Paying Yourself
When you first open your business, there is a LOT to think about—so much so that it can be completely overwhelming. Who knew there was so much to consider in your day-to-day tasks?
At this stage in your business ownership, you are focused on growth and management. You are growing your audience and managing your time and your team. Maybe you started small and are now growing bigger, or maybe this is all new territory. Either way, you are beginning a very tough journey of serving more people than you could ever have handled individually.
With that outreach comes greater expenses, and (hopefully) greater gains.
Once you start to get into the groove of your new business endeavors, an age-old question pops up, “What next?”
Where should you focus your attentions once the glamor and excitement are over and reality has set in?
It can be tempting to literally focus on everything all at once and in every direction, but for me, I always try to focus on profits…specifically MY profit.
Now, I know that sounds incredibly selfish and misguided, but when it comes down to it, as a business owner, you need to take care of yourself, or the entire business literally ceases to exist.
I can’t tell you the number of clients I have coached who were literally living deposit to deposit, or not paying themselves at all because they felt it was “part of the job” of being an owner—the Captain always goes down with the ship, right?
Yeah…not my favorite thing about new ownership.
So that’s why, once all the initial kinks are worked out, I focus on how to increase my profits and the benefits associated with that (aka all the reasons you decided to become a business owner). That includes your wages, shareholder distributions, and all the “extras” covered by your business, like insurance, cell phone service, car mileage, etc.
Every action in your business should revolve around one key question, “Will this improve your profits…how…and when?”