I’ve been having some conversations with clients about how much money we earn in the entrepreneurial space, about comparing ourselves to others, and about feeling not great because of the comparison.
It’s easy to start wondering why we're not earning as much money as everybody else seems to be earning and looking around at lots of people, lots of coaches talking about giving you the steps to earning the next six seven, or even sometimes eight figures in your business.
And I felt that sometimes this supports our self-limiting beliefs, that we're not good enough, that our business isn't successful, that it's only a small business, that we're not earning enough money.
If you're feeling a little bit discouraged about what's going on and why you aren't bringing in loads and loads of money and all the bacon, then I’m here to tell you about the reality of what's happening here.
I want to share statistics with you from the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Only 1% of UK taxpayers earn over £160,000. And most of that 1% that earned over £160,000 are male, middle-aged, and live in London. So that's just 310,000 people that earn over £160,000 in the entirety of the UK.
Of working-age adults, 43% of people don't even earn enough to pay tax. That's almost half of the UK don't earn enough money to pay tax in the UK.
So what are the average self-employed women in the UK earning? Well the average self-employed woman in the UK earned £243 a week. If you're earning more than £243 a week, you were above the average for self-employed women in the UK. And if we look at that over a month, that's £972 a month. The average self-employed man in the UK earns £363 a week.
If you're earning more than £1000 a month from your business, you are above the average. When we start putting it into context, and we start getting some reality and clarity on what's actually happening in the UK, it makes us feel a little bit more confident about the money that we're earning.
I've been looking at how much money I've been earning this year within COVID to let you know. In my best month I earnt £9,328 which is almost at that kind of six-figure salary. But in my worst month, I earnt £2,234.
And it's really interesting because a client that I was talking to was looking at me thinking that I was earning £20k every month. She looked at my watch. She looked at my Instagram, and she felt like I was so much better than her and why isn't she earning as much money as me.
But the thing is, unless people actually come on Facebook or Instagram, or LinkedIn and say how much money they're earning, we don't know. And a lot of the time, we're benchmarking ourselves against success that isn't even there and doesn't exist. And I'm not saying that there aren't people out there in the entrepreneurial world that are earning six and seven figures, there're definitely are, but they are in the minority.
I don't want you to benchmark your version of success against the minority. Let's benchmark our success against what's actually happening, the median figure, that average of £1000 a month that UK female entrepreneurs are bringing into our businesses. And if we start looking at that, then it starts to make ourselves feel more confident. Your business starts feeling like a viable entity. You start holding yourself up a bit higher. You start feeling a little bit more confident about what you're doing in your business.
Remember, money doesn't necessarily make us happy. There's been all sorts of studies about how much money makes us happy and where that kind of cutoff is. I think it's worthwhile thinking if we've got these goals to earn six or seven figures and we're pushing towards them without really thinking about, "Well, what do I want from life? What does my version of success look like to me? Am I adding value to my clients?" They're the things that we want to be focusing on, not just a cold, hard cash figure. We want businesses that give us joy, that lights us up, that get us to do our best work with the best people.
All of the science says that once we get to earning around £70k or £80k, we're getting happier and happier and we're able to relax a bit more. We can pay our bills. We don't have to worry about the mortgage. But once we get past that figure, our happiness starts plateauing. We don't actually get any happier.
My question to you is: what's it all for? I love having a good mindset. I love feeling abundant. I love manifesting stuff, but I want it to be in reality. I want you to set it in reality for you and think about what that figure actually does for you.
Remember too, if you're really early in your business journey, don't benchmark yourself against people who have been doing it for six and seven years. You're just not there yet. Try and bring down the Instagram expectations and understand what is actually happening in the UK, and create a business that gives you your version of success. And that can't just be linked to money.
Have you read my blog about why imposter syndrome is so common? Check it out here.
