Become more productive

Becoming more productive is the secret ingredient to earning more money. It is all about creating more value within the same amount of time. Let’s study the case of a pancake vendor who wishes to earn more money.

Our pancake vendor can simply make and sell more pancakes each day, so simply doing more work each day can earn you more money. This approach, however, has a limit. There are only a few hours each day when you can physically put in more work. Also, your energy is simply constrained beyond a certain amount, where you could burn out. But the point is that simply putting in more hours could earn you more money. However we can leverage other people’s time and also use technology to increase output. For example, the pancake vendor can hire more people to make and sell more pancakes. He can also invest in bigger saucepans and fryers to make pancakes faster.

Our pancake vendor can improve the quality of his pancakes and raise prices. He can improve the flavor, size, texture, shelf life, packaging, etc. So, for the same amount of work, the pancake vendor can dramatically increase his earnings. We can also do the same with our careers. Improving the quality of our work can earn more cash. Now, if we combine improved quality with hard work, we can start to generate loads of cash. We can improve the quality of our work by being more creative, using technology, and learning more.

The pancake vendor can also decide to make cakes and other pastries. Nothing stops the pancake vendor from making cakes and other products. Delivering one cake a day may earn much more than making pancakes in two days. This is a dramatic improvement in productivity, which leads to more value. Higher-value work, combined with better quality and hard work, can really propel our careers. Of course, the pancake vendor needs to learn how to make and sell cakes. He may also need to invest in more equipment and hire new people who know how to make cakes.

Finally, our pancake vendor can decide to leave the tiny shop in Kawempe and set up an upscale outlet in Ntinda. This way, he taps into a larger market with higher disposable incomes. He comes to the market with a diverse offering of products of good quality and sufficient volumes.

We can clearly see how a pancake vendor can grow their earnings. He can do more work. He can do better quality work. He can do higher-value work. He can work for better employers. In all of this, his underlying objective is to become more productive by delivering more value to his customers. Herein lies the secret to earning more money in your career.