Increase Your Pay by Wearing Your Financial Hat

As business owners we wear a lot of hats but some of them we tend to keep on the hat rack more than others. If you are like most of your peers, your financial hat is one that does not get much wear. It’s tough to compete with the operational hat because finances are not as much fun and definitely not cute and fluffy.

If you are happy with the size of your current paycheck then you get a pass for now on wearing your financial hat. However, if you want to increase the size of your paycheck, then you must spend more time in your financial hat.

No one else cares as much about the financial results of your business than you!

You are the one in control of the size of your paycheck. The first step to making a positive change is to get to know your numbers. Start slow and commit to spending one additional hour each week in your financial hat. Put that hour on your calendar now and honor it!

How do you decide what numbers to review? Start with your revenues from last month and answer the following questions:

• How much income did you get from each service?
• How many pets did you care for in each service?
• What was your revenue per pet in each service? (Divide total income by number of pets served)
• How does your revenue per pet compare to your full rate price charged for each service?

Many business owners are very surprised by difference between their calculated revenue per pet and their published rates. This is an important number to know in your business as it lets you know how much the discounts you offer clients impacted your profits.

Here’s an example:  Let’s say your rate for dog daycare is $25 per day, but you offer discounts for multiple pets and multi-day package purchases. Your calculated revenue per pet could be $21 which means, on average you gave $4 in discounts per dog.

That may not sound like much, but let’s look at it from a different perspective. How would you feel if you could increase the size of your paycheck by $1,200 per month?

By knowing your numbers you can make that happen easily. All you have to do is increase your revenue per dog by $2 (i.e., based on an average of 30 dogs per day in daycare five days per week).

You can raise your rate by $1 per dog and reduce the percentage of your discounts to get the other $1. The majority of your clients are not going to mind a dollar per visit increase. How would your life change with a $12,000 per year raise?

You may not be convinced that wearing your financial hat will be fun, but hopefully you do see how knowing your numbers can increase your paycheck. To help get you started check out our free bonus: Tailwagging Paychecks: 5 Steps to a Better Pet Care Business

Let us know as you find more ways to increase your pay.