I’m going to blunt here.
If you can’t pay yourself a proper salary as the owner, you don’t have a business.
You have a job that pays worse than employment.
I see this far too often.
Directors pulling £20k a year from a £500k turnover business and calling it success.
They’re working 60 hours a week.
They’re stressed.
They’re underpaid compared to their employees.
But they won’t admit the real problem – their business model is broken.
As a director of your business, your salary should be the first cost, not the last.
You should be able to remove yourself from the day to day operations and the business still runs and still profits.
If it doesn’t, you’re not a business owner.
You’re self-employed.
There’s nothing wrong with being self-employed, but stop pretending it’s the same as building a business.
Real success is when you have a profitable operation that runs without you.
You take a fair market salary.
You have profit left over.
You’re working 30-40 hours a week on strategic decisions.
That’s the goal.
If that’s not your reality, something needs to change.
Are you paying yourself a proper salary, or are you just extracting whatever’s left at the end of the month? Please comment below honestly.
DO YOU TOLERATE LOW MARGIN WORK?
If your profit margins are thin, there is a real danger you are running a charity for your least valuable customers. Low margin work is