary by sector, seniority, and demand.
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