Boost Your Income, 2

 

Vocabulary

income	significant	occupation (2)
diminish	fulfillment	responsibility
profit	generate	copywriting
CEO	generalist	bottom line
role	complete	accounting
share	compete	administration
profit	corporate	entry-level
clerk	legal (2)	private (2)
salary	out-earn	counterpart
tough	apply (2)	a cut of the action
pool (2)	potential	times get tough
require	category	correspond

 
 
 
 
Adapted from Michael Ford

Three Kinds of Jobs

In any private company, there are basically three kinds of occupations in the workplace: administrative, technical, and profit-generating.

1. Administrative jobs include most positions in corporate management, product fulfillment, operations, and customer service, as well as some positions in finance and accounting.

2. Technical jobs include most positions in engineering, computers, technology, and some legal, financial, and accounting positions.

3. Profit-generating jobs are those that are directly involved in producing profits for the company. Profit generators include marketers, salespeople, copywriters, people who create new products, and the people who manage all of these employees.

The leading profit generator is usually the CEO, whose main job is to deliver a bottom line.

Administrative Workers

Administrative workers, on the average, are the poorest-paid group. Generalists by training, roles and responsibilities, they compete against a large pool of other generalists in jobs that require no special skills or talents.

As an administrator, and a very good one, you can expect to see your income rise as your performance improves. But, typically, it will be at the 4% or 6% level — probably not enough to meet your wealth-building goals.

Technical Workers

Technical workers are usually better paid than their administrator counterparts. This is especially true at the beginning of their careers, when even an entry-level position requires a high degree of specialized knowledge and skills.

Engineers, IT specialists, technicians, and certified public accountants frequently start at higher salaries than do fulfillment managers and customer service clerks . . . but the difference tends to diminish over time. Top engineers often make more than operational vice presidents, but not much more.

Profit-Generators

Profit-generators are usually the highest-paid employees. Not only do they bring in a significantly higher salary than technical and administrative positions, they also earn more than most professionals (including doctors, lawyers, dentists, etc.).

More importantly, they have the greatest potential for income growth. The biggest advantage of profit-generating jobs is that they give you a chance to share in the profits. Getting a “cut of the action” is, far and away, the fastest way to a monster income.

Profit-Generating Jobs

So, which exactly are the profit-generating jobs? They fall into only four categories:

• Sales
• Marketing
• Product Development
• Managing Profits

Of course, salespeople, new-product makers, marketers, and profit managers aren’t the only people needed in business; they are however, the ones who help businesses grow and produce profits the most.

All other employees — including the most valuable engineers, lawyers and accountants — are considered “expenses” . . . especially when times get tough.

Profit producers are, by definition, invaluable employees. That’s why they out-earn their equally well-educated, skilled and hardworking counterparts.

Step Two

Step Two: Applying Your Skill to the Company’s Profit Stream

To make the transition from good to valuable, you must learn a financially valued skill and begin applying it to help your company produce profits.

What are the financially valued skills?

There are four, corresponding to the four profit-producing job categories:

• Selling
• Marketing
• Creating new products
• Managing profits
 
To be continued . . .
 
 

Questions

1. According to the text, all jobs can fall into three categories. True or false? What are the categories?

2. Give examples of each category. Where do people with administrative jobs tend to work? Where do skilled employees work? What about profit-generators?

3. Do they differ in terms of education, training, skills and qualifications? How do they differ?

4. Employees in all three categories tend to earn the same amount of money. Is this right or wrong?

5. Are engineering and IT are the most “difficult” jobs to perform?

6. Which are the most “valuable”? Why are they valuable?

7. Do you know the exact titles, jobs, duties, tasks, roles and responsibilities of all profit-generators?

 

A. Can you categorize all the employees and job titles in your company or organization?

B. Which jobs are the most “difficult”?

C. Who earns the most? Who earns an average amount? Who earns the least?

D. Would it be possible for you to earn $100,000 a year in your company?