💃 Can Salesforce Professionals Be Millionaires?🕺

Good morning, Salesforce Nerd! Can you get rich as a Salesforce professional?

We’re not talking - own an island, go to space, or buy an iconic magazine brand - level of rich.

We’re talking “reasonable rich” - $10s of millions in the bank, never have to work again, order Doordash for every meal kinda rich 🤑.

Here’s what getting rich in Salesforce could look like 👇

BASELINE

Average Salesforce Salaries

An experienced Salesforce Admin salary is about $100,000 according ZipRecruiter and Glassdoor.

Developers are making $120,000. Technical Architects are making about $180,000 and many are up to $200,000+ according to the same sources.

_{Note - the chart is 0% return on your savings. A “safe” rate of return is 6% per year, which would halve the path to $1 million for the $100k earner, and shave off years for the other incomes too. The power of compounding!}

Assuming you’re an admin who saved 20% of your gross salary, you’d hit that first million at 50yrs of service 😭.

So this is not a viable path to get to an 8-digit net worth 🙅.

Even as an Architect at a $180,000 salary, your first million is at 20yrs+. Good if you want to have $1,000,000. Not good if you want $10-50 million.

But even at the highest Salesforce professional salaries - $200,000 - you’re looking at decades just to get to the first million 😅.

✅ Most of you working as admins, consultants, and developers will earn very comfortable salaries 💵.

✅ You’ll live well, have a stable career, maybe some bonuses and stock.

❌ But “rich”, tens of millions of dollars, is rare.

So, if even the highest tiers of Salesforce professionals aren’t getting there, then how do you get to the “should we fly business class, or private?” rich?

ANOTHER TIER….A HIGHER TIER

A Salesforce Business (vs A Salesforce Professional)

To really get rich in the Salesforce world, here’s what you usually need 👇

Founding or owning a Salesforce ISV (independently or with partners) that scales to $5M–$50M+ ARR. This can be a services or product company, or both - remember that product has a higher valuation multiplier (stickier ARR).

You have equity stakes (your ownership) rather than just being a W2 employee. If you own 80% of your $5MM company, you have $4MM in a liquidity event. If you own 100%, you have $5MM.

You serve large enterprise clients, possibly globally. Or you have a niche product - unique in what it does in a common space, like an AI Service Agent. Or in a unique (or underserved) vertical, like car dealerships.

You possibly have multiple exits (selling your company) because you sold your first company for $2 million and need to sell at least one more to get to tens of millions 🤑.

You do things you don’t like or have never done before- sales, marketing, fundraising, networking, hiring, firing, sacrificing time with your family and friends, not taking care of your health- physical and/or mental 🥵.

And even if the stars align and you grow, the world can flip quickly…

Maybe that product you’ve been selling like gangbusters becomes part of the core product in the Fall-Winter release.

Or your consulting company misses out on SOW2 and loses your largest client and 50% of your revenue overnight (it’s common for consulting shops to be floated by 1 or 2 customers making up a majority of their revenue).

Being a W2 employee sounds pretty nice in those situations. The steady paycheck offers much better sleep than a business owner gets.

WHAT IS IT?

Best Case, Worst Case, Most Likely

• Best Case = BC

• Worst Case = WC

• Most Likely = ML

(BC + 5ML + WC)/ 7 = Peace of Mind Estimate

Here’s how it works-

Let’s use Connie’s estimates

• BC = 55hrs

• WC = 140hrs

• ML = 80hrs

(55 + 5×80 + 140)/ 7 = 85hrs

85hrs is pretty close to Connie’s original 80hr estimate.

Best Case and Worst Case are, by definition, the least likely to occur.

Most Likely is….most likely to occur 🙄 😎, so it gets weighted with the 5x 🔥.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Takeaway

So do you want to be rich?

Or are you content with your six-digit income, especially if you were making half that before you became a respected tech professional?

The decision is yours and there is no right or wrong choice. You have a little insight into what you may need to do to get to that 8-digit net worth, and, as you guessed - it’s not all sunshine ☀️ and rainbows 🌈.

But if you have a vision, are exceptionally driven, and have a gift for marketing and sales, there is a path for you to be “red or yellow Ferrari? Both!” rich 🤑!

SOUL FOOD

Today’s Principle

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