Glen James's advanced income quadrant

If increasing your income is a goal for you this year, check out Glen’s advanced income quadrant!

If you’re looking to increase your income and beat market forces, but not through the typical pay rise in a salary based job, then Glen James’s advanced income quadrant is a handy model to understand your options. Here’s the episode on my millennial career where Shell and Glen explain how this all works:

There are four main ways to achieve this increase, and these can lead to essentially uncapped salary if done successfully:

become a manager of people and/or process
be in sales
become a specialist
become a business owner

Each of these options require varying degrees of human-based skills. You may choose one or more of these options to target for your own situation - Glen has successfully ticked all 4 quadrants! Read below to understand how each part of the quadrant works.

Glen’s advanced income quadrant

How to understand Glen’s advanced income quadrant

First up, all four quadrants take into consideration that you are skilled up and already qualified in the area you work in - so look into setting out on these options when you are skilled and ready! Beyond that, here is a description of what each part of the quadrant involves, and a quick look at the pros and cons:

become a manager of people and/or process

Teams of employees need to be led by great leaders - managers who can set up teams, flows, processes and procedures that help everyone work better, more effectively and efficiently. These people are golden! Businesses need them and want them to ensure the business continues to do better and better, without necessarily expanding or costing more money. But be warned - you’ll be dealing with people and human behaviour! If the idea of that bothers you, then this may not be the best option for you.

2. be in sales

Working in a sales role typically means you have the option to receive a regular salary, and top it up with sales based commissions. Being directly linked with business revenue, you have the potential to cash in on the top performance of the business you work for. The downside of this is when sales are slow, so is your commission - you need to be on the ball and working hard for those top sales!

3. be a specialist

Becoming a specialist essentially means you have the potential to set your price! By niching down into a corner where there aren’t many professionals, you’ll become sought after and there won’t be a pay template or structure to determine your income. So, tell them how much your services cost and go for it! The con to this though is your skill may become so niche, it becomes irrelevant. Keep ahead of industry trends and ensure there’s going to be work for you in the future!

4. be a business owner

This one is pretty self explanatory, but by being a business owner you again have the ability to cash in on the top performance of your business! But there are risks involved - everything comes back to you and the choices you make to keep the business running and growing.