I was reading an article on NPR about the state of women in the financial industry.

The person interviewed was Sallie Krawcheck, the former president of global wealth and investment management for Bank of America. When asked about negotiating salaries, bonuses and pay raises, Sallie had this to say…

“What I’ve found over time is that when it would come to bonus time or raise time, I would hear from the gentlemen, “I want to make X.” Say we’ve got two employees, Joe and Joanne. They’re both set to make $5 in bonus. Joe comes into my office and says, “Hey Sallie, I’ve had a great year, I’d like to make $10 this year.”

After Joe leaves, I call the head of HR, and we sort of say, “Can you believe this? Joe wants to make $10, he’s in for $5, ha ha ha.” But, we don’t want to lose him. So we put him in for $7. And that means Joanne isn’t going to get the $5 we had planned. She’s going to get $3. Because the bonus pool doesn’t go up. She sees her bonus actually reduced.”

The Bible is quite clear that we need to ask. In Matthew 7:7, it states:

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” (English Standard Version)

Women tend not to ask because they fear losing their job or fear being ostracised by their co-workers. However, the opposite is true. If you do not ask for a pay raise, a higher bonus or an increase in salary, you don’t get to design the lifestyle you want to live.

This applies to entrepreneurs and business owners as well. If you fail to increase your fees and raise your rates, you’ll find that clients and cashflow are harder to get.

My advice is to target the fear. Identify why you’re afraid to boldly ask for a pay raise. Write down your fears, then ask God to help you release this. If you don’t tackle the fear, you’ll continue to make excuses as to why you can’t ask. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.

In Mistake #7 of my bestselling book, Unleash the Flow of Money, I include an exercise to help you develop strength around asking for a pay raise. It’s called the Money Harmony Breakthrough Exercise and it a five step process to help you reclaim money you’re owed, ask for a higher bonus or pay raise and raise your prices. Click here to get a copy of the book.