When it comes to employment, any decent entrepreneur will offer a respectable hourly rate.
When it comes to employment, any decent entrepreneur will offer a respectable hourly rate. This is how you get the best out of your team and keep them happy, after all.Â
Yet, few entrepreneurs do themselves the same favor. According to this inc.com article, some entrepreneurs pay themselves as little as $30,104 per annum. That’s compared to an average worker who earns around $56,492.80 a year. This discrepancy becomes even more painful when you consider that, in an average week, an entrepreneur can work double that of other workers.Â
When you consider that low pay range compared with working hours, it may become apparent that your hourly rate is far below the national minimum. That can take its toll on your lifestyle both physically and mentally, and it’s a reality you needn’t face.
In truth, entrepreneurs deserve a decent hourly rate, too, and we’re going to consider a few ways you can make sure that you get one.
Work out how much other entrepreneurs earn
There’s no legal minimum wage when you work for yourself, and you probably don’t have any idea what other entrepreneurs earn. So, take the time to find out. Resources like the ones found on https://www.bls.gov can be helpful as they give you a guideline for national averages. Speaking to entrepreneurial friends can also be an eye-opener. Once you have some idea of ‘the norm’, you can judge how far off that standard you are, and what changes you need to make.
Turn your attention to the hours you work
Next, get real about how much you actually work. Too often, entrepreneurs work at least fifteen-hour days every single day, weekends included. If you fall into this category, there’s no way you’ll ever be able to pay yourself a decent hourly rate. Instead, be realistic about respectable working days that see you earning a fair amount. This doesn’t mean you need to neglect your business in the evenings altogether, but you may find that trusting the round-the-clock monitoring offered by companies like capstoneitinc.com works out cheaper than trying to up your hourly wage without making changes. You can also bet that cutting your hours works wonders for your sanity and work efforts moving forward.
Get your prices right
When we’re starting, we tend to undercharge. Imposter syndrome might make you believe customers simply wouldn’t consider you otherwise. In reality, though, unrealistically low price points are damaging for two reasons. For one, undercharging can devalue your product, while making it tricky ever to raise your prices. More pressingly in this article, though, undercharging means that you’ll never be able to pay yourself a respectable hourly rate. In fact, by the time you’ve paid for materials and employees, you might not earn anything at all. Instead, then, take the time to work out exactly how much you should charge for each project. To achieve this, consider outgoings and time required per job. Then, quote according to those figures so that you never have to work for nothing again.Â
