SEO agency Owner Earnings per Hour
Owner return = (revenue − costs excluding owner pay) / owner hours
Gather project time logs, licence invoices and retainer scopes. Include research, production, and reporting. The starting figures are examples. Replace them with your own records.
Formula and worked example
Owner return = (revenue − costs excluding owner pay) / owner hours
| Input | Example |
|---|---|
| Period revenue | 15,000 |
| All costs excluding owner pay | 10,000 |
| Owner delivery and admin hours | 180 |
| Calculated result | 27.7778 per owner hour |
Choose reliable inputs
Include software licences, delivery time, revisions and ongoing support when costing a project. For this seo agency calculation, use project time logs, licence invoices and retainer scopes and a consistent definition of one client month.
- Research: include the portion belonging to this client month or reporting period, and record where the value came from.
- Production: include the portion belonging to this client month or reporting period, and record where the value came from.
- Reporting: include the portion belonging to this client month or reporting period, and record where the value came from.
Use the same currency for every money input. Do not mix weekly costs with monthly revenue, or count the same expense in both an itemised cost and allocated overhead.
Should I include unpaid admin hours?
Include selling, travel and administration. This is pre-tax return and does not value invested capital.
What if this input changes?
If period revenue rises by 10%, this example changes by 8.3333 per owner hour. This shows the effect of one change; it does not predict what will happen.
Open the calculator, save your baseline, then change the input supported by the least reliable estimate in your records. Compare both scenarios before committing to a price or capacity promise.