We’ve all had that experience in our jobs, we bust our arse for our boss, stress ourselves out every day for a month, then we receive our paycheck and are left underwhelmed, dissatisfied and a little bitter. Why have you gone through all that stress and emotional pain for peanuts?
We’ve all had that conversation in our head about telling our boss to screw it but had the fear of having nothing to fall back on (check out my blog post, What Is An Emergency Fund and Why Everyone Needs One & 9 Ways To Create An Emergency Fund With No Money) However what if there was another way? What if you continued to bust your arse but were financially compensated for it? Would you still feel bitter?
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Yes I could recommend you working on a side hustle (which I would) as I don’t think it’s smart to put all your eggs in one basket, however, that isn’t the point of today’s article. Today we are primarily focusing on increasing your income without working a 60 hour week or without investing and living off the dividends.
Do the job of two people.
So you work for a company, you have gone to your boss and asked for a pay increase, why should your boss give you the increase? Have you put in extra hours without getting paid for it over the last 6 months? Are you doing the job of two people and not being financially compensated for it. You could ask for 25-50% of what your boss would be paying for a second job role. This could be very appealing to your boss, they don’t have to take a risk of employing the wrong person and waste time training someone else.
Increase the companies revenue.
Speak to your boss and come to a deal. This involves some smart negotiating, it doesn’t have to be fancy but simple. If you bring in a new client or increase the revenue from your existing clients, ask for a percentage of the increase (kinda like commission). If you bring in an extra $100,000 per year, ask for a 10% increase. That’s a whopping $833.33 extra per month! Scale that up, what if you bought an extra $250,000 in, that’s an extra $2,083.33 per month!
Add value to the marketplace.
This involves gaining new skills and future proofing your income. Take an online Social Media Management course for example. So many millennial’s find the social media world so easy, it just comes naturally to them compared to their dinosaur bosses. Social media management agencies are charging up to $2,500 per client per month, Offer to do this for your boss for half of the price. You can also advertise your services on platforms like upwork and offer your services for the full $2,500, you can do this in your evenings and eventually the money you earn in your side hustle will make your day job income look like peanuts even with your added pay rise.
There are over 3,000 different courses on Skillshare on Social Media Management alone. Are you telling me you won’t learn something from taking these courses? Adding that much value to your job/your current position makes it impossible for your boss to refuse you the pay rise.
As advised by the late Jim Rohn’s teacher Mr Shoaff,
You can increase your value to the market by simply working harder on yourself than you do on your day job
Ask to be paid in Bitcoin.
At time of writing Bitcoin is in a new bull market meaning the Bitcoin you bought last month is now worth more. If you had been paid say $1,000 for a piece of work 30 days ago and been paid in Bitcoin, today that Bitcoin is worth $1,250. That effectively means you got paid 25% more for doing the same work. Giving employees the option of being paid part of their salary in Bitcoin is becoming increasingly popular.There are even now companies such as Bitwage (https://www.bitwage.com/for-individuals/) setup to help employers to implement this.
Develop a system.
A system creates leverage which by definition means getting more output with the same input. If you can develop a standardised process with repeatable steps you can greatly increase the amount of work you get done while putting in the same amount of work. Not only that, a system can also be considered a piece of intellectual property that could have a value all on its own.