Would you like to increase your annual earnings? Well, who wouldn’t? The problem is, most of us running our own businesses don’t really know how to do it: we go from month to month hoping we’re turning over enough money to keep afloat, and only really ‘check in’ with what we’re earning when it’s time to do our tax returns. So, if you want to increase your annual earnings, here are a handful things you can do make it happen…
Invest in professional training
When we’re working for employers, we tend to enjoy an allocated annual budget that enables us to go on training courses to learn new skills. But when we take the leap to start working for ourselves, we often forget to set aside some time and budget to train ourselves. So, if you want to increase your annual earnings, start by investing in yourself to improve your skillset. Book yourself onto a training course and see if you learn something that enables you earn more money, charge more for your services, or diversify your offering.
Learn some managerial accounting
If you say you want to increase your annual earnings, what you probably mean is that you want to increase your annual profit. One of the most effective ways to do this is by learning some strong managerial accounting skills. But what does this mean? Well, it means elevating your skills beyond simply managing your cash flow. You need to plan your finances, track your performance and then make calculated decisions for the future based on reports you’re generating. Get your budgets and cost allocations as watertight as you can and come up with some financial risk management strategies too. ‘Managerial accounting’ like this is a sure-fire way to increase the money you’re making year on year.
Wrap your head around tax planning
Doubtless you’ll already be familiar with filing your returns and paying your taxes. However, it’s worth brushing up on tax planning if you want to increase the amount of money you get to call your own. Of course, you don’t want to accidentally run into ‘tax avoidance’ category (as this is illegal), but you can do some legal tax planning to minimise the amount of tax your business has to pay. For instance, consider how your business is legally structured as this has an impact on how much tax you’ll pay, and find out which assets are deductible from your tax returns. Just be sure to consult with a specialist to confirm that the kind of tax planning your doing is legal and appropriate, and consider using tools like these to ensure you’re filing your returns correctly.
Learn how to sell your services
Finally, get better at selling your goods or services. This sounds obvious, of course, but what this really means is learning to perfect the art of being a salesman. So, get better at pitching your business, refine your USP and persuading people to get on board with your ideas: this will help your customers to take you seriously, and could even see potential investors offering you money to take your business from strength to strength.
Your annual earnings are unlikely to increase by accident, or by simply continuing to do what you’ve always done. Instead, try putting these entrepreneurial skills into practice and see if you’re taking home considerably more than you have done in the past.
