How To Get Paid More

Any company that you work for is out to make a profit, and this is very likely to be the reason your company started out. I do understand there are not-for-profit organizations, but I can assure you that if they increase their bottom line, they can allocate more to the purpose they were founded for (philanthropy).

My focus for this article is on companies with a capitalistic nature.

Employees tend to have an issue with companies (and company owner's) seeking a profit, so while I would like to say "suck it up", I think it is because there is a lack of understanding here - so let me explain.

Employers take a risk by starting a business. They take this risk with the opportunity of having a reward, and this is often a significant risk, so logically you should expect the upside would be correlated.

The difference between people on salaries and company owners, is that if you are salaried you are guaranteed to get paid at the end of the week. Your employer doesn't have this guarantee - if they don't make a dollar, they don't earn a dollar. No work, no food. (Keep this in mind to put yourself in check when you find yourself at work, but not working).

While companies are profit oriented, keep in mind that in 99% of cases - most of "you" are going to work to get paid, so really, what is the problem with "them" going to work to get paid? (It's the same thing).

Now that we've got that out of the way, I can explain to you how any individual in an organization can make more than they currently make. I've been aware of this since I was about 15 or 16 years old. I don't know where I found this out, so unfortunately I can't give credit - however I've always seemed to have an understanding of how businesses operated, plus I spent high school and uni days studying accounting - so that's a possibility.

There are two major philosophies when it comes to wanting to get paid more:

I will not come early and stay late, and I will not work harder until my company pays me more money to do so.

OR

I will come early and stay late, and I will work so hard that it would be embarrassing for my company to not pay me more.

Do you think there is likely to be a major difference in where you are in 2, 3, 5 years from now if you stuck with one of those attitudes over the other?

Businesses need to be financially successful in order to continue operating (and to have the ability to pay you), and they do this by making a profit.

Profits are the difference between what they earn (revenue) and the cost of doing business (expenses). Your job security is dependent on your ability to influence this, and it can be influenced by every single role within a business.

Therefore it logically follows that you can ensure your job security by doing one of two things:

1. Help your company make money.
2. Help your company save money.

To help your company make money you can do one of two things.

You can either help them get new customers, or help them retain existing customers. Equal attention to both is critical.

The former is usually influenced by marketing, word of mouth, brand exposure, etc. This is more short-term focussed, because customers who have the tendency to change providers at the drop of a dime are going to move from you to someone else just as quickly as they moved from someone else to you. That being said, don't take that the wrong way - it is still a method, and it is invaluable. New customers are very important to the growth of any business. To assist here you may talk to people about your company, go to networking events, assist the marketing team (become the marketing team if you don't have one), offer referral payments, etc.

The latter (retention) is arguably the more important. I am in favour of this argument. The reason for that is if you are keeping your existing customers happy, you can grow steadily without the risk of losing customers. Banks can be guilty of this (welcoming new customers in the front door as they let the existing run out the back door). Steady growth is important because it can be maintained. I would rather grow slowly than go backwards and forwards repeatedly. Lesson? Keep your existing customers happy.

Helping your company save money:

Companies can save money in various ways:

Cut staff. Cut salaries and benefits. Become more productive.

The first two are directly opposed to what we're trying to achieve here, so guess what - your only option is #3. (Unless you're in a managerial position, you can do the first two - but in that case effectively you're doing #3).

How can you become more productive? I've made a list so you can take your pick of what you'd like to do. This list isn't exhaustive, but it should help. I will admit, you need to be willing to do what the next person won't. Success is doing what the failures won't do.

1. Get in early. Self-explanatory.
2. Stay late. Self-explanatory.
3. Consider how to do your job with more efficiency (work ON your job as well as IN your job - i.e. think about the role while you're not doing the role, to find out ways that are more effective, perhaps different processes, systems, etc).
4. Upskill. I'm a massive advocate of personal development. This is a topic in itself.
5. Work while you're at work. It is actually considered employee theft for those who don't work while they are at work (taking personal calls, having longer breaks, on social media, etc.). Imagine if you went out to a supermarket and tried to buy a bottle of coke and it was half full but the store demanded full price for it. Or bought a new dining room table and you got home and found out that in the box, the legs were missing. You'd be furious - paying full price for half a product. That's what you're doing when your employer pays you a full wage and you give them half your effort.
6. Encourage and/or teach those around you how to do this list. 50 people working more efficiently is most likely better than one person working more efficiently. Both are good things, but leveraging other people is vitally important to progress. Positivity ties in well here - people like working with and for people they like.

I sat down with a couple of business owners a few weeks ago in a social environment and one of the sentences that stood out to me which I understand but I thought I'd share it because a lot of employees don't think employers think this way; one of them said "I wish I could pay my staff more."

Key point #1 - Your boss would love to pay you more.

Key point #2. The person in this story wasn't short of cash, nor is he cheap.

The background of this sentence is that he was trying to explain that in order for him to reward his staff they had to first be proactive in creating a desired and valuable result. They have to become valuable enough to warrant a higher paycheque. You don't expect to have a fire before you put in the wood - the wood must be put in before the fire can be made. Another example is getting to the end of term or semester and saying to your teacher or lecturer "please give me a good grade and I promise I'll study next year". It doesn't work like that. You get out what is put in - its the same in all facets of life.

The moral of the article is that you are paid in direct proportion to the value you bring to the marketplace.

There are many ways to increase this value - pick one, or all, and go for it... If you want to get paid more - that is.