Personal Finances

[Kreater]

I'm 3 years into my business and haven't really had the chance to "pay myself". I literally work for pennies by the hour, most of the time. At certain points of the year, I'm making less than a dollar per hour. And it gets very old, very fast. I'm tired of scraping by. And this disappoint leads to further motivation and drive toward success. Because after awhile, eating peas and ramen noodles gets tired. And I prefer to have a large stack of cash rather than a meager pile of pennies.

How do you people go about converting your profit, if you have any, into personal finances?

How much should an owner pay himself? And what if he can't? What "reward" is justified? Should you work for yourself, or set aside rewards for your children, if you have any or plan to have them?

[Fulcrum]

Budget it in. Set a small pay scale for yourself of, for example, $250/week. Track how this affects your cash flow and figure out what you will need to do to increase it by $50. Rinse and repeat every time you look at "giving yourself a raise".

[Freelancier]

It's also possible your business is just never going to be profitable enough. You need to analyze what's coming in and what's going out and figure out why there's not enough profit margin, because it's in that profit margin where you get paid.

What type of business is it?

[billbenson]

Small business or self employment can be a slow ramp up. If you do it right in the end, you can make more money than working for a company. As said above, you need to figure out if your business can make money down the road. You might need to eat dog food for a while in order to make millions down the road...

Or you might go bust

[SaraWilliamsMurray]

This is all very vague. If you would like some real help or guidance let us know what type of business it is and what you've got working so far.

The one piece of advice I give is that you will need to market your business somehow. "If you build it they will come," was just in a movie. Most of the time it takes more than that! Advertise, do some marketing. If everything else is set in your business that is where your focus should be. There are cheap ways to do it, but ultimately you will need to spend a little to get started.

I would love to know more about this business though.

Sara Williams Murray
Free You Up, Inc

[Kreater]

A small cafe

[Freelancier]

You're waiting too long to re-visit everything about your place to see where you're spending too much for the income you're deriving. You also need to look at your product mix, floor space usage, pretty much everything that goes into calculating how much money you could make and figure out how to squeeze more out of your available space and time. Don't increase anything until you get your current problem figured out.

[Kreater]

I understand that time is money.

My main personal problem is lack of energy and motivation. Because I work a second job and 70 hours per week. It really takes all the life out of me. Currently I'm focusing on trying to rid myself of the second job, so that I can focus only on my personal business. After that, then I can take a lot more steps to increase the effeciveness of my small cafe, and make earnings out of it. Without the energy, I simply cannot make much changes to my current situation.

I would never recommend that people take loans out, to begin a business. Save the money first, and only until you have it, begin your own business or enterprise.

A big problem I have, was beginning a business while already in debt, thus the need for my second job.

[Freelancier]

I understand that time is money.In a retail establishment, so is space and inventory and product mix. It's all money, you just have to figure out where it's going and how to get it under control. Or just sell/close if you aren't motivated enough to make it work. It's your business, you're the only one who can make this work.

[huggytree]

if i were in business for a few months and couldnt even pay myself a wage id be horrified....let alone 3 years.....at this point you have to consider that your business may never be successful

if your not paying yourself a base wage then your not just unprofitable, your operating at a loss........profit is what you make beyond your wage

raise your prices

[Kreater]

raise your prices
This is my next business step, yes.