Most people set their first freelance rate by taking their old salary, dividing by 2,000, and maybe rounding up. It feels reasonable. It is also how a lot of freelancers end up working harder than they did as employees for less money.
The problem is not the arithmetic. It is everything the arithmetic leaves out.
Start from what you want to keep, not from a rate
Work backwards. The number that matters is your target take-home income: the money you want left over after the business has paid for itself and you have paid your taxes. Pick a real figure. A common starting point is what a salaried job in your field would pay, because that is the bar you are choosing to leave.
Everything else is a deduction between that number and the rate you charge.
