How to go from $25/hour to $75/hour in 2 weeks

I’ve been helping a friend earn more money, and tonight was a breakthrough.

Here’s what happened…

My friend has a full-time job, but recently she’s been doing some freelance project management on the side for a small consulting firm, where she earns $25/hour.

After a while, she realized that $25/hour doesn’t really add up to much, and she was getting frustrated with the owner’s poor management skills. (You know how it goes: Very disorganized, non-responsive, took days to get back to emails…)

But I encouraged her to stick around for 2 things: to get referrals and raise her rates. The client knows my friend has been doing a superb job, so she was happy to refer her to a colleague at a different company.

At this point, my friend talked to the new person — a guy who runs a different company — but was skeptical of getting too involved. “I don’t really want to do this for $25 an hour,” she told me. “And I realize that it’s not just the time I’m working…I have to deal with managing clients, who are just really unresponsive.”

I suggested a few things she could do. She went into her first meeting using my Ask Without Selling technique. Then she then went back to him with a proposal.

“You wouldn’t believe it,” she told me on the phone. “I quoted him $50/hour and he didn’t even blink. Shit! I should have asked for more!”

I love it.

There are several non-obvious things going on here:

1. When you get referred to someone, you don’t drop your rate — you raise it. Many people mistakenly drop their rate, thinking that the referrer will divulge the rate they currently pay (they won’t), or that you should discount for your client’s friend (you shouldn’t). In fact, you should raise your rate since your client has removed all risk by vouching for you.
2. There are many other options besides quitting. If someone’s paying you — even if it’s under your desired wage — you don’t just quit. Quitting is one of the worst things you can do. There are many other clever ways to help your client and yourself — like asking for referrals.
3. By charging more, you get a higher-quality client: First, they can afford your higher rate, which means they’re more financially successful and therefore probably have better business skills. Second, since they’re paying you more, they don’t want to waste your time.

So the guy didn’t flinch at $50. How does my friend get to $75/hour?

She needs to package her services properly

I suggested she offer her baseline services at $50/hour, as she discussed, but also offer 2 higher tiers: For example, she could include marketing services for $60/hour, and project-manage the entire project for $75/hour. I just made those options up — she knows her business best — but the important point is to offer increasingly valuable options.

Do you know why it’s critical to offer more than one package? There are 2 reasons, actually:

1. He might actually pick a higher tier, which would be money in your pocket — and a new hourly rate
2. By offering 3 options, she’s shifted the prospect’s decision from “Should I buy her services or not?” to “Should I buy $50, $60, or $75/hour?”

Imagine how implementing even one of these techniques could change your earning power forever. If and when my friend closes the deal, even if it’s for $50/hour, she’ll have doubled her hourly rate. That lasts forever — and it only goes up.

You can use these same techniques to earn more money, whether you have an idea yet or not. And the techniques I covered today only scratch the surface.

I teach my very best techniques in extreme detail — including scripts, videos, and case studies — in my Earn1k course. Get a free sample of my Earn1k course here.