Let’s talk about value. Everyone thinks they’re more valuable than what they’re being paid at this current moment. Everyone wants a way to know exactly how valuable they are, but their employers do a horrible job of explaining it. What’s even more amazing to me is that employees don’t even know where to look when it comes to figuring out how valuable they are to a company. Employers define your initial value. The way they do this is by setting a wage. They define a dollar amount that a job is worth. An hourly wage. But your value goes far beyond an hourly wage. If you were handed your hourly wage at the end of an hour’s worth of work, my gut tells me that you would be disappointed with the amount you’re being handed. Imagine you work in manual labor. At the end of an hour’s worth of work, busting your body to the bone, You were handed a measly $19. Would you feel that that is the proper pay for the amount of work that you just put in?
Now, employers will do their best to help you see things their way. But seeing things their way only keeps you from realizing your real value.
As you begin to work for a company, you begin to build a skill set to do the job that they’ve asked you to do. As you develop these skills and succeed at the job, you make money. Over time you (hopefully) become extremely competent at your job. Sadly, as your value increases your pay does not. On the rare occasion you may have the opportunity to be promoted. But the more likely problem that you will encounter is that you become extremely effective at your job, but nothing about your income changes. Even if you get promoted, you’ll receive a salary increase but it’s not proportional to the value that you provide. Let me make something extremely clear.
If you handle money, you are valuable.
If you talk to hundreds of people, you are valuable.
If you are aware of the number of people that you talked to, or the number of dollars that you interact with, then you will be extremely valuable.
The purpose of this article is to make you aware of the numbers that you encounter on a daily basis at your current job. If you want to explain to your employer just how valuable you are, then you need to be aware of the numbers that you affect in your current position. If you don’t know how much money you handle on a daily basis, then how do you persuade your boss to give you a raise? If you don’t know how many customers that you interact with, how do you explain to him the impact you have on his organization?
Keep track of the number of people that you talk to. Keep track of how much money you handle. Keep track of how many products that you sell.
Every number counts.
The reason that these numbers matter will be elaborated on soon enough. For now know your numbers. Knowing your numbers is the number one step that you can take to literally change your future overnight.
Take advantage of the opportunity that you have been handed in this moment. Create a better future for yourself now.