Firstly, you aren’t helping drive drive more revenue or minimized costs (except by keeping your low salary).

Secondly, you don’t take initiative.

Thirdly, you could do you job in 4 of the 8 hours you “work”.

Fourthly,  you don’t make your boss look any better than when you aren’t around.

Fifthly, budgets have been tight over the past several years.

The Good News? YOU can change all of the first 4 things! 

If you can get your job done in fewer than the 8 hours, do it! Why are you procrastinating? After you finish your work, look into better, faster, and cheaper systems to do your job. When you succeed in your extra efforts, look for opportunities to use this time to show a higher up your boss allowed you to take initiative by working __ hours in an effort to improve the current systems. Budgets are tight, but that doesn’t mean you don’t deserve rewards for added revenue or cost savings above your assigned duties.

You are already paid to do your job. You earn extra when you accomplish extra. Take initiative. Work the extra hours if you need to, or better yet, work faster and use your extra time to do more.

When you accomplish great things above your job duties, then you deserve a pay bump. Just be ready for those additional accomplishments to be your new expectations.

The price of beef, pork and dairy products is expected to stay high through the end of the year and into 2013, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture forecast released 8/24/12. The Midwest drought, the worst in decades, has driven up corn and soybean prices, which in turn, caused retail food prices to rise. The food price outlook, compiled monthly by the USDA, was largely unchanged from the month before, forecasting the price of all food to rise between 2.5% and 3.5% through the end of the year. Next year, the USDA predicts food prices will rise by as much as 4% as the effects of the drought become more pronounced on the nation’s food supply. . . . . . I need to consume these things to fuel my body. Like retail gas businesses and grocers, should I approach my employer this fall and let him know that my services will cost him 5 percent more?

I’m getting a raise this fall. What is you think?

The “Jack of All Trades, Master of None” Consultant. This is the consultant that can write some C# code, do a bit of SQL, understand basic database design, code up a web page, knows how to build a basic web service and understands how to do this in .NET and Java and perhaps a little PHP thrown in as well. They can do just about anything, but cannot do anything very well.  They can apply for almost any development job but will always be the weak player on the team and poorest paid.  They are not a defined expert in anything.

You can look across the world as to what different cultures think of  knowing a little about a lot. In China you may hear “equipped with many knives, none are sharp” as a description of the multi-discipline consultant. Visit Argentina and you may be told “He who embraces too much, has a weak grasp of the job”  or they may comment on the consultant’s “ocean of knowledge an inch deep”. In Vietnam  and Lithuania they say it’s 9 talents, in Russia 10 talents and in Korea 12 talents but they all agree there is always 1 more talent attributed to the multi-talented consultant, a talent for starvation.

In my blog post  just because you are necessary does that make you valuable? I described some of the value differentiators that make consultants worth more to their clients. They included:

• quality
• productivity
• domain expertise
• track record
• intellectual property
• organizational depth & other backup resources
• analytical and design capabilities
• consistency 
• familiarity with tools and processes

Now ask yourself these questions

• How do you consistently produce the highest quality deliverables with the fewest errors and the least rework required?
• How do you attain the highest productivity levels?
• How do your learn not just about the basics but the nuances of an industry and apply those learning’s to better designs?
• How do you develop a constantly improving track-record of success, productivity and quality?
• How do bring with you both your own and knowledge of appropriate external IP to apply to your client’s solution?
• How do you develop a network of other experts in both the technical and business domain that are there to help you out and provide insights?
• How do you know which patterns work best for a client solution?
• How do you develop true consistency in process and deliverables?
• How is that you can be familiar with the development environment, requirements environments, QA environment,  Build environment, Promotion models etc.?

The answer is: You Specialize.

When you specialize , your value goes up after each engagement for the reasons above. When your quality is outstanding, it costs your client less in rework. They can afford to pay you a portion of that savings. When you can do the job at twice the speed, your client is paying 50% less than other resources. They will have a net benefit to pay more for you than the other resources.  When you know the domain, the time invested to ramp you in the industry is not required. It will not be weeks before you are productive, you are productive on day 1. The client will pay more for that advantage. When you have a track record of success in role and in projects of this type, you reduce the client’s risk. They don’t need as much governance and oversight, they can have a wider resource to PM ratio and they spend less time pulling you away from productive work to communicate process or standards. The time saved is true value to the client and you are worth more to them because of it.  When you bring your own IP or access to proven IP you act as a catalyst and accelerator to the project. Not only do you go faster, but you enable those around you to be more productive, produce higher quality outcomes and have less rework. This is of extreme value to your client. You can expedite the delivery of the project. They will gladly pay extra for this capability. No project likes surprises, when a team member delivers consistently, the risk profile is reduced and costs are avoided. It is extra value to the client. When you are familiar with  the tools, you not only avoid training time  and the productivity ramp; you are giving the client a turbo boost on day 1.

If you are a $50 or $75 per hour consultant in the North American market, you are a commodity. The client assumes:

• your quality will be average
• your productivity will be average
• you don’t have specific domain expertise
• your track record is not clear
• you do not bring proven intellectual property to the project to share
• you have no network of experts that can help you out if you get into trouble 
• you have average analytical and design capabilities
• you have average consistency
• you will need to be trained and ramped with tools and processes

In summary, you don’t bring the required additional value to command a higher rate. The more value you bring, the more valuable you are to the client. When you specialize all of these differentiators have intrinsic value to the client. Let’s take a shot at monetizing them.

• highest quality deliverables with the fewest errors and the least rework required – if you produce 50% less errors in a year this would result in a 12.5% FTE savings in QA.
• highest productivity levels – if you produce at 8 Hrs/FP (expert) versus 16 Hrs/FP (average) you create a 50% FTE savings on development
• industry knowledge and better designs – perhaps saving 1 full iteration in a design cycle – 25% FTE
• Track record – Reduced governance from 20% overhead to 5%  overhead – 15% FTE
• IP to apply -  Easily could impact 1 FTE to N FTE’s annually.
• Network of other experts – Assumed that it saves 4 weeks per year in churn – 8% FTE
• Design Pattern knowledge – easily could impact 1 FTE to N FTE annually
• Consistency – Reduced QA governance from 20% overhead to 5% overhead – 15% FTE
• Familiar with the environment – 2 weeks training and 3 months at 50% productivity savings – 16% FTE

So now let’s look at the net benefit to your client.  It calculates to 3.4 FTE.  At $50 an hour before, any rate below $220 / hour now is a net benefit to your client.  If  you negotiated a rate of $175 per hour, your client can pay that rate and still have a $45 per hour additional benefit advantage.

$50 an hour is $104,000 per year earnings full time. $175 per hour is $364,000 or $260,000 per year more.  Why does a client pay $260,000 a year more for you a 350% premium?

One of the main reasons is that you have specialized.

• A commodity consultant spends his or her entire life learning less and less about more and more, until eventually he or she knows nothing about everything.
• A premium consultant spends his or her entire life learning more and more about less and less, until eventually he or she knows everything about nothing.
• An Architect spends his or her entire life learning more and more about more and more, until eventually he or she knows everything about everything and then writes a blog about it.

I think that most employees don’t actually know the proper way to ask for a raise.  It’s a tough thing to do and most people are nervous about asking for one.  The manner in which you ask can effect the outcome.

For example, using tears is not a good approach.  When you finally work up the nerve to ask, don’t start telling a sob story followed by lots of crying.  It makes things very uncomfortable for everyone.  I don’t know anyone who gets a raise because they are a good crier.

Another approach that is not very fruitful is when you tell the boss you need a raise because you can’t pay your bills.  We know times are tough, but that only means you NEED a raise and does not mean you deserve one.

Finally, don’t use the “my friend works for another company doing the same thing I do but makes more money” approach.  I don’t know your friend or anything about their job.  This makes me doubt your loyalty and think that maybe you should go to work there.

The best approach is the “I have done a great job and I have accomplished much here” approach.  Go in prepared.  Dress for the occasion.  Take examples of how you have taken it upon yourself to do more than you were hired to do.  Tell me how you have saved the company money, streamlined processes, training you have completed on your own and about your accomplishments in your current position.  That will show me your value to the company.  That will make me understand how much you care. Most of all that will give me a reason to give you a raise based on your performance.

While it may not work 100% of the time, it will definately increase your chances significantly.

Just my honest observation.

1.  Get a list of expectations from your manager.  Go to your manager, and see exactly what is expected out of you and your coworkers.  Write a list of what is expected, and confirm the list with your boss that you have it right.  Quotas and numbers are especially good information, as you now have a standard to which you can compare yourself to.

2.  Exceed expectations.  Once you know what is needed from you to keep up with your coworkers, you can exceed your bosses expectations.  Set a reasonable standard that sounds good to you, and make that your new minimum.  If everyone else sells 125 of something a month, you try to sell at least 150 a month.  Figure out how your company’s mission statement can be incorporated into your activities. 

3.  Be a genuinely great employee.  Be a cheerleader for your department, as well as for your company.  Take some in-house, online courses for your company, to show that you are trying to develop yourself.  Finally, be sure to be punctual for meetings and deadlines.  While you may not think it is a big deal, everyone will notice if you are late to meetings all of the time.

4.  Use the IDP, or any other company self evaluation system to your benefit.  An IDP is a Individual Development Program that is issued by many companies.  Quite literally, you and your boss sit down, discuss your goals for the year, then write them into the IDP.  Throughout the year, you accomplish your listed goals, and notate your accomplishments into the IDP report.  It is a self-evaluation that you give to your boss at the end of the year.  I’ve seen so many co-workers put off working on their IDP’s until the last minute, can’t remember any real accomplishments throughout the year, and then do a crummy job on the report.  This is a major path to a raise!  Not only do you know what is expected of you, you can continue to add to it throughout the year, and show you’re an exceptional worker. 

What can really stun a manager is for you to learn the IDP system really well, and then even offer to demonstrate to your co-workers on how to do one.  Coming up with that idea shows leadership and initiative, and yes, something else to add to your own IDP.

5.  Document your work.  Buy yourself a dedicated notebook for your job activities.  Every time you exceed expectations, write it down.   Make sure to put a date next to any activity so that you can prove it to your boss later.

6.  When someone appreciates you, ask for honorable mentions.  A lot of companies have internal awards and honorable mentions that employees can bestow on each other.  The next time you do something right, and someone tells you that they REALLY appreciate it, tell them that you would appreciate it if they would present an honorable mention to you, so your boss also knows you are doing well.  Tell them that your boss would file it in your employee folder.  I know it sound cheesy, but it works.  I know a lady who had a 3 ring binder full of the awards that she got for the year, while everyone else in her department have less than 1/2 a dozen of them.  She constantly received the highest raise year after year, although she didn’t work much harder than the average employee.  Dropping a pile of honorable mentions and rewards on your managers desk in time for your yearly review will do you wonders in getting a raise.

7.  Help your boss; make your boss look good.  Another way to help with a raise is to help your boss.  I’m not saying to be a suck-up, which no-one likes anyway, you should see what you can do to make your boss shine.  One thing I found in several work places was the use of people called Subject Matter Experts also called SME’s.  SME’s take something that a manager may be over, learn it to become an expert, then assist the manager with implementation.  These people work on side projects for managers in a department.  Find out if your manager has any open projects, and see if you can apply with your boss for a position.  It often doesn’t pay a dime more for the position itself, but your boss tends to lighten your workload in other areas, so that you can work on their pet project.  Let your boss share the praise for the work that you’ve done.  It helps your boss on what they deem important, and when they execute a project well and in the allotted time frame, it lets your boss shine to his boss.  It is also something great to bring up to your boss around review time.

8.  Ask a stellar co-worker how to shine.  It’s simple enough, finding someone who is great who can mentor you can be mutually beneficial.  Not only do you learn in’s and out’s to your company, the mentor also has something to report to his boss to show how he shines throughout the year.

9. Show that you are not being paid enough, compared to coworkers.  You need to demonstrate you are not paid enough compared to your coworkers to show you really need a raise.  While you may be making the same wage, your stellar performance should nudge you further.  You may even include an income report from Salary.com for people in your field with your skill-set and years of experience.

10.  Dress sharp.  After everything that has been mentioned, you have to dress sharp to make your high performance believable.  See what some of the nicer dressed co-workers are dressed in, and look at your company dress code before going out and buying new clothes.  If you dress well, you will typically be looked upon better, and will make people think that you are more of a producer than someone who doesn’t dress well.  If you are are one of those who think “I don’t care what people think about my wardrobe”, than your actions also indicate that you don’t care about what people think about your performance either, as well as your raise.  They go hand and hand, and you simply cannot divide the two. 

11.  Market it all, the presentation.  Now that your a great worker who’s documented all of his work, received honorable mentions, helped your boss, and showed your not paid enough, you need to package all of this up to present your boss.  The trick here is to warm up your boss to the idea that you’re an exceptional worker first, before you ask for a raise.  If your boss has monthly reviews with you to “see how things are going”, have a folder ready to go with all of your accomplishments that you’ve achieved since your last meeting.  Be casual about it, don’t act overly excited about the presentation.  Here is also a good chance to find out where you are needed in your department, regarding projects that your boss may want to give.  Month after month, give several of these informal presentations to your boss, and notice how your boss’ attitude may have changed toward you between meetings.  Finally, set an appointment with your boss a week away to talk about a raise.  Before the meeting day, give your boss the information that you’ve gathered regarding accomplishments.  Plan your words ahead of time, then march in for your meeting. 

11.  Have a backup plan ready if your boss counter offers low, or says “no”.  What happens really depends on what you want to accomplish.  Do you give up and head back to work?  Do you start applying for another job, inside the company or out?  Do you make plans to ask again at a later date?  Do you make your own counter offer?

Whatever you do, at least ask your boss so you have a reason for not getting the raise.   Find out exactly why you didn’t get a raise, and ask your boss if you accomplish the changes suggested, if a raise would go back on the table.  If you find the whole situation at an impasse and that you will look for another job, consider getting a reference from you manager before you start sending off your resume.  After all, you have shown yourself to be a stellar employee.

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Nothing can be more disappointing than being rejected. It is a very humiliating experience. Trust me, I know. I have made many mistakes in the past, but I have finally managed to create a system which can protect you from feeling ashamed.

I give you the 5 + 1 fatal mistakes that you should definitely avoid when asking for a raise:

1. Asking in front of others, of a crowd

Let’s say you are at a dinner party and you are involved in a conversation with your colleagues and boss. Asking for a raise in such an environment can put your boss in a very unpleasant situation. Do not even think about it (not even as a joke)!

• If your boss declines you, he or she will feel bad about it afterwards.
• If your boss does not decline your request, it will be because he or she doesn’t want to look scrimpy in front of the others.

It is a foolish thing to do. Wait for the right moment and have a private conversation with your boss.

Read the other 4 mistakes here: www.goforyourraise.com

It is possible that he/ she has been having sleepless nights trying to find new ways to increase the sales?

It can also be that he/she is counting employees who are not that performing.

One thing is for sure though: your boss is trying to find answers to questions like: How can I survive this? How could I save more money? Who owes me money? How could I get this money back?

Yes, your boss is trying to find ways to sell more and spend less. You may be thinking that he/ she is meditating on this day and night. You are right!

Basically the world of an entrepreneur is made up of two things: spend little and sell as much as possible.

But what is so different now?

Only one thing has changed in the world of business. The level of needs. Expenses and revenues have always existed.

The things that have changed are the following:

• There is more need than ever for a revenue.
• There is more need than ever to cut back on spending.

Yes! These two needs from above are more important than ever.

As long as the economy of a country is doing well business owners are hardly motivated to take their finances too seriously. Normally their profit would suffer some setbacks but that’s all.

In these times, if they don’t pay enough attention they will not only loose their profits but they risk loosing their businesses too.

Some employers do not see this clearly but they are acting based on their instincts and they are paying attention to their finances.

Click here to learn how to find out your boss’ thoughts!

Wrangle a Raise from a

Year-End Review

The New York Times’ Career Couch section offers up a handy guide to the major do’s and dont’s of negotiating a raise during or after a year-end performance review. Along with best office practices like gathering a list of accomplishments and knowing your market worth, one source recommends avoiding putting any numbers on the table yourself:

Let your boss do it, said Michael Soon Lee, a negotiations consultant, martial artist and author of “Black Belt Negotiating.” … Letting the boss make the first suggestion sets the lower limit. “They can only go up from there,” he said. “If your boss intended to give you an 8 percent raise and you suggest 6 percent, you can’t change your mind and say, ‘No, I meant 8 percent,’” he said.

What’s the best negotiation jujitsu you’ve ever pulled off in your own raise requests? Share your career control tips in the comments.

Turning an Evaluation Into More Pay [New York Times]

The boss (in his head only) wanted it done much before the deadline; he just didn’t tell anyone. As I was reading the email reprimand, I noticed that it was part of a long chain of emails, so I scrolled down. I normally don’t have time to scroll through long email chains; it was just that this particular one was very annoying since I was being reprimanded. At the very bottom of the email (the first email that started the chain), there was an email to the boss: Congratulations on a job well done! It turns out that the boss takes a lot of credit for my work and receives a lot of compliments for my work. When the boss passes the compliments on to me, they turn out as criticisms. It just goes to show that no matter how friendly your boss is to you in person, you can never trust your boss. The boss will tell you something in person and then act as if it never occurred. One step of learning how to ask for a raise is to make sure you have everything in writing.

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What are you worth? You can always check salary.com to determine what others in your field of work are making in your region. If you’ve been in your line of work for a substantial amount of time, you are definitely on the upper end of the salary scale. If you are just starting out, you should be near the middle. The range is so large because so many workers accept a low salary because they do not know any better. For instance, if you see a range of $75,000-$85,000 for an annual salary, the true starting pay should be close to $80,000. Avoid having to figure out how to ask for a raise by negotiating the pay rate you deserve in the beginning and also determining how often you will be given a raise.

How did you get the low salary you have now? If you are like me, you divulged too much irrelevant information early in the hiring process and accepted a low salary. Besides losing tens of thousands of dollars each year due to a low rate, this will come back to haunt you when you decide to search for a new job. Your prospective employer will ask for your current salary. You cannot tell the truth because then you will be no better off than before. You cannot lie because you have integrity. We’ll discuss this important issue at a later date as we search for the answer of how to ask for a raise.

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There are also training courses that are indirectly related to your job position. For instance, a time management course will help you in your current position. It will also help you in any other job that you’re in. It will also help you in your daily life. Ideally, you would want to take as many of these courses as possible. Don’t search for bargain courses either. Search for the most expensive. There is a saying, “You get what you pay for.” In this case, your company will be paying for the course. Really, the bargain courses are just as good as the expensive courses. The main difference is the the other students you will be with. Do you want to be with a group of bargain hunters who are only attending the course because they are being forced to attend? Wouldn’t you rather be with a group who is eager to learn and apply newly learned techniques to their lives.

How about an organization course? This will teach you to be more organized. A leadership course will bring out the leader in you. You already have leadership attributes. You want to take the initiative to learn how to ask for a raise.

Ideally, you want to take as many self development courses as possible. If you are forbidden, then take any courses that are specific to your job position. The reason for taking these courses is to make yourself more valuable to the company. These self-improvement courses will not only make you more valuable to your current employer, they will give you the opportunity to shoot for the stars with your next position. For instance, a senior management or a director.

The company has invested in you and will want to retain you. This will make it a lot easier for you to get the raise you deserve. Keep reading to discover more on how to ask for a raise.

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Do you need to work a 40-hour work week? Have you ever tried to cut back? Do you think you could work 30 hours and still get paid for working 40 hours? Realistically, you can. You’re probably on “company time” right now reading this. You’re still going to get your daily work done. You always manage to. When you’re given five days to finish a project, you start on day five and still finish on time. What you do with days one through four is your own business. When you’ve put in only eight hours in your forty-hour work week, you have effectively given yourself your own raise. If your hourly pay rate is $20/hr, you have effectively given yourself an $80/hr pay raise for this week (you are reading this, therefore you are smart and can do the math).

Is that possible? Is that realistic? Is that practical? Can anyone really put in only 8 hours in a 40-hour workweek? We’ll explore this topic later as we learn how to ask for a raise.

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I thought back my very first job in my IT career. My supervisor knew that he was taking a chance on me and offered me a low salary, $40,000 per year. It was low, and I did not know how to ask for a raise. Although the salary was low, to me it was great. I broke into the industry self-trained. Two weeks later, it was pay day and my supervisor called me in to discuss my paycheck. Thoughts about how to ask for a raise did not even cross my mind. My supervisor told me there was a “little extra” in my paycheck. It turned out that he immediately saw my potential and gave me a $5,000 dollar per year raise during my first week! About three weeks later, he called me in again to his office to discuss some responsibilities. He knew I was capable of more and told me my new salary would be $54,000 per year. This was great for me since I had no “real” experience. This is how the corporate world should operate. Your superiors see your superior work, and without even thinking about how to ask for a raise, you just receive a raise based on your work. I lived with this ill-conceived notion for a long time. I never imagined that I should learn how to ask for a raise.

Getting back to my current situation, you may be wondering why my salary is so low to begin with. $25,000 below average. Well, when I started 3 years ago, I was relocating. I was more eager to relocate since my wife and I both wanted to move to this area. A new job (even with a pay cut), was a good reason to move. I accepted the low position knowing that I would be evaluated and given an increase in 3 months. I took the job even though I received a pay cut. For one thing, the boss expects everyone to work overtime and weekends without compensation. At my previous job, I received either overtime or comp time. The benefits are lousy. I pay about $450 per month plus huge co-pays for medical and dental insurance for my family and myself. At my previous job, dental was completely free and medical was about $600 per month, but the company paid about 86% of that so my medical payment was only about $80 per month. Also, my previous company matched 10% of 401K contributions. My current company matches nothing. And how’s this for motivation: “You can be let go at any time and the company will continue to go on.”

The salary increase was a blatant lie. The excuse was that a “salary freeze” was in effect. The so-called freeze was non-existent. Needless to say, I did not get my raise. Since I did not know how to ask for a raise, I did not ask for a raise. Well that’s beside the point now. Finally, I was about to get my big salary increase. So big, that the boss decided to call me on the phone to tell me not to be surprised.

Well, I was not just surprised. I was in shock! The payroll department had not added the raise to my paycheck; they included it separately. I didn’t need to find an old pay stub and compare it to the current pay stub to calculate the raise amount. My “raise” had its very own check. The amount was staring me in the face. I was so looking forward to my pay increase. After all, my year one pay raise was only 2.5%. My year two pay raise was only 5%. Finally, my year three pay raise was here and it was going to be huge. So huge that I did not need to know how to ask for a pay raise; so huge that my boss had to call me so I would not be surprised. Finally, my years of outstanding work and loyalty to the company was about to pay off. I was stunned when I saw the check. I stared at it. The raise was retroactive to the beginning to the pay period, so it was a full two weeks’ worth of raise. Twenty-seven dollars. Yes, $27 for a two week period. I did the math and it was a 1% raise. I was in disbelief and was hurt. I desperately needed to learn how to ask for a raise.

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