Let's talk about your Income

 

Let’s talk about your Income

What exactly is employment income? First off, most employees would say it is their salary, wages or pay they get for doing a task, a job or professional assignment given by an employer. This is certainly not wrong. It is part of it, but what would you say if I told you that it is far from all of it.

Let’s start by de-constructing the word IN-COME. From the employees point of view “in” amounts to everything that is availed and is accessible to them during the term of employment. The word “come” has a connotation of anticipation and guaranteed expectation. In the case of a wages, it is a routine event like the time of day or “pay-day”. The employee expects that on the 30^th day of the month, they will be paid a wage. The fact that wages are routinely available, regular and expected inflows means they can be planned for, budgeted, projected and even cashed out in advance as capital value. This regularity allows banks to secure employee loans and cash out on employee capital (wages) in advance. But cash is not the only element that flows to the employee.

Other incomes that flow to the employee include; experience, expertise, exposure and no small amount of business and enterprise education, from peers, the boss, the market and customer engagement. The other inflows that come with income are insurance, an occupation, training, meals, transport and other valuable inflows that would not be available to the employee had not been hired. A shrewd employee does not just count his income as cash, but as all the material value, plus social and economic capital he can be able to walk away from his employer. Notice, just like a lending institution takes your salary as a security and surety for a loan, if you do not take full advantage of, and plan for the use of your earned capital made available to you on the job, others will freely enjoy the benefits of your work.

The lesson here is that income; earned material and socio-economic capital, should be carefully planned for and not carelessly dispensed otherwise it is possible to earn an income for the length of the contract and never accrue any capital for your personal development. Let me take a stab at using financial terminology and say that your net worth should increase with every salary you earn otherwise you are wasting your income and capital resources.  

 Allan Bukusi is the author of ; How to Prosper in Employment and writer of the series of articles under the theme; 2026: Year of the African Employee challenging employees to prioritize creating personal wealth early in their careers.

Dear Employee; Please think like an entrepreneur

 

Dear Employee; Please think like an entrepreneur

But why should an employee think like an entrepreneur? Is that not the employers job? Well I suppose that is true. But suppose the employee actually learns to think like an entrepreneur is there any chance that they might just become an employer as well? I think the possibilities in this line of thinking are endless, but far from worthless. So let’s discuss why the African employee is ideally positioned to think like an entrepreneur and become an employer!

First the employee works in an enterprise. That makes him part of the enterprise. And, if you get my meaning, anyone joining an enterprise must be an entrepreneur otherwise they will not survive in the enterprise. If you join a football team, I would expect that you would know a thing or two about football. If you take a keen interest in the game and listen carefully to your coach, one day you could start your own team. Even if it is in the little leagues. What I am saying is that all employees are exposed to enterprise in employment. Every employee has an opportunity to learn as much as they want about how the game of enterprise is played. Sadly, many employees leave employment without a clue of how or what it takes to run a business. The best place to learn enterprise is not in an MBA class. It is in enterprise! On the job! Best of all ,as an employee you get paid to learn. Which brings me to my second, may be third point.

Employees get paid to do the business of the employer. Now that is not a very hard statement to interpret. It means the employer is making use of the employee’s entrepreneurial skills to get his (employer) work done. Before we go on let me state as a matter of fact that, THERE IS NO ROBBERY IN THAT. You (the employee) are paid an agreed wage in exchange for your contribution to the enterprise. There is no shame in that. But that, in my books, also makes you an entrepreneur. It is just that you may never really have stopped to think like one. You may have gone about your job so routinely and passionately that you have never stopped to consider that your job is in fact an enterprise. If you do it well, you earn a business income. Do it poorly and you get fired. Isn’t that what entrepreneurs and employers do. Employers do not accommodate poor or ghost workers in their enterprise. They only hire productive entrepreneurs. Allow me to be cheeky here and mention that some employees work so poorly that they would never hire themselves to do any work for them. Now that you are beginning to think like an entrepreneur let’s consider my fourth or next point; thinking like an entrepreneur.

So what does it mean to think like an entrepreneur and what are its benefits? This will require a little imagination. Something all employees have otherwise they would not be employed. Supposing we considered your job as an enterprise that is part of the employer’s larger enterprise. And that you have employed yourself to do that job. To do that job well you have to think like an entrepreneur. In other words, you employ yourself to do the job. As an employer you will only pay wages for a job is well done. As an entrepreneur you will demand that the job earns you an income and makes you a profit which you take home to invest on your own small enterprise. With time you could be able to leave the job and grow your own enterprise using some of the core knowledge and skills you learned from your employer. I have lost count of my numbered points, but I think you get the message.

By dispelling the viral myth that employees are one type of people breed and employers are another, we have come to the understanding that the only difference between an employee and employer is that one is expected to think like an entrepreneur, while the other, more often than not, does not care to learn from the best, nor think that way at all. By the way I have invented nothing new in this essay. You, the employee, provided me all the material I needed to put it all together. I think that is enterprise. Next, I think lets talk about income... And if you like these series let me know what else you would like me to talk about.

 

Allan Bukusi is the author of ; How to Prosper in Employment and writer of the series of articles under the theme; 2026: Year of the African Employee challenging employees to prioritize creating personal wealth early in their careers.

 

Never send a poor man

 

Never send a poor man to buy you anything. He will buy you poor things. Never send a rich man to buy you anything. He will buy you rich things.

Changing the employee consumer Mindset!

 

Changing the Employee consumer mindset

In 2026, the Year of the African Employee, I plan to share some thoughts to re-direct the destiny of the African employee, making him, and her, understand the transformative power they have to change their own circumstances and uplift the wellbeing of society. In this article we discuss “Changing the employee mindset”

What mindset?

Most employees look for jobs to earn an income. At the core of that search is a conscious or subconscious wish list of delightful wants. Wants like a comfortable house, a top of the range car, the latest phone technology and other the trappings of the benefits attached to high value positions in corporations that project a successful career. These are not bad things. However, notice the emphasis on the adjectives attached to each item on the dream list. Words like comfortable, new, latest and benefits… are words that drive the core of consumption. Consumers look for the best deal and do not mind paying a premium price to stand out on the top end of society. The driving force of the employee for employment is therefore not personal development, advancement or wealth creation. Rather, it is luxury, privilege and imagery. These are consumer forces that prey on employee income.

Why the mindset need to change

The net effect of this mindset is that employee work to seek acquire and enjoy these privileges that they have access to in employment. However, the employee is not spared of basic expectations of social responsibility that also command attention. Which means that the average employee must fulfil basic family, and in Africa, extended family obligations alongside seeking to enjoy the comforts he is able to afford because of enjoying the privilege of employment. In other words, the while the employee meets the basic needs of family, all additional (disposable) income goes to fund comfort and luxury. Unfortunately, this balance is sometimes revered where incomes first fund the dream list before creating family wealth foundations. This means that the employee loses out on opportunities to save money, accumulate personal capital and create wealth with part of his available income. If the employee mindset changed, he would be able to Save and invest more of his monthly income to create personal assets and wealth creating enterprises with his income.   

The transformative impact of a new mindset

It is arguable that one should be allowed to enjoy the benefits of employment the way they wish. But by that same argument, there should be no regret or recrimination when leaving employment with nothing to show for all the capital (income) that has passed through an employee’s hands. It is also true that employment in Africa has long been sold as the epitome of social relevance and success. This too is not a bad thing because it motivates people to seek jobs. But going by the number of unemployed persons, employment is in itself a massive privilege that should have a transformative impact on the employee and wider society. Seeking employment as a career end game is insufficient fuel for personal development, wealth creation and social transformation. The employee has the opportunity and power to return wealth to society and shift Africa’s economic dynamics from a poor to wealthy society. This however, requires an employee mind shift to think like an entrepreneur – I think this the next topic I shall discuss on this forum.

 

Allan Bukusi is the author of the book; How to Prosper in Employment and creator of the Employee Empowerment Seminar, a ninety-minute motivational presentation challenging employees to prioritize creating personal wealth early in their careers.

A Philosophy of Life

 

There are those who are called to Enjoy. Others are called to Suffer. Let those who Enjoy not look down on those who Suffer. And let those who Suffer not despise those who Enjoy.

Allan Bukusi