You're an Employee Too - Budgeting to Pay Yourself

You’re an Employee Too!

Budgeting to pay yourself is a primary function of a financially healthy business. I’ve been there, I know that the desire to see your business succeed, especially when you’re just starting out or experiencing a major transition. The problem is, that thinking is simply unsustainable. 

When you look at your business and you see that your revenue is up and you’re paying your bills, you’re able to spend money on other needs within the business, but you’re not paying yourself, what you’re seeing is a hobby that may essentially be taking more from you than it is giving.

If that’s how you would like it to be, then you can be happy that you’ve achieved your goal. But for many dance studio owners, the consideration that studio ownership is a career that could create wealth for themselves and their family, has just never crossed their minds. And it should.

When you budget to prioritize paying yourself it’s fulfilling. You are getting paid to do what you love. Doesn’t that enrich yours and your family's life? When you eat, sleep, and breathe your business, without a financial return on investment, your entire family feels the strain.

When you pay yourself first it creates financial discipline and responsible money management habits. It opens up opportunities for investment, savings, emergency preparedness, and honest to goodness just taking care of yourself, the same way that you would take care of your employees. 

When you pay yourself your business takes on a new role in your life. Besides the joys of community and artistic expression, your business becomes something that values you and the work that you do for it.

It can be done. Even if you start small.