Most of us were trained to study hard and secure a job where we work for many hours a day and in return, we are paid for the hours and days that we were working.
It took a while for me to realize that there is only so much time that we have in our life for us to exchange our time for money. Therefore, the amount of how much we can make per hour/day has a ceiling.
While we can increase how much we get paid for an hour, over years after gaining some industry expertise and picking up some skills compared to when we just started at the job – still there is a ceiling as to how far we can go and how fast we can achieve this.
Consider the role of a doctor seeing patients, he is also paid for the number of hours he works. If we break down the number of hours that the doctor can attend to his patients and when he does so, the maximum patients he can attend is 5 or a maximum of 6 patients given that he has to speak to each patient to perform a diagnosis on why the patient visited the doctor for.
Below are some of the options that we can try out, to increase our earnings by still working for some company and exchanging our time for money.
Let’s go to the details of how we can increase the amount we are being paid per hour by the employer and also explore some other options we have now (Thanks to the information era we are living in).
Request for a raise/Change jobs
Before you proceed to perform this option, you need to perform the below points step by step.
1. Researching what the market is paying for the job
The first thing you can do, if you feel that you are being underpaid for the job that you’re performing, is to spend some time researching and understand how much the market is paying for people of your skill and experience.
You can make use of websites like Glassdoor.com or paycale.com to perform some benchmarking on how much you are being paid vs others of your skills and experience are earning.
If you have a clear understanding that you are being underpaid significantly, compared to your peers in other companies. You can prepare these facts to present to your boss while asking for a raise or negotiating. Refer to step 4 below on how to ask for the raise.
If you are fairly paid or paid more than the industry averages, continue reading on – before you proceed to ask for the raise.
2. Pickup skills in demand
If you have already identified the skills that are in demand – in your organization. You can proceed to work on attaining those skills and once you have the confidence and a plan in place on how you are going to use this newly acquired skill to provide more value to the employer.
Acquiring new skills is now easier than ever. You can learn different skills from YouTube and other platforms like skill-share, Udemy.
Above are just some examples. There are plenty of other platforms where you can learn and pick up skills from and it has already been proven that many of the employers are hiring resources based on skill-set and fancy masters degrees does not matter as much as it did in the past.
3. Attaining certifications
The other thing you can use to demonstrate the skill-set you have acquired is by attaining the relevant certifications.
Most of the hot skills in demand currently have certifications available Eg: Cloud computing certifications from Amazon, Azure, Google.
The good thing about certifications is that most of the time.. these certifications are cheaper compared to a full time/part-time degree. And you need not study all the other subjects that come with an additional degree.
4. Asking for raise
Now that you have gone through the steps above. You have an idea of your worth and how well you are compensated.
If you are simply underpaid – compared to what other companies are offering to their employees of the same skills and experience, you can present these facts to your boss and request for a raise. When you do so, explain to the boss about the good work you were putting in and how well you are currently performing the job too.
If you have received any letter of appreciation/feedback from your colleagues – this is the time to mention it to your boss along with your request for a raise.
If you were fairly compensated in your current role, you will have to go through Step 2 and 3 above, before you speak to your boss.
While there is a high chance that you will consider your request seriously, there is no guarantee that you will most certainly get what you have asked for. If there is push-back/rejection from your boss, ask him to explain why it is so and understand what the boss and organization thinks about your performance and value or the additional skill set/certifications you have obtained.
If a valid reason is provided and you agree to it, discuss with your boss how you can get that raise and continue to work and improve yourself. And follow -up close on the action items and ensure that you get what you want.
If there is no proper reasoning given and you are unhappy, it’s time to consider the next step.
5. Change job
Now, if you were not given proper reasoning as to why the company is paying you lesser for the current skill set you possess and the experience you have, try to look out for better opportunities outside and once you find them, switch to the new role.
If you were paid on par with the market or above the market rate, always be on the lookout to see if there are any new openings available – that pay more for the skill-set and experience.
Create multiple sources of income
In this current information era, there are plenty of opportunities you can consider – beyond your routine office job. This can be done by learning new skills or even leveraging the skills that you already possess. Use these to add value for others in your free time and by no means I’m advocating to try out this while you’re working at your office.
Once you have identified that you have some spare time to do something creative or by utilizing the expertise and skills you have acquired all the years.
Below is the list of items that you can consider (Ensure that these do not cause any potential conflict of interest at your current work).
1. Freelancing (photography, coding)
One thing that you can give a try is freelancing, many Internet portals list the problem that people are trying to solve and if you have the right skills like programming, copy-writing or even marketing.
You can join them and see if there are problems that you can solve with your skills and expertise and some of the examples are building websites or solving other programming requests. There are people out there requesting photographers to cover their events.
Now if you’re saying… “Oh, well I don’t know how to do programming or I don’t know how to do photography” – that’s okay, these are not the only skill set that is required for the world and there are plenty of other ask in these websites, like creating excel formulas and macros, doing Photoshop or even data entry.
2. Content creation in YouTube, Blog
With the enormous number of platforms out there, there are plenty of content creators who have learnt and picked up the skills to do video editing or to create videos and even write blogs.
Some have even become influencers with a huge fan base and are earning money by introducing products and services in their channels and profiles.
You can try out creating a YouTube channel to create content that you’re passionate about, or even to capture the moments of your life. In case you do not want to spend more time filming/editing or even if you are shy to be in front of the camera. You can try writing a blog about your interest area. Ex: Games, Food…
In case you are wondering, there are so many out there already, who are there to watch me or to read what I write, there is always someone interested in the quality work you are putting in – Get started!
3. Side hustles (Driving, Food Delivery), Part-Time Jobs
Now, if you have some spare time after your regular working hours or on weekends – let’s say you own a car you can try to sign up for being a private hire driver to pick up passengers and bring them to their destinations (Uber, Grab, Didi).
Likewise, there are other options as well, like performing some food delivery/delivering packages – if you have some sort of a vehicle/if you can rent them at a cheaper rate. Part-time jobs at fast-food chains or other shops are other options too.
4. Tutoring
Tutoring is another option that you can consider if you have a passion for teaching people and to share your knowledge and prepare students for their exams. This is one of the highly paid part-time jobs that are available in the market.
5. Renting out the extra room
Renting out an extra room is a pretty much straightforward process, if you have a spare room that you’re not using you are allowed to do it legally.
If you are willing to let someone use that room, you can consider posting an advertisement in the portals that lists these rental advertisements.
6. Renting out Equipment
Some portals let you list out the equipment that you’re not using. You can let someone else use it for a few days for a few weeks or even for a month all the while you are earning money for the rental arrangement (Ensure that the platform you are using is having necessary insurance to cover any damages/loss of your property).
7. Sell Content Online
The other thing you can try is to use portals like shutter-stock to post the amazing pictures and videos you have taken.
These original photos will then be consumed by others and you will be rewarded whenever someone downloads this photo or video.
If you already have several good photos were taken or videos with you You can very well try to upload this into shutter stock and wait for the results.
8. De-cluttering (selling unwanted items)
This is yet another option for you if you already have too many things (Electronics, Dress.. you name it) at home that you are not using.
You can post advertisements on the portals that list these items, sell them online.. instead of throwing them away for free/Keeping them in your garage or storerooms – to use an eternity later.
Conclusion
As I mentioned above, there are many ways to earn some extra income or to make some money when you are not working at your full-time job.
All of these may not apply to everyone, if something works for me that does not mean that it will work for you. Likewise, something that works for you might not work for me.
There are other options as well too, these are just only some of the options that I have seen.
To list everything that I have seen it may take about a few posts, so if you have any other ideas you feel free to let me know in the comments. If I receive a few good options, I will try to research them and include them in my future posts.
This way let’s help each other out and learn more and share more of the knowledge we have.