Maximising Your Earning Potential (part 4)

Consistency in terms of job offers and earning an acceptable income with gradual promotional opportunities is good. But achieving your maximum earning potential is great! This is the difference between having a job and having a career. This is the final piece in a series of four articles that explains how to increase your earning potential:

Part 1: lifelong learning
Part 2: positive thinking
Part 3: goal setting
Part 4: above and beyond

Above and beyond

As part of your endeavour to maximise your earning potential, remember that there are ways in which you can really make yourself stand out from the crowd and actions you can take that will facilitate a faster salary or rate increase than you anticipate. These involve going that little bit further than what is expected of you, but could make all the difference to your earning potential.

Writing articles and contributing letters to magazines whose audience contains the kinds of influential people you want to reach is another action that you might not usually consider to be highly influential with regards to your earning potential, but this kind of self-promotion can be used to ensure that your achievements and opinions are more widely publicised than those of others, which will help in increasing your employment value.

Participating in activities that are indirectly related to work can also have an effect on the way you are perceived by decision-makers within the industry. For example, playing golf with a group of work colleagues and clients might at first appear to be nothing more than a social event, with the intention of enhancing personal relationships, but you can demonstrate skills such as team-working, determination and concentration, which all apply professionally. Letting people see your personal qualities outside working environments can open their eyes to how you would engage within the workplace too.

There are always ways in which you can increase your earning potential and it is up to you to decide whether or not you are prepared to apply yourself in order to move forward. Planning, determination and the ability to see how your short-term achievements contribute to your long-term goals are all key to successfully maximising your earning potential.