Job Security! Everyone wants job security right?

I used to think this way myself a long time ago. I eventually went to work for myself because I want to be the one who makes the decisions. However, owning your own business and working for yourself isn’t for everyone. Some of us just want a good job that pays well, and that’s okay.

There’s a few things you can do to become irreplaceable, as well as make more money in your career. I didn’t honestly discover the importance of these things until I went to work for myself. If I’d have payed closer attention when I was younger it’s hard to say what could have happened. I’m still glad I chose the entrepreneur route though.

You see, the key to becoming irreplaceable to a business is skillsets. The more value adding skill sets you can acquire, the more opportunities you can provide the business to make money, and if they can make more money, so can you. Wherever you’re at in your career right now. Always try to gain a new skill that the business can leverage to their advantage.

So, how can this relate to you better? It’s rather simple really.

• Construction Worker – Let’s say you work in construction and the company you work for does a variety of different services. They do hardscapes, landscaping, roofing, decking, and basically the whole 9. One thing you can do in this industry is become the jack of all trades. If you can hang drywall, operate heavy machinery, lay brick, and put on a roof, chances are that makes you more valuable to the company than the guy who only knows how to frame up walls and paint. It would be wise to learn how to weld, get important licenses, and develop some management skills. All of these things make you more valuable to the company because that company now has the ability to offer services that they might not have been able to before. Electrical work for example takes a license to perform. If you become the first or only person in the company to acquire the license, you become more valuable to the company. They are now able to sell more jobs and make more revenue, and it’s because of you. You just gained more Job Security, and you can ask for a raise.

Related: 4 Vital Leadership Traits That Inspire Action & Build Loyalty

• Textiles Worker – Work in a company that manufactures things or sells things online? Maybe you’re in the shipping department, customer service, marketing, whatever. If you want Job Security in an industry like this the same concept applies. You need to acquire skills that can make the business more money. If the business sells things online chances are they need social media management, advertising and marketing, content creation, etc. These are skills you could learn and bring to the table to help them make more money. Again, if you can make the business more money, rather than facilitate what’s already sold, it’s only logical that you can make more money too. Without you, they wouldn’t have been able to grow. If you know how to handle marketing, shipping, product making, customer service, etc. You increase your Job Security and value to the company effectively making you irreplaceable.

But can’t they just hire someone else?

Sure, they could certainly do that. The challenge becomes finding the jack of all trades that they can actually afford. You see, people that spend years of their life gaining tons of skills tend to understand that that makes them more valuable than your average joe, and because of this they know they can charge a company more to employ them. Most small business owners can’t afford to pay for a jack of all trades out of the box. That’s why they hire for individual positions at lower wages and try to train people up along the way.

Sometimes they don’t train people up at all. Sometimes they just want you to do that one job. That’s when you have to take it upon yourself to go get new skills. You may be fortunate and work for a company that likes to send their employees to special schools and classes, but not all of them do that.

Large companies where money isn’t typically an obstacle are where these jacks of all trades end up. If not here then they usually end up taking those skills to create a business of their own.

There is an old saying “Jack of all trades, master of none”, and this is definitely something you want to keep in mind as you’re growing. Just because you might know how to do a lot of things doesn’t mean you know how to do them well. It’s the people who learn a lot of things and become great at them that make the most money and hold the most value to a company. Attention to detail is critical, so don’t mistake becoming the jack of all trades as someone who just knows a bunch of stuff.

You must be great at what you do.

For me as an entrepreneur the way I gained all of my skillsets was through experience. When I started my businesses I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I didn’t know how to make videos, operate a camera, manage facebook ads, build a website, be a salesman, or anything. The nature of the path I took forced me to grow and learn new things. It forced me deep into the un-comfort zone.

Over the years I got really good at doing all of these things. Now i’m able to use these skills if I wanted to work for someone else in the future, and i’m able to make more money in the process because there’s very few people out there who can do all the things I can do and do them right.

I say all this to say you can take this same concept and apply it to whatever industry you’re in. If you want to have Job Security learn how to work every position the company offers, and learn how to become the best at it. That’s the best Job Security I know, and the natural byproduct of doing this is that you can earn more money.