Double Your Freelancing Rate Review
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How’s it going? It’s Sam here again from Reviews Boss back with another review. Today I’m gonna talk to you about a product that I’ve had my eye on it for a long time actually. It’s a training product. I’m moving away a little bit from my usual focus recently, which has been on software applications and things like that and going back to basics.
The product in question is called Double Your Freelancing Rate and it’s by a guy called Brennan Dunn. And I first came across this product actually because I think, if I recall correctly, I might have seen a Facebook ad or something like that from Brennan Dunn talking about increasing freelancer rates.
And as I’ve explained in a couple of other reviews on this blog, one thing I’m looking at doing in the near future is actually growing my consulting and freelancing business. So, at the moment I’m currently employed, I’ve got a job, and then I do a bit of freelancing consulting work on the side, and then I run this blog as well. And I have some other projects doing the affiliate space largely with social media, marketing Facebook groups, Facebook pages, that kind of thing. So, as you might expect, I’m a fairly busy guy.
But I mean what freelancing and contracting, so far, has shown me is that, you know, there’s a demand out there for the skillset I’ve got with regards to digital strategy. Almost like a sort of virtual marketing management for companies that are with various contractors that might be working with them. STO guy[inaudible 00:01:41] and a PPC agency and a social media marketing agency, and often times they’re not speaking together. There’s no one sort of a point that all of those agencies can communicate with and the business in question can sort of disseminate its ideas and its requirements to.
I say this sort of strategy and virtual marketing management is being where I’d like to go with my consulting business. And so obviously I was interested in what Brennan Dunn was talking about because I mean who doesn’t want to double their freelancing rate. I mean already my freelancing rate is significantly higher than my regular employment rate. I wouldn’t have to actually have to have that many hours worth of work a week at the rate I get to be able to replace our salaried income. And if you can double that rate, maybe even more, well then you’ll need even fewer hours or, you know, with the same amount of time you can be doing significantly better. So that’s sort of a picture of where I’m at and why I was interested in this product.
As I’ve started to take my consulting and freelancing more seriously, I decided look I’m gonna take the plunge. I’m, gonna buy this product, Double Your Freelancing Rate by Brennan Dunn. There is a bit of free content on his blog. It’s actually really good. I’ve read almost all of his articles. I read his newsletters, all those kind of things. In the end I should said “hey, look let’s try; buy the product.” Gives me an excuses to have something else to review here as well, which is good. So let’s get on with the review.
So what is Double Your Freelancing Rate? As I explained, it’s a training product. It’s like an online ebook. So when you buy the product you don’t just get a PDF to download. I presume pretty much because people would start sharing and you know uploading it black hat sites and things like that. So what happens is you actually gotta log in and when you pay you get the log in sent to you. And then you’re able to go access the product. And it’s a relatively short product, to be honest. It’s not actually that complex. There’s some bonuses and extra things that’ll talk about later.
But the core of the product itself is a short series of lessons or chapters that go on basically introducing key concepts around freelancing and consulting. Looking at the sort of problems that most freelancers and consultants face, specially with regards to rates and how they earn money. And then basically working you through step-by-step what can you do to actually increase the rates, you earn. And I mean really, you know for a short ebook or short e-course, I should say. There is quite a lot it in terms of the actual quality and depth of the lesson you’re going to get into. So what I’ll do now, is I think what I’ll do is I’ll talk through what I likes about the product and what I don’t. The core thing is it’s a simple product compared to a lot software I review here. A lot of the other training courses, it’s probably gonna take you maybe an hour to work through all the training.That’s if you’re a fast reader, maybe two if you’re a slow reader. I don’t know. That’s just the main training. It’s not the extra stuff comes with it and bonuses, I mention later.
But look, the things I like about the product about Double Your Freelancing Rate. First thing I like about it, the quality of the training is extremely good. I’m a firm believer of quality over quantity. I was, I must admit, a little bit disappointed when first I opened up the product and sort of flipped through the chapters online. And thought wow you know I’ve spent what? It’s about 300 US dollars on this, which, in my local currency, is about 500 dollars. It’s a lot of money. And wow there’s actually not a lot to it. A smallish number of chapters and they’re not particularly long. I sort of, on that first glance, thought “man I’ve me jupped here. This is a rip off.” But then I said “no, I’m gonna read” rather running for the exits and getting a refund, I’m gonna read through it. I’m gonna really sort of, I guess, judge the product not on the quantity of the content within it, but the quality of it.
And I am pleased to say it is really really good. It is content that if you read it and you put the principals and the lesson into action, I do believe you will have the ability to double your freelancing rate. I mean, but not everyone’s cut out to be successful in freelancing. I think if you’re on of those people who’s stuck in mindset of I’ve just gotta charge peanuts and do a lot of volume of work, this product isn’t for you. But certainly if you’re on that cusp of getting some good rates. And already maybe you earn a decent rate but you just wanna increase it, well products really gonna help.
A lot of what it does is give you really good strategies to implement to increase your revenue basically overnight by increasing your rates. I think in terms of the content and what it teaches it really is outstanding. You find this content, all these lesson and tidbits and strategies probably by browsing different free blogs, going on Revit freelancing forums and those kind of things, and you know you probably be able to get it all together in one place eventually, but I believe time is money and what Brennan Dunn has done actually done with this product is sort of combined together some of the best advise I’ve seen on increasing your freelancing rates. Being confident to ask for more money. Being able to demonstrate the value of what you’re offering. Moving away from that sort of “this is my alley rate and this is how many hours it will be” towards value based projects, where your potential for alley rate could be enormous.
If you can, I think the mindset he is trying to get you in is, if you can charge $5000 for what takes you an hour, but the client receives more than $5000 forth of value, why shouldn’t you be doing it? Everyone’s a winner.
That’s what this product is really about at the of the day is making your consulting and freelancing business sharper because you’re spending less time on low value clients. You’re spending more time on high value who can afford to pay your increased rates. And what that means is that you can offer them the better service. It really the same principal why when you fly on a business class or first class you get way better service than when you’re flying ion economy class. You know, there is the same number of staff, in those different sections of the cabin but they’re dealing with first class and business class flights attended are dealing with fewer people so they are able to leverage more attention on them and that makes them feel good. It’s kind of the same with this.
That’s what I think core lesson at the heart of this product is. So yeah I really rate the training, obviously I don’t want to give away the secrets. I think you can probably have a fair stab at working some of them out yourself. Just by reading the sales pitch and promotional material around the product but overall training quality is superb in this product. I really do give it a high score. I think the fact as well another benefit, even though it’s brief and it’s short, you can probably read though it on a short flight, or something like that. That’s a good thing. You know you shouldn’t be reading insanely long training eBooks that don’t really add value and have lots of fluff and everything like that. This is just hard hitting, to the point, good information, quality information that I feel you can trust. And the lesson you learn, if you apply them will work.
Which brings me on to my next thing that I like about the product and that is, I have already found that by putting the lessons I have learned reading Double Your Freelancing Rate into action that I have increased my freelancing rate. I wouldn’t say that I’ve double it yet but certainly it’s significant extra money an hour. And what it’s done is given me the confidence to go out there and say “this what my time is worth”, “this is what I think clients are getting in terms of value out of the time they spend on me.” It is a huge jump to make, anyone who’s done freelance or consulting or contracting will know the hardest part really, once you’ve sat in front of the client, is when that ask you to give a quote and you go “oh crap” if I quote too much, they’re gonna run for the hills and run to next provider, who will do a discount service. I think part of what makes Double Your Freelancing Rate really good is it gets you in the mindset of saying a client like that isn’t worth it in the first place.
Cheap clients are horrible to work with to be honest. They’re always the ones who have the most problems. They’re the ones who want limitless revisions, and they’re never happy. They bark at every single project. I can keep of my own base of clients I work with now. There’s a couple of them who I’ve worked in the past. I took on their work because I felt like I couldn’t say no or that I needed at the time and they’ve always wound up being more trouble than their worth. Whereas the one who you’ve got a good relationship with and who you’re charging a good rate that you feel good about often that’s the best relationship because they’re serious professional business, and they know the value of working with a good contractor, or a good consultant or good freelancer.
Double Your Freelancing Rate will also help you move away relying on and feeling like you need to rely on low value clients. There’s other people out there who are gonna look out for those low value clients. Don’t feel bad to move them on or reject working with them, as long as you do it politely. At the end of the day someone who thinks that they should be paying $250 a month for ECO eCommerce website, well guess what, their never gonna think that they should be paying ten times that potentially even fifty times that to have a good return on investment. They’re just stuck on that mentality that cheap is good, “I need cheap”. Don’t waste your time working with them.
And I think on top of the advise about increasing your freelancing rate or your consulting rate, Brennan Dunn has done a really good job of getting you in that mindset of saying no to low value clients because every low value client you take on. If your alley rate you want to give is $100 an hour and you’re taking on clients at $30 dollars an hour for example or $40 an hour. Well that’s wasted time in many respects, because if you could find another high value client who’s paying you $100 an hour, if that’s what high value is to you. You might take on the $30 an hour client for 10 hours a month and means you can’t then service the guy who’s willing to $100 an hour for say 5 hour a month, who would have been worth more to you and in less time. So really good quality training.
Other things I like is the included bonuses are pretty good. I into two minds about the templates that were included. I didn’t they were fantastic but what is worth it is the freelancer guild. It’s like a members only forum. It’s really clear [inaudible 00:13:36] sharing good advice and it well worth getting into that forum and taking a look around.
But look the main benefit of the product, is the way it prepares you for the process of increasing your freelancing rate. It explains why low rates are a bad thing. It explains what you need to do present good value propositions to your client and it also explains ways of increasing recurring revenue at a clients. Things like getting a retainer arrangement set up and stuff like that. Overall the benefits of the program are pretty strong.
That’s not to say it’s perfect though. There are a number of downsides, which I want to share with you now. The first one is the price. I think it is a little bit too expensive for what it is in terms of training. And what I mean by that is if you do put into action and you increase your rates. Well the value there, it makes it worth it. And I guess in many respects that Brennan Dunn actually showing the value of the training he’s giving by charging a higher amount, for what seems like a smaller amount of information, but the value’s really high. But if your price conscious purchaser of training products. You might find that $300 US dollars or thereabouts is out of your league. So obviously I’d like to see the prices less. Because it is a product that he’s probably making about a 95% product margin on. But then again the value is there. So I’m not going to go on the war path and say it’s unfairly priced. I think the price for the value you get is reasonable if you put the lessons into action. But do be aware that the price is quite high, as well.
Another thing, it feels like a fairly hollow product in terms of amount of content you’re getting, but once the quality of it and the value you get out of what is there is very good. But if your the kind of person who you’d rather go to buffet than a high restaurant because you like a lot of stuff. You’re probably gonna feel let down by this product. But apart from that I don’t see too many other downsides.
I would like the ability to download a PDF version or something like that. I don’t like having to access the product through an online sort of gate only. That to me is a little bit annoying just because you gotta remember login details. It sort of feel a bit like you paid this money and he doesn’t trust you or the creator doesn’t trust you not to go sharing it around with everyone else. Which I guess fair enough concern with an info product as opposed to a software, but it still be nice to be able to have a version where its all in one sort continuous PDF or something like that. But that’s a minor gripe. The system that’s in place works really well.
But look moving on to the conclusion, overall, Double Your Freelancing Rate where do I stand on that? It is expensive. There’s not a huge amount in it, but what’s there is very good. I’ll go back to that restaurant analogy. It’s exactly like going out for dinner to really top end restaurant where the food is beautiful. You sit there and the food comes out and you might look at the plate and go “I’m spending so much money on this and I’m not getting much for that money”, but then you take a bite and you realize how good it is. Versus going to a Pizza Hut all-you-can-eat and stuffing your face and then getting home and feeling like crap.
Value and price, all day long. What Brennan Dunn has done here is actually created a system in which you can see the value. Just like he is encouraging you to do with your clients, you’re prices are gonna go up if you read this book and you implement his strategies. And your prices are gonna go up significantly for the hourly rate you charge for the per project price or your retainer price or whatever price you’re charging. The price goes through the roof, but the value of the client is actually better, and that’s what really counts.
Even though it is an expensive product, the value is there. As long as you’re willing to apply the lessons. If you just buy it and read it and don’t do anything, well don’t waste your time because that’s a lot of money. You could spend that on something else. If you’re a serial info product buyer, I would probably say stay away from it. Because I can almost guarantee that what you’ll do is you’ll buy it, you’ll read it, and you’ll put on your virtual shelf and never put it into action. But if you are seriously interested running a freelancing or consulting business, then yeah I do think this product is worth it. I do recommend Double Your Freelancing Rate by Brennan Dunn. He’s done and excellent job at teaching you the strategies you need to know as well as the mindset you need to have to go out there with your freelance offering or your consulting offering and get more money out of existing clients and also get more money out of prospective clients.
If you look at the most successful consultants and freelancers there often ones who charge pretty high rates. Usually, the people who fell like they can only get by on price, are the one who struggle. They’re so dependent on sort of turning over a high volume of work. They burn themselves out. If you think your only differentiating factor is price in terms of the service you offer, your business probably isn’t gonna last very long. You want to be working with clients who recognize value who are willing to pay for that value. And I Double Your Freelancing Rate does an excellent of getting you in the state you need to be in mentally and in terms of real actionable strategies you need to get there.
So yeah Double Your Freelancing Rate — sure it’s pricey but the value is there. If you want to run a successful freelance or consulting business I do recommend buying it. It’s really good. You won’t regret it.
Summary
Double Your Freelancing Rate by Brennan Dunn is an expensive product. But we all know that value and price are two different things, and this product certainly delivers bucket loads of value for anyone who is seriously interested in increasing their consulting or freelancing rates. If you want to focus on making a good living from working with high value clients, then this course is worth a look.
Originally published at www.reviewsboss.com on January 5, 2018.
