How Overhead and Growth Work Together

The time plus materials method builds your price in two stages.

Stage one: base cost

Base cost = (Hours × Hourly Rate) + Materials Cost + Overhead Per Piece

This covers everything you put into the piece and a share of the fixed costs of running your practice.

Stage two: apply the Growth Multiplier

Final price = Base Cost × Growth Multiplier

This adds your profit margin on top of costs.

Overhead ensures every sale contributes to covering your business costs. The Growth Multiplier ensures every sale contributes something beyond just covering costs. Without overhead, you are undercharging for what it actually takes to run the practice. Without the Growth Multiplier, you are covering costs but not building anything.

Together they are what separates "pricing to survive" from "pricing to build a sustainable practice."