This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Live from Boston, how's it going everybody? What's up? Chris Guillebeau here, your host of Side Hustle School, also author of the new book, Gonzo Capitalism. It's been out for eight days. I've been in, I think, five cities so far.
Been really fun to talk with listeners and readers. Would love to see you somewhere along the road. chrisguillebeau.com/tour to get my dates, info and such. And obviously the podcast continues every single day. We usually talk about how to start and grow your side hustle, but our next listener has a different kind of query.
Query, question, inquiry, et cetera. She is an accountant from Houston who's been using the principles she's learned from the show in her own side hustle, so that's awesome. But she's also facing a challenge that's not about the side hustle. It's actually about her day job. She has a performance review coming up.
She wants to know how to apply her side hustle negotiation skills to get a substantial raise. Now, she already thinks she's gonna get a little bit of a raise, but she wants more than just a bump. She wants something that is, well, substantial, right? She wants something that makes a tangible difference in her life, and I respect that so much. I think maybe you need a raise, too.
So let's talk about it. If you work at a job and would like to get paid more for that job, listen up, detailed question, my answer in just 30 seconds. [Music]
Hey there, I'm Lisa, an accountant originally from Philadelphia, but now I'm living in Houston. I've been a loyal listener to your podcast, and I've been applying all of your principles to my own side hustle endeavors. However, now I'm facing a different challenge.
I'm due for a performance review at my day job, and I'm looking for a substantial raise. I'm thinking I can apply the negotiation and value-adding principles I learned from side hustle school to this situation. Do you think there's any way they can also help me in negotiating this raise? [Music]
Lisa, I agree, we should get you a raise. I love it.
And definitely the principles you've learned from side hustle school can be applied in this situation, for sure. And I'll tell you exactly how. Often when you hear advice on how to get a raise or negotiate, ask something for your boss, it always starts with like, you should know your worth, and you should go and look at websites like Glassdoor and kind of compare salary ranges and different positions and such. And that's fine, I guess. I mean, it's good to know your comp, but I think what's so much better is to always focus or center this conversation around how you can add specific monetary value to your job.
And I think that's the principle of side hustle school that you can apply when getting a raise. So you wanna think about, just like a side hustler needs to identify what makes their product or service unique, or like, where is the value? And by value in this case, I mean money. You need to clarify what makes you a valuable asset to your employer. Have your efforts resulted in cost savings?
Have you improved efficiency or productivity in a measurable way? Like the more specific examples and data you can present, the better. Then I also think it's great to kind of frame this as a forward-looking approach. Say like, hey, I've identified some opportunities where we can really grow our business, and I would like to be responsible for doing this over the next year. In exchange, I would love to receive a raise of X percent or X number.
That way you're framing the whole thing as not just like, oh, look, I saw that somebody else at this other company makes this amount of money, so I should make that too. It's like, hey, I want us to grow our business. Like I wanna help the business, and transparently, I wanna be rewarded for that. When you present the conversation like that, it just becomes much more of a win-win. Doesn't feel like your boss or whoever's making the decision is having to kind of sacrifice or take money from somewhere else to give you more.
It's like, oh, they're gonna help us grow our business, and you're right, they should be rewarded for that. I mean, I think that is the way to do it. Like that is the number one approach that I've always tried to favor in any kind of conversation like that. So good luck, Lisa. Negotiation is a skill that can be improved.
Like the more that you do it, the better you get at it. So I am cheering you on. I hope it works out. Let us know. Listeners, if you are able to negotiate for a raise using some side hustle school principles or just some principles of your own, that's good too.
Let us know, sidehustleschool.com/questions. I'm excited to continue my book tour for the next few weeks as well. So let me know if I'll see you on the road. It's been a lot of fun, much more to come. And of course, the podcast rolls on.
My name's Chris Guillebeau, this is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the "Onward Project."
