A friend of mine is stuck earning what I consider a relatively small salary – but the more I talk to him – the more it seems HE may be the main reason why he isn’t earning more. I have to wonder if he is subliminally limiting his earning potential.

Is your income being limited by YOU?

TIP => Make more money NOW.

Here are 13 signs you are limited your earning potential – whether through a salary or as a contractor.

1. You have never asked for a raise or raised your hourly rate.
2. When stating your price or salary, you offer a discount before the other party has a chance to respond.
3. You seek out lower-paying jobs and clients because higher-paying clients and jobs intimidate you.
4. For contractors, you have not tracked all the time your flat fee projects take, so you have no idea what hourly rate you’re actually earning.
5. You have negative ideas about people who earn a lot of money.
6. You spend time to keep a client happy on extras that you never promised – instead of offering them those extra services or products for additional cost. When clients or your boss asks for work that is clearly in addition to your job, instead of starting a discussion about expanding the budget, you accept the extra work.
7. You feel that if you made a lot more money, it would somehow change you – for the worse.
8. For contractors, your proposals are too vague and don’t specifically state what products or services you are going to deliver. When the client asks for more, you accept the work for no additional pay because you can’t point to a black and white list of deliverables that indicate the new request is “out of scope.” For employees, you happily do excessive work outside of your work description, especially the work of higher ups, for without discussing responsibilities with your boss.
9. You haven’t changed jobs in a very long time.
10. You don’t spend time focusing on what types of clients (for contractors) and skills (for employees) you need to make more money. You have no income growth strategy or plan.
11. If employed, you’ve never checked how your salary compares to others in a free national databse like Salary.com or Payscale.com. If you’re a contractor, you’ve never asked trusted friends who do similar work what their hourly rate or project rate is.
12. You’re not current in your industry:
    • You do not have a LinkedIn page, or yours is sorely out of date with no portfolio links to your work
    • You are not a member of any trade organizations or industry groups
    • You don’t subscribe to any trade pubs or e-newsletters
    • You do not attend continuing education seminars, trade conferences, or networking groups at least twice a year (total across all types).
13. You are content to make the same amount of money you made last year.

TIP => Bargain Babe’s surprising side hustle.

Why aren’t you making more money?