How to get a raise in a Startup

Get paid, get made, and get recognized.

Some people want more money, some people want to be wanted, some people want a higher title, but everyone wants recognition for their work.

Startups don’t work in the way that ordinary businesses do, so why would you think moving up the chain would be the same in a start up as in an ordinary business? (or what I like to call an “old-business.”)

Millennials tend to have an inherent grasp on this, we have an urge to not hold back, to show what we do, to urge for change, to clean up the clutter and to move things forward.

We also have a knack for handling things in-delicately.

So here is how to get a raise and earn recognition without getting fired.

1. Become a voluntary intrapreneur

“Intrapreneurship” is the act of behaving like an entrepreneur while working within a large organization.

Owners, executives and managers have one direct goal — to improve the business.

They want to see the bar go up, revenues rise and see pronounced profit increases.

Find a way to give them that. Even if it’s not your role.

Use your personal interests, your personal abilities, your unique assets to grow the business and make it more efficient.

How do you do this?

1. Improve systems of scale — touch everything that relates to you and find the lapses in efficiency or where things could be improved.
2. Branch out of your specific role — if you are a code slinger but know of a more efficient tool your social media team could be using to manage your community, give that information to your manager.
3. Do more than is ever asked of you — this could sound like “just work your ass off” but it’s really not. “Do more than is ever asked of you” means work smart to give your leaders more than they ever thought they needed. A good example would be if you’re working on client work and you see an opportunity to sell a new client and bring in new business, don’t ask for permission, sell that client. Even if it means more work for you and no additional incentive, you will be noticed and you might get rewarded.
4. Question best practices to improve efficiency — if you have an idea of how you could improve a certain effort to be more efficient, bring it up. It’s worth questioning. Most best practices are put into place with some thought, but typically are scrounged together with the first-best answer. A more elaborate thought might completely change the way the business works, for the better.
5. Know yourself, play off of your strengths— Are you a person who likes to discover new technologies? Are you someone who likes to share the information they’ve gained? Are you someone who likes to teach? Are you a motivator? Are you someone who really likes getting in to the nuts and bolts and implementing new practices? Know yourself, know what you are interested in and think radically about how you can benefit the business with that. If you’re a discoverer/sharer (like I am) you will probably stumble upon tools that your business might not be using, or hasn’t even heard of. These tools might completely revolutionize the business’s systems. Let these tools be known.
6. Be a brand evangelist — Get the business featured in articles on main publications within the niche. Get the business recognized. Be a public face for the company and get the word out about it. You don’t have to ask to do this, it benefits the company regardless — if they’re smart, they wouldn’t fire you for getting them more business.

2. Don’t keep information, be open with it

Startups don’t have time for “indispensable employees” the moment you keep secrets is the moment you might be eliminated. The way to really shine is to baffle with brilliance.

Rand (the CEO of Seattle Marketing SaaS Startup “Moz”) says it perfectly —

“You’re at a startup to learn, grow, and reach beyond the bounds of what your career history would enable at a larger firm. You may also be there because you believe this startup is the 1/10,000 that might actually make you a millionaire. Guess what? All of these goals can be better accomplished if you’re never (or, at least, never for very long) the only cog that can make your team function.”

Also to be a little bit more to-the-point Rand says —

“If you document your work, make replicable all your processes, ensure that 2-3 other people know your tasks well enough to keep things running smoothly, and have built redundancy across your position, you can be promoted.”

“Try not to become a man of success but a man of value” — Albert Einstein

Provide value to your team, to your bosses, show that you know your role well enough that you can systematize everything you do and are capable of managing it on a broader scale. Guess what that does? That makes you look like less of a grunt and more of a operator.

If you want your startup to scale, to grow, to make insurmountable leaps and bounds, you have to make yourself entirely redundant. Everyone at the company has to be redundant. Everyone has to be replaceable, everyone needs to be replicable. If every position is replicable, guess what? That’s scale. That means the company can grow, without pain, without friction. The company can become larger, take on more clientele and potentially reach that large level of success.

You want to be a part of that level of success. You want to aspire to it.

If you want to find out how to speak the language of your executives, bosses, managers or the like — it’s in revenue.

If you can make the case that what you do will help increase revenue, it’s black and white. It’s a no-brainer. It’s done.

You’re the one associated to that, so why keep that information back?

No one will sit at their desk quietly, not trying to improve things and gain a raise. You can do your job well, you can do your job very well, but for large rewards you need to give sharp value. Information is your route to higher value.

3. Motivate your team and peers

If everyone is doing better work and you’re leading the charge, you’re moving forward.

Facilitate self-belief in your peers. If you can be of more worth than you’re expected, so can they. Motivate the people around you to do better work, to share their thoughts, to make their roles more redundant.

Create a think-tank within your company. Get everyone talking. Create a place to inspire collaboration on a purpose-built path — improve systems to improve revenue.

You won’t be the only one with cool ideas, inspire the people around you to share their thoughts, to be brand advocates, to write about their work which will ultimately result in inbound marketing for the company.

4. Be bold

Call out the elephants in the room. If something needs serious attention don’t be the one who stays quite while everyone twiddles their thumbs in anguish. Be the one who calls it out and tries to improve the situation.

You will stand out, sometimes it’s hard to determine whether it’s the right one to call out or not — but if you do a worst-case-analysis, if calling it out won’t put you in serious risk of losing your job, or even if it will, do it. It shows you’re willing to take risks on your own accord to improve the business. That’s more than any employer could ask for.

Assume the position you want to be in, without asking for it. Act from a standpoint of the position you would like to have, be that position and you will acquire it. If you’re a manager but you want to implement things on the ground level and you’re completely capable to, just do it. If you’re implementing things on the ground level and you want to manage, act more like a manager and show the higher-ups that you can and should be doing that job.

The tough part is the push. If you really want to ensure some sort of fluctuation, whether positive or negative — ask your superior straight to their face for what you want (after you’ve shown proven value). This may move the bar in the wrong direction if handled improperly, but it should be done with confidence and a large amount of humility regardless.

The subliminal push is what I would recommend. Do so much, lead from the back, provide immense value, let that value be known, don’t boast, be humble about it but be noticed. If after a long time no one is saying anything about your effort, it might be time for a manual push. Or maybe it’s time to put in more effort. You be the judge, you have to have the psychological grasp on the situation one way or another to make the right judgement call.

A little secret or two

1. Knowing the psychology of the situation will make or break your efforts. If you don’t grasp what’s going too far and what’s appropriate, then your actions will be an improper impulse and could get you fired. Often times though, you should eire on the side of too much. That will ensure a change, one way or another. A smart employer would always move you up, an idiot would deny your efforts, in which case you’re better off with a better employer anyways (they are out there).
2. Understand that Startups are entirely different from “Old-business.” Startups don’t have time to waste on employees who aren’t moving the needle forward. Startups typically aren’t well established, they typically don’t have vast systems of scale, they typically have a ton of holes that can be plugged (by you) and typically all of these are opportunities for self-growth. Plug those holes.
3. It’s not always about moving up. Reverting back to that Einstein quote, you should strive to be a person of value, not success. The goal is to provide value to your startup. That’s the incentive. That’s the goal. If you get that mindset and you focus on those initiatives, the rest will come. Recognition, raises etc.

By the way, famous people didn’t become famous by wanting to be famous.

Famous people became famous for the things they did, the things they built and the actions they carried forth.

The same goes for employees, businessmen, founders, tech gurus and the like. They got to where they are by improving something, building something and providing value.

Provide value, be perceptive, be redundant, be a motivator, know yourself, always aim to improve and you will be rewarded in kind.

It’s also worth noting that by doing better work you feel better about yourself, your perception of your own self-worth increases and so does your ability to provide value in other aspects of your life. It’s really a cyclical thing. It feels good to provide value and that feeling begets more of the same activity.

A few resources you might read to get an even better grasp on the subject I’ve added in the links below, so please give those a click!

If you found value in this post, I’d really love it if you hit that “recommend” button below!

Many thanks!