When I worked in the corporate world, it was always great to get a raise. Now that I am an entrepreneur, raises are replaced by increases in revenue and profits. More revenue and profits are nice, as long as we’re not working correspondingly more hours. How can we give ourselves a true raise: work the same amount of hours or less and make more? Here are six strategies for your consideration:
- Take on more profitable work by knowing your opportunity number. In order to do this one, we need to know our gross margins by service or product line. When we know our numbers, we can figure out what projects we can take on that increase the margins rather than lower them. One example of this is to know your opportunity number. Right now, my opportunity number is about $3,000. I can’t easily take a new client in the door for less than that or I don’t give myself a raise. When you know what kind of work you should be going after, you can give yourself permission to stop chasing after the small stuff and pursue the work that will give yourself a raise.
- Create new revenue streams. This might sound hard, but it can be really simple. Think about what you can leverage or repackage. Think about what you’re already doing and add some structure around it. For example, if you’re already giving cash flow advice, package it up as an added service instead of giving it away with your bookkeeping services.
- Upsell to current clients and improve your revenue per client. Can all of your clients list every service you offer? I know mine can’t! My web design clients probably don’t know about my coaching services, and my copywriting clients probably don’t know about my speaking services. That’s something I need to do something about! How about you? Do all of your clients know about every service you offer? If not, you’re probably missing out on some revenue opportunities.
- Boost your marketing skills. Every lead lost because of a miss in your sales call, a poor website, or an ineffective elevator speech makes you go after more prospects, which increases your costs and time. Just getting an effective elevator speech can allow you to collect about 10 times as many cards for your time spent networking, and that’s a nice pickup in productivity.
- Use your time better. By implementing some advanced time management techniques that aren’t all that well known, you can improve your productivity, increase you billable hours, and make more by working less. Your stress level will also go way down, and you will have more energy.
- Work on your mindset. The world we live in, and especially the U.S. culture, sure does a number on our poor brains. It’s a surprise any of us are still sane after we take in the horrific news stories, negative or controlling people at work or in our lives, and advertising designed to make us feel inadequate. No wonder 85% of Americans suffer from low self-esteem. If you feel you lack confidence at times, you’re not alone. It’s an epidemic. We need tools to help build our confidence so we can live up to our potential and become all we can be, as the army says.
Are you ready for a raise right now? Try these tips and watch your income grow.
Sandi Leyva, President of Accountant's Accelerator and author of Insightful Accountant's Accelerate Your Practice series, is hosting a webinar on June 5 about improving your website, SEO, client newsletters and much more. For more information and to register, click here.
Sandi Leyva
Author Bio: Sandi Leyva, CPA, CMA, MBA, and founder of Accountant’s Accelerator, has helped thousands of tax and accounting professionals earn more, work less, and serve their clients better through her innovative marketing, training, and coaching services. Author of 30 books and hundreds of CPE courses, Sandi has won 12 awards for her thought leadership. Visit her at accountantsaccelerator.com and acceleratorwebsites.com.