As professionals, the salary we make is so often closely associated with our sense of value and self-worth.

If you are one of the many professionals that feel overworked and underpaid, figuring out how to bridge that gap between where you are now and where you KNOW you should be can be both scary and daunting.

But deciding to honor a well deserved salary increase also gives you the opportunity to feel more confident and satisfied in your career!

When you take that step in acknowledging your value, it produces an interesting effect as you call to action the people and things around you to support your moving forward!

Sound a little “woo-woo?” It’s actually just common sense and the result of exercising of your own initiative.

Here are 7 tips to get you quickly moving forward to securing a bigger salary:

Tip #1 Quick…write out 30 benefits you bring to your position

To achieve your salary increase, you may have to change companies.  You may be surprised to find, though, that your current company may be willing to promote you or to offer you more salary.

Either way, to make your case you are going to have to demonstrate (and fully believe) the 30 benefits you bring to your current position right now.

Benefits are not what you do, but what you bring to your position. Notice that when most people begin to update their resume, they will only include a laundry list of current position “duties,” without explaining what happens when they do what they do!

Benefits show why a company should hire you, promote you or give you a raise.

Tip #2 Keep adding to your list

Most professionals are just so busy they don’t even think about the benefits they bring to a company.

Keep adding to your list because the more that YOU focus on clearly knowing and understanding the value you bring to a company, the more natural it will be for you to confidently see precisely WHY you should be commanding a higher salary!

Tip #3 Create a value statement that distinguishes your work

Can you describe your brilliance in just one sentence? My tagline is “Masterpiece marketing strategies to focus on, find and win YOUR dream job!”  

It’s a crystal clear and confident message that captures the attention of professionals needing resumes and coaching services!

So, what is your tagline?

Tip #4 Own your increase!

Most companies WILL respect your new salary parameters. Of course, your parameters are not, for the most part, 50 times what you are making now (though, I have seen some enormous salary increases!).

Yes, defining and accepting and then ASKING for a higher salary can seem daunting at first, but after you fully accept you are worth it, I promise you that the confidence you’ll feel will be contagious!

Tip #5 ASK for more

Generally, we put more value on things that “cost” more. So when you ask for what you are really worth, you will find yourself attracting the exact type of position or company that resonates with your new shift in perception. This is not any special law of attraction – this is simply exploring and defining a new belief and putting that new belief into motion.

If you are questioned in an interview about the salary you want (compared to the one you currently have) there are several great responses readily available in most job interview and negotiating books. I personally recommend Jack Chapman’s “Negotiating Your Salary: How to Make $1000 a Minute.”

Tip #6 Do what you love, ditch what you don’t

Focusing your time and energy on a position that you love but a company you don’t is a big red flag that should inspire you to look for a company more in line with your professional goals and philosophies.

Likewise, if you feel stuck in your position, but you truly respect and enjoy your company, then it is time to reassess your current role. Part of valuing yourself (via a salary increase) is honoring those urges to shift your focus to more harmonious environments. You also honor your co-workers AND your company when you do this.

Tip #7 Making a choice to increase your salary is life-changing

You will feel a surge of confidence when you begin to take control of your career and its direction – including how much money you make.

The newfound confidence this will give you will serve you in multiple ways, including a continuation of new goals and boundaries you can create in order to give yourself a platform to rise to the fullness of your professional potential.

Most professionals that work for someone else believe they have little control over these matters. However, once you begin to understand that YOU are truly much more in control of your current circumstances than perhaps you once thought, you will start a positive chain reaction that can not only help, but also open doors to more work satisfaction, more potential to succeed and more money.