How Do You Know Whether A Company Can Afford Your Desired Salary

How Do You Know Whether A Company Can Afford Your Desired Salary â€" Reader Question When you are negotiating in your desired salary, it helps to know that you just and your prospective employer are even in the identical ballpark. In my recent Forbes publish, I shared tips on the way to avoid a lowball wage, and one of these is to avoid firms whose salary expectations are unrealistically low. But how do you know whether a company can afford you? Here are 5 steps to take at the very beginning of your interactions with a prospect, so that you don’t waste time on a company that isn’t ready or willing to pay you what you’re price: Check your salary expectations towards the overall market You are responsible for making an affordable salary request. Reasonable doesn’t mean average. If you could have a rare skill set, unique experience or special expertise, then you warrant an above-common wage. But you possibly can’t expect to negotiate compensation too far out of the norms on your trade, geography and size of firm. Use wage sites, corresponding to Payscale.com, GetRaised.com and Guidestar.org (with Form 990 data for non-income) to get a sense for market rates. Talk to recruiters and have a look at salary surveys from skilled associations for added market data. Check wage websites on your target company In addition to knowing the final market for your position, you need to have a look at your target company and their pay history. Use sites like Glassdoor.com which rate specific corporations. If you’re a member of a professional association see if you can submit a question to the group asking about specific firms (name a number of should you don’t need to single out your goal). You wish to know if the company tends to pay at, under or above market. See if yow will discover out something about how hard they negotiate â€" maybe they have an inclination to lowball but come up ultimately. Look at the company’s total monetary prospects A company could also be willing to pay however will not be able if they’re not doing nicely. You wish to research your goal firm’s financials, not just for salary negotiation, however to make sure your total job security! Look at revenues, market share, and growth over time. Look at press releases, firm bulletins, and business information for brand spanking new initiatives and any doubtlessly bad information (e.g., restructurings, office closings, products that aren’t selling). Talk to firm insiders The greatest information will come from talking to individuals who know the corporate. This includes previous and present associates of the corporate. By associates, of course I imply employees, however you can even get good information from consultants and other temps, distributors who sell to the company and clients that use the corporate. If you understand folks at opponents, they may have perception on how the corporate is doing. Recruiters who know the trade and better yet, who have worked specifically on assignments for the corporate, will know their present well being and pay me ntality. LinkedIn groups usually embrace teams which are devoted to alumni of particular companies, and this might be a good way to seek out folks Review your impression of the company so far Finally, what does your expertise so far with the corporate counsel about their willingness and ability to pay you? Have they asked about your compensation historical past or expectations? Have they shared specific details on your function, assets that would be available to you, any price range or P&L you would manage? If the company is already speaking numbers, even if they haven’t yet shared their wage target, then a minimum of you understand they're serious about you. Most corporations don’t interview simply to waste folks’s time. But should you’re unsure that the company can afford you (maybe your pay is above market) then as soon as you know they are severe, ask for their budget for this position. Vetting an organization’s ability and willingness to pay is one thing entrepreneurs and freelancers/ consultants must do as properly. Of course, you don’t want to begin speaking money if mutual curiosity hasn’t been established, however as soon as you're both clearly interested, if there is any doubt about affordability, talk money ahead of later. Our FREE job search mini-course is out there now! Register HERE to get the course delivered proper to your inbox.