I am participating in Women’s Money Week and today’s topic is increasing income.
Increasing Your Income
There are many options to increasing your income. You could pick up a side hustle. But, what if you value your free time and having balance in your life? You could look for a new better paying job. But, what if you love your current job? Often the easiest way and best option to increasing your income is to ask for a raise.
Lay the Groundwork
If you want to ask for a raise, first you have to lay the groundwork. What do I mean by that? Make sure you are doing the work that warrants a raise. Your projects should be excellent, take on more work if you have the time, do your very best and prove by the quality of your work that you deserve a raise before you ask.
Performance Review
The best time to ask for a raise is during or right after a performance review. Ideally, you only ask if you have a good performance review. This is the time to show you have improved. If you had areas to work on during your last review show how you have gotten better. Remind your boss about your accomplishments and why you are a valuable member of the team.
Make a Case
Don’t ask blind. Instead, you should make your case. What I suggest is putting together a document that shows all the work you have done beyond and above your usual duties. Makes sure to include any positive feedback you have gotten lately. This is also a good time to show how you have improved based on prior feedback. Bring data to this meeting and make the best case you can for your raise.
Hope for the Best
Finally, you just have to hope for the best. If you deserve it and you are valuable you will most likely get a raise. However, there are also often circumstances outside of your control especially is a down economics climate. So hope for the best and no it never hurts to ask.
picture by papalars
