by Solange Lopes | Mar 8, 2018 | Make More Money
Many of us wonder how we can make more money without having to switch jobs, have a gazillion gigs, or sell our souls for that matter. Especially as working women, facing the glass ceiling is daunting enough without having to think about increasing our financial status right at our workplace. Yet, without the prospect of bettering our financial lives, our career, business and even lifestyle choices end up being very limited.
How many of us have thought about investing in a new business, buying a home, or putting our kids in private schools or extra-curricular activities, and have been limited by our bank balances? How many of us feel that we cannot pursue our passions, or take proper care of ourselves, because of money constraints?
While we may think that our financial status is limited to our job earnings, there actually are ways to make more money while at your job. It’s also important to keep in mind that increasing your financial worth at work doesn’t just have to be linked to your salary or pay. Basically, anything that can put money back in your pocket in the context of your work, whether it’s more vacation time, more flexibility, or even better health and work-life integration, counts. However, it takes more of a conscious effort to start thinking about and planning these in order to take advantage of these opportunities.
Here are 7 ways we can all make more money without leaving your job:
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Create more value in your work
Instead of feeling stuck at your current job, you have a choice. You can add more value to your work that makes you more marketable and increases your professional and business value. Don’t get caught into the vicious cycle of thinking that your current job determines your financial worth! The point here is to provide more than what is expected of you at your current level. If you’re not sure how you can do this, you may ask your manager and higher-ups. A good way to gauge how you can go above and beyond is to consider what is required of your next professional position or level, and start performing accordingly.
Take extra assignments, develop yourself, take classes, network more, learn an extra language, get a certification! These are only a few of the ways you can boost your professional value, and be in a position to ask for more, whether it’s money, time, or perks! As long as your presence at your job creates more value for your company, your financial worth is bound to go up!
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Score those promotions and raises
In line with creating more value, you can also increase your financial worth at work by scoring promotions and raises you rightfully deserve. It starts with performing at a higher level than expected. However, you must also be willing to ask for what you deserve.
As working women, we’re often afraid to negotiate for the salaries we deserve, or even the appropriate compensation package for us. With the advent of the new law that bars employers from asking about salaries in some states, it is easier for women to negotiate higher salaries with less pressure.
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Don’t be afraid to start that side hustle
Got an idea, a passion or hobby that you could turn into a side hustle? Why not start it? Many successful and very profitable businesses were started this way. It could be as easy as starting a blog you could monetize, or teaching classes at your local gym.
You can even use your current credentials to do business on the side, as long as it doesn’t infringe on your current job. Make sure to check in your company’s policies and procedures first. As a CPA, I started helping people with taxes and accounting matters, for instance.
This is a great way to make more money, without the pressure of having to find another job or taking a significant financial risk.
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Pay off that debt
Paying off your debt is one of the most powerful ways to increase your financial worth. Without even realizing it, you may be flushing your entire financial capital into simply paying interest. Not only are you putting extra money back into credit card companies’ pockets, but you are also not reducing whatever amount you owe.
By committing to, and working on, paying off your debt, you’re actually keeping more of your money. This in turn increases your financial balance. Additionally, you’re improving your credit score, which in turn gives you access to better credit deals on essentials such as mortgages, car payments, etc. All of this without leaving your cubicle or office…
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Save, save, save!
Repeat after me: “It’s not about how much money I make, it’s about how much money I keep!” Saving money is a surefire way of making more of it, without having to wave good-bye to your current occupation. Your job may actually be allowing you to save more, through its 401k programs, its health benefits and incentives, or other savings programs it may offer.
Saving on costs associated with your job, such as commuting expenses (why not carpool?), food expenses (bring your own lunch), or clothing costs (become a savvier shopper), can also help. At the end of the day, the less you have coming out of your take-home pay, the more money you’re actually making!
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Give more!
This may sound counter-intuitive, but giving money can help you make more money. Not only are you able to deduct any donations to qualifying charities, but you can also use what I like to call the “spiritual karma” of giving. Some of the wealthiest men and women in the world practice giving, whether through tithing, charity donations, or other forms of financial support.
Consider dedicating a portion of your earnings to causes, businesses or people you believe in. It goes a long way towards multiplying what you already have.
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Ask for more flexibility
As working women, flexibility is key to achieve our goals and dreams. As such, it is putting money back in our pockets in some way. Having the flexibility to work from home, for instance, allows us to save money on childcare.
Consider asking for more flexibility as a way to increase your financial worth at work. You will soon realize how much money it can help you save in the long run.
In what other ways do you save money without leaving your job?
To Your Success,
The Corporate Sister.
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by Solange Lopes | Mar 7, 2018 | Career |
There is no doubt that mentorship is invaluable for working women. As a matter of fact, it’s good for everyone, especially considering that not only can it provide working women with the appropriate resources, tools, and networking opportunities to thrive at work; but it also grants them access to rooms that would otherwise be closed off to them. However, finding a mentor, and finding the right mentor at that, can be challenging for women.
In light of the recent #MeToo movement, an increasing number of men are admitting to being uncomfortable mentoring women. This adds to the pressure that many women face, as mentorship has been traditionally reserved to men. Not to mention the false view that there can only be so many women at the top.
I know as a woman of color at work, finding the right mentors has been a valuable learning experience. I’ve definitely taken away some precious lessons from it, which have changed my perspective when it comes to mentoring for women.
If you’re looking for the right mentor for you as a working woman, here are 7 steps you may want to consider:
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Get clear on your WHY
While you may be looking for a mentor to help you on your career path, it’s important to clarify what you need help with. Most likely, your potential mentor is a busy individual who only has a limited amount of time, energy and resources. In order to leverage these as efficiently as possible, you may want to get as clear as possibly as to why you need their help.
It starts with asking yourself what your career or business interests are. What drives you? What motivates you? What are your career and/or business goals? With a sense of where you are headed professionally or in business, it’s easier, and more rewarding, for a mentor to help you.
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Shop Around
There are many aspects to consider when looking for the right mentor for you. You can start with writing down a list of the people who inspire you professionally and in business, and whom you’d like to emulate. These may be people you identify with, or who may have a career or business path you aspire to.
Look around your team, department or organization to identify potential mentors. Ask your manager or co-workers for recommendations as to people who could serve you well as mentors. Yet, don’t limit yourself to your direct environment. You can scour platforms such as Linked In to identify individuals in industries or sectors you look to get into as well. Remember that you can have virtual as well as physical mentors. I didn’t meet one of my mentors until we were over a year into our relationship, as we live in two different states. It’s ok to have a long-distance mentor-mentee relationship.
In the same token, don’t discount the simple fact of following people who influence you as a great source of mentorship. You may not be able to get in touch with Oprah, but you can still be inspired by and learn from her.
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Pick selectively
Understand that picking a mentor is a serious decision that can have long-term impact. Hence, the need to selectively pick the best mentor for you. You may think that he/she is doing you a favor to serve as a resource to your career or business, which is true. However, being in a mentor-mentee relationship also requires you to be positively involved. As such, you don’t just want to pick someone you admire; but also someone you can trust, whose personality is compatible with yours, and who is also available.
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Refine your Ask
My very first mentor started our first meeting with this question: “What can I do for you?” At the time, I was unsure about what it meant to have a mentor. As you pick one, it will be crucial to refine your ask. This goes hand in hand with clarifying your why.
How can this mentor help you? What are you looking to learn from them? Which areas of your career or business are you looking for help in? What goals are you looking to achieve? These questions will help you narrow down your ask and identify areas that your mentor can help you in.
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Assess your compatibility
Picking the right mentor for you also means picking someone you can entertain a positive and fruitful relationship with. You will have to carefully assess whether your personalities are compatible, and you can actually communicate well.
While you may think that you may not necessarily have a say in picking a mentor, you actually do. Many companies will assign you a mentor, in which case your options may be limited. However, even in those instances, you may be able to diplomatically seek a different mentor.
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Know that it’s a give and take relationship
One of the biggest misconceptions about mentorship is that it’s a one-way relationship. Many are under the impression that it is solely the responsibility of the mentor to provide help, resources and assistance to the mentee.
However, as in any relationship, there has to be a flow and exchange of resources. As a mentee, you also have to provide the willingness, follow-through and accountability needed to make it a successful relationship. When in doubt, ask your mentor how you can positively contribute to your relationship and what their expectations are.
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Nurture the relationship
As mentioned earlier, mentorship is not just a professional exchange. It’s a personal relationship that requires frequent nurturing. As you find the right mentor for you, you also have to be prepared for regular meetings and frequent exchanges.
Entering this relationship with a clear intent of nurturing it will help you connect with the best mentors for you.
How did you find the right mentor for you?
To Your Success,
The Corporate Sis.
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by Solange Lopes | Mar 6, 2018 | Make More Money
Having a solid and reliable budget is considered to be a financial must-have. However, it also requires to have a certain level of discipline, as well as time to keep track of several expense streams. When you’re a busy working woman looking for extra hours in the day, managing a budget may not exactly rank high on your list of favorite things to do.
Don’t get me wrong, budgeting works extremely well for many people. However, for others, it may feel like getting ready for a root canal. When you work hard for pretty much everything in your life, sometimes the last thing you want to do is work harder at your budget.
Even as an accountant by trade, I never particularly enjoyed rigid and conventional budgets. I resented having to check my budget often and monitoring my expenses closely. Doing it for work was enough. I had no desire to do it for myself. Instead, I thought managing the money I worked hard for should be more enjoyable.
If you happen to be an extremely busy working woman who resents rigid budgets yet still want to keep on top of your finances, here are some realistic, and even fun, tips:
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Start with your non-negotiables
Whatever you do, begin your budgeting process with your non-negotiables. These include your rent or mortgage, basic living expenses, utilities, emergency savings, debt payment, and retirement. While many may not consider emergency savings and retirement as non-negotiables, they actually are and should be accounted for in priority. These can be paid right at the beginning of the month or automated for ease of processing.
Starting with these essential expenses allows to get critical expenses out of the way. This takes a massive weight out of the process, freeing up time and resources to focus on other pursuits. Whatever money you have left over can be used more flexibly.
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Think about what will help you accomplish your goals
Once your non-negotiables are taken care of, focusing on your future goals should be the next step. It’s also more fun to think about what you want to achieve with your money. Make a list of your financial goals, according to what’s important to YOU.
Some of your financial goals may include setting aside some money to travel or bolstering your emergency savings. You may also be considering investing as a way to generate extra income in the long-term and build wealth.
This will require you to delay gratification and instead focus on how long it will take to reach your goals. Based on this, you can make a commitment to devoting your funds to these.
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Distinguish between your wants and needs
You may not have the time, or even the desire to spend more time than necessary on your budget. However, even for a realistic and flexible budget, it’s important to make the difference between what you want and need.
This distinction will help you save time in making financial decisions, and reduce the need for adjusting or constantly checking on your budget.
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Make a list of what you enjoy spending money on
Last but not least, make a list of what you enjoy spending money on. This is the last part of building a flexible and fun budget. It’s also a motivating factor when budgeting your money. However, this doesn’t mean you should be wasting money. The point of it is to spend money on things and experiences that truly bring you joy.
You will also feel more comfortable doing this as you would have already taken care of your essential expenses, addressed your financial goals and distinguishing between your needs and wants.
In Conclusion
Yes, you need a budget to manage your finances efficiently and productively. However, you don’t have to abide by a complicated budgeting model that takes all the fun out of earning (and spending) money.
Instead, you can still take care of your essential expenses. You can also satisfy your goals and be more intentional as to your wants and needs, while still being able to use your money for your enjoyment.
Do you have a hard time sticking to your budget? How can you make your budget more realistic?
To Your Success,
The Corporate Sister.
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by Solange Lopes | Mar 5, 2018 | Find A Job You Love
“I’m paying it forward. A woman did it for me before, helping me and coaching me throughout my career. Now I’m doing it for other women and opening doors of opportunity for them.”
I was listening in awe, amazed at what I was hearing. I had reconnected with a dear friend of mine after years of being apart. There she was, sitting across from me, describing what she had committed to doing for other women at work.
As a manager, my friend’s commitment is to hire, coach and develop women in and outside of her team. As a result of doing this for years, she has drawn many women to her, who frequently seek her career, business and life advice. Her message is one of active empowerment, as she proactively engages with female talent to provide practical career and business help. One of her previous managers had done the same for her, and she was, as she put it so well, “paying it forward”.
When we think of paying it forward, the most common image that comes to mind is that of anonymously paying for coffee or groceries for the next person in line. What we don’t often think about is how much this concept could actually serve underserved women in organizations and businesses. Considering that many, if not most, career and business resources, tools and networks have been catering almost exclusively to men, it’s crucial for women to pass the baton and pay it forward.
Isolation and lack of connection to each other is one the most damaging obstacles to women’s success in and outside of work. There are many ways to pay it forward and help female talent succeed in the workplace and in business.
Here are 7 of my favorite ways that you can pay it forward in your career or business:
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Hire more women
Women managers and leaders have the opportunity to change the hiring and recruiting game by fostering increased gender diversity. As women, we know how we work, interact and connect best. This makes it easier for us to tap into the wealth of hidden potential that women represent for the workforce and in business.
If you are a female manager, leader or business owner, hiring more women also means opening the pipeline of female talent wider. While this is not intended to discriminate against our male counterparts, it’s a great opportunity to open doors that may have been closed before.
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Coach more women
One of the things my dear friend shared with me was her willingness to coach women in all aspects of their careers. This means being willing and able to serve as a resource for these women, as they progress at work or in business.
It can be done formally through a mentor-mentee relationship or through sponsorship. Yet, it may also be done on a larger and more informal basis as well.
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Speak to HR about inclusion and diversity in your team or department
You’d be surprised at Human Resources’ willingness to work with managers and leaders to improve recruiting, employee on-boarding and retention across most organizations. Reaching out to Human Resources to get support, or even simply share your desire to increase gender diversity can work wonders.
Consider the many ways in which it can benefit the organization, team or department, and share those with them.
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Mentor another woman
Mentorship is a powerful way to pay it forward and help other women at work succeed. While it may seem like a formal process, it really isn’t. It’s simply a matter of connecting with a woman who can tap into your experience, expertise and connections to progress professionally and in business. In turn, this woman can do the same for others as well.
Mentoring someone also creates a closer relationship, so it’s important to ensure that there is a certain level of compatibility. However, it’s one of the most effective ways to open the door to other women coming behind you.
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Sponsor another woman
While mentoring is all about serving as a resource to someone else, sponsorship goes a level beyond. As a sponsor, you would basically endorse someone else, in this case another woman. This also means that you would vouch for them, and actually place or recommend them for certain positions or opportunities.
It’s a more involved relationship that requires a higher level of trust and accountability than mentorship. Many women do need mentors, but are sorely lacking sponsors who can push them to the next level.
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Have an open door policy
Being available to help is a crucial factor in paying it forward for women at work. As working women, it may be challenging to find the time to give back. However, practicing an open-door policy is instrumental in allowing more women to get the help they need.
Many women are intimidated by women in power, whether at the organizational or institutional level. This fear is even more reinforced by the myth that there isn’t enough room for women to thrive at work. That’s where welcoming opportunities to help and pay it forward can make a world of difference.
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Teach other women to pay it forward
Last but not least, passing the baton when it comes to paying it forward for women at work, is vital. We’re not taught enough the importance of giving back to other women. Instead, popular culture and false corporate indoctrination has us believing that there are only a few seats for women at the table. For women of color at work, the situation is dramatically worse.
As such, it’s essential that we, as women, teach other women to pay it forward. From acting as mentors, to sponsoring other women, and sharing critical work skills, we owe it to ourselves to pass the torch.
How will you pay it forward as a woman at work?
To Your Success,
The Corporate Sister.
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by Solange Lopes | Feb 28, 2018 | Career
Our Workwear feature presents various pieces of work-appropriate attire at different price ranges and sizes.
Go from day to night in a cinch with this Brionne knitted dress from Boden. The fit and flare shape is perfect for the office, but can also get easily recycled with heels and a clutch for evening. The full skirt adds a classic touch, while the blue and green colors complement each other perfectly. It’s available from Boden in sizes 2 to 10, and is $190.
In a similar style, I also like this Eliza J belted fit-and-flare number from Nordstrom. This simple and flawless ECI dress is also a perfect alternative to go from desk to dinner.
See below for a few alternatives in similar styles:
What pieces of workwear would you like us to feature? Email us at corporate@thecorporatesister.com!
This post contains affiliate links and The Corporate Sister may earn commissions for purchases through links in this post. Thank you!
To Your Success,
The Corporate Sis.
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