What are you worth?
Posted by Marcellas Flenory, Sr. on Jan 11, 2018 in Updates | 0 comments
What are you worth?
by Marcellas Flenory Sr., MBA
Have you ever asked yourself or someone else asked you, what are you worth?
Many employers ask, “What is your MINIMUM Salary Requirement?” This is the question you must ask yourself, “what am I worth?”
NOTE: Employers pay based on position value to the company, not based on employee value. They may use a salary or pay range, if they have a compensation plan in place, to determine what they would offer you based on your Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Years of Experience (doing the job) above the minimum salary or pay rate within the range.
So, what are you worth?
How do you determine the price (cost plus markup) of your time. I learned that the one thing you cannot buy back is time. I have added to that by saying, “Money may be able to buy you many things in life but it cannot buy you back time. So stop wasting it and invest it wisely.” ~ Marcellas Flenory Sr., MBA
JK Flenory & Company LLC’s formula for determining your worth or value:
1. Determine your cost such as Monthly Bills, Taxes, and what is left as Disposable Income (clothes, travel, vacation, restaurants, college education, savings, etc).
You never want to take a job and not able to meet your basic needs, unless you plan to get more than one job. You do not want to be worried about paying your bills and taxes, while you should be focusing on doing a great job. So, this is your foundation. The deeper you go, the higher the building you may build. NOTE: I will discuss that in a different blog.
2. What is your markup?
Many people do not think there time is valuable because they have never determined the price or cost (sacrifice) for being the best them. When you devalue your time, allowing you and people to waste your time, you have discounted your time.
J Paul Getty (Billionaire) said, “The #1 guideline to success is you must be in business for yourself. When you work for someone else, you sell your time at wholesale to your employer, who then re-sells it at retail to the customer.”
What is your worth?
When you begin to value your time, then everyone around you, that comes into contact with you, will begin to value your time. You must markup the value of your time based on the Rate of your Return (ROR) or Return on Investment (ROI) on your sacrifice to be the best you.
In example:
* My average monthly cost is $2000/month
* $2000 divided by 160 hours per month (average work hours per month are 2080/12 = 173.33 hours per month, but for this
illustration we will use 40 hours per week for 4 weeks in a month)
* Hourly rate would be $12.50 per hour (before your markup or add what you are worth)
If you know you are paying or paid for college, training, seminars, books, development courses, etc. to be the best you, this will help you to legitimize your markup. Furniture manufacturers and retailers markup the price of furniture 200-400% (Cheat Sheet: Retail Markup on Common Items, http://www.wisebread.com/cheat-sheet-retail-markup-on-common-items ).
What is your ROR or ROI?:
* Cost you $100,000 over the next 30 years to pay back your student loan plus interest. Approximate Total cost of the loan $280,000.
* Cost to train, attend seminars, buy books and read them, take development courses, approximate total cost $20,000
* To be the best you, approximate cost would be $300,000.
Do you believe your time is only worth $12.50/hour?
Markup should be $300,000 / 30 = $10,000/year; $10,000 / 2080 hours = $4.81/hour markup or 40% markup per hour.
Therefore, you are worth $17.31/hour.
Remember, this is only an illustration with a low monthly cost and above average student loan debt. The average household in the US has a debt of approximately $132,000, in which $40K – $80K of it is student loan debt.
But, the markup is the most important number in this illustration.
The Do Not
Do not be afraid to ask for what you want, but do your homework and legitimize your worth / value.
Do not try to be a Tiger Woods or Lebron James when you have only been a Jack or Mary all of your life.
Do not compare your worth or value to someone else, you do not know what they have been through or sacrificed to be the best that they could be.
Stick to being the best you and your worth or value will always be true to you, if you are true to it. 40% markup is not bad. You are between the markup of Grocery, Cars and Cosmetics. Just Kidding, no I am not.
Remember, companies pay for the position, not the person.
Check out PayScale to see what companies are paying and what you are worth based on various employable factors.
Setup an account at https://www.payscale.com/