Dennis Yu

Don't work more than 4 hours per day

My buddy Markus Frind famously claimed that he worked 10 hours per week building his website.
All by himself, he was the CEO, CMO, lone support rep, server admin, PR agent, and everything else.

Two years ago, he sold it for $575 million in cash.

Not everyone will have that combination of genius and luck.
But if you’re an entrepreneur, consultant, or agency owner, listen up.

If your revenue model is billable hours, then you have an incentive to increase occupancy (billed time divided by total time).
Industry standard is 70%, which means you or your people must bill 6 hours in each 8.5-hour day.

Keep in mind what Paul Sokol says:paul_sokol_copy

“Time isn’t money. Valuable time is money. You have to know which are your most revenue producing activities and focus on those so you can price accordingly”

But if you’re in an area like marketing technology or a field where there is a steep learning curve, you need to maximize your effectiveness first.
I have been doing this for twenty years and still spend 3 hours a day learning, if not more, as Molly Pittman of DigitalMarketer.com suggests:

I10x8hires-hires-molly_pittman-0020-edit believe you should pursue growth and learning everyday. Blocking out time on your calendar for education is essential, no matter the number of hours you “work”.

That’s time you can’t bill– at least if you’re ethical. 
And that’s not counting non-client time for general chit-chat (what did you do last weekend), organizing your desk, and surfing the web.
Assume you have one hour for such pleasantries each day.

That means you can’t work more than 4 hours per day unless you extend your workday beyond what is sustainable long-term.

This also means that if you can bill only half as many hours, you have to charge at least twice as much per hour.

If you bill at $50/hour, then you need to start charging at least $100/hour, for example.
But I’ll have fewer clients, you say– I’m afraid my business will dry up!

Actually, you’ll find you get better clients who pay you more, respect your expertise, and treat you better.
There are clients that value results and clients that just want the cheapest wage slaves.
You figure out which of these two are the better clients to have.

If you want to buy an hour of consulting with me, it’s $750.

We actually get more clients at $750 than at $150, which we’ve tested over the years.
And the $750 ensures we have serious inquiries– plus gives us room to over-deliver.
We usually put in two hours and also share the internal documents that will help them implement a particular fix.

But how much should YOU be charging?
We discuss that in more detail here.

If you’re just starting out, sure, you need to charge a low rate to get your initial base of clients.
And then you can raise your rate, while also transitioning to packages.

When you sell a package of services (driven by your checklist), should the client care if it takes you 2 hours or 20 hours to get results?
If they’re paying you by the hour, you have an incentive to drag your feet– take twice as long and earn twice as much.

And if you’re not operating according to a checklist of items as part of a package, you have no control over your quality nor can the client effectively manage you.
With a checklist, everyone is clear at the start about what you will do and not do.
No need to negotiate a SOW, suffer from scope creep, or agonize over missed expectations.

Are you selling your time or your expertise?

If you’re still selling time, start to package up what you do and attach a cost to it.
The more you can reliably repeat something, the faster you get, the more competent you become, and the more you can delegate to others to do it.

Follow the content > checklist strategy to scale up your business and squish execution problems at the same time.

And what would have taken you 6 hours, you can do in an hour, plus no need to keep explaining what you do (which is likely 30% of your time).

This is not about a “4-hour workweek” or automating/delegating your life to assistants and software.
Rather, I’m saying you need to actively invest in yourself– to treat your learning time with the same respect as a big client meeting.

Now do you agree with me that you should “work” no more than 4 hours per day?

Dennis Yu

Dennis Yu

Dennis Yu is co-author of the #1 best selling book on Amazon in social media, The Definitive Guide to TikTok Ads. He has spent a billion dollars on Facebook ads across his agencies and agencies he advises. Mr. Yu is the "million jobs" guy-- on a mission to create one million jobs via hands-on social media training, partnering with universities and professional organizations. You can find him quoted in major publications and on television such as CNN, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, NPR, and LA Times. Clients have included Nike, Red Bull, the Golden State Warriors, Ashley Furniture, Quiznos-- down to local service businesses like real estate agents and dentists. He's spoken at over 750 conferences in 20 countries, having flown over 6 million miles in the last 30 years to train up young adults and business owners. He speaks for free as long as the organization believes in the job-creation mission and covers business class travel. You can find him hiking tall mountains, eating chicken wings, and taking Kaqun oxygen baths-- likely in a city near you.
I'm a member of Blitzmetrics Academy and a friend of Dennis to boot. Not only is Dennis highly intelligent and full of great and creative ideas, he's also incredibly generous with both his knowledge and his time. Success couldn't come to a better guy. Thank you for all that you do for the world, Dennis! 🙏

Michael Pacheco

Marketer

Thanks 🙏 for being shining light in this industry. Love what your building for works overseas too network for jobs so innovative. Dennis helped me navigate having bad experiences with marketing agencies and doing dollar a day marketing which has helped my personal brand tremendously. Highly recommend.

Eric Skeldon

Founder at Kingdom Broker

Working with Dennis has been a delightful experience. After meeting him in 2015 I got to collaborate with him on countless occasions. His understanding for state-of-the-art marketing, his implementation, and his leadership put him into the top 0.01% of marketers and mentors.

Jan Koch

Ihr kompetenter Partner für innovative KI-Strategien.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Dennis for my podcast in 2021 and since then we have maintained a friendship that grows with each interaction. I have seen Dennis' devotion to his friends and clients firsthand, and our conversations often result in us talking about how we can provide more value to the people around us. He is someone whom I can ask questions on a technical level, and look to on a personal level. If you have any hesitancy about hiring him, get over yourself and do it!

Isaac Mashman

Help scaling personal brands.

Geez, where do I start recommending Dennis? First, he is an absolutely brilliant marketer who understands where marketing is today and where it's going tomorrow. He also has an incredible passion for the International Worker community. The lessons he has taught me from his almost 20 years of experience hiring International Workers have been immense. Most importantly though. Dennis Yu is someone who wants the absolute best for you and is willing to tell you the truth. Dennis sat with me at a point in my business where I was floundering but did not want to admit it. He asked some very straight forward questions to get me to admit my issues, highlighted the issues, and then helped me create a roadmap to success.

Atiba de Souza

International Keynote Speaker | Video Content Superman | Superconnector |

Dennis, which I had the pleasure of working with is one of the most giving, honest and tell you as it is person I ever know. The knowledge this man has is remarkable and he just gives it out freely. He is not pretentious and always entertain anyone big or small in the industry always willing to help. If you ever get a golden opportunity to work with him or mentored by him say YES!. You will notr regret Dennis, which I had the pleasure of working with is one of the most giving, honest and tell you as it is person I ever know. The knowledge this man has is remarkable and he just gives it out freely. He is not pretentious and always entertain anyone big or small in the industry always willing to help. If you ever get a golden opportunity to work with him or mentored by him say YES!. You will not regret

Nixon Lee

The PR Whisperer

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