GOAL DIGGER

How to Pay Yourself as an Entrepreneur

Jenna Kutcher 

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June 27, 2018

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If you ask the average entrepreneur what they make, they’ll likely tell you their profits for the year. But do you know how to pay yourself as an entrepreneur? Tune in as Jenna Kutcher helps answer this question on the Goal Digger Podcast.

So you own your own business which means you’re the boss, and as the boss – you get to determine how much money you make. Awesome, right? Considering how often I get asked this question, it seems to be more stressful than awesome for most business owners.

If you ask the average entrepreneur what they make, they’ll likely tell you their profits for the year. “I made six figures last year” often means the BUSINESS made six figures. But what did you, the business owner pay yourself? And how do you come up with that number? And what should your business goals be to align with your personal salary goals?

This is going to look different for everyone but I wanted to break down how we’ve figured this out and worked through the seasons of crazy and the seasons of slow. When I first started, I realized quickly that I would have seasons where I would make a lot of money and then seasons where it would be nothing and I knew that in order to be smart with my money, I wanted to figure out a way to make sure I felt comfortable in all seasons.

My Journey

For the first 3 years of my business, I matched my corporate salary (even when the business was making triple that) because I knew that was the amount we needed to make ends meet and I wanted to build up our business savings, so every two weeks I would pay myself $1,200 which was what my paycheck was when I worked in corporate America. If you don’t already have this number figured out like I did, add up all of your personal expenses for the year and divide by 12. This is the minimum you need to make to get by when you’re starting a business.

When your business grows and is consistently profitable, it’s time to re-evaluate that salary. This could mean you take a percentage of profits or a percentage of annual growth in the business. If you’re in a seasonal business, it might make more sense to keep your salary the same and pay bonuses instead. Maybe you want to skip the salary boost and invest further in your business.

So let’s break this all down more simply with steps to follow:

The first step: hire an accountant

I can talk all day about what I do for my unique business type and industry, but the best advice I can give you is to work with an accountant from the very beginning. One of the smartest things I’ve ever done is hire an accountant before I even started my business to set things up correctly. They also do my bookkeeping and so every month they are able to send me a profit and loss statement and expenses so I keep a good pulse on what’s going on financially in my business. Accountants are worth every penny, there’s one in every city and whatever excuse you have for not hiring one yet – squash it and go find one today. If I can find one in a village of 1,200 people, you can too.

Get a business bank account

This will probably be the first thing your account has you do to get setup correctly, but I want to warn you that you’ll need to get a business bank account. No more paying for business expenses out of your personal account and buying that new wardrobe out of the same account. In order to know our business numbers, they need to be clean and in their own account and not mixed up with everything else. This will make tax time so much easier as well.

Don’t forget about those expenses

Remember, what you ultimately will pay yourself with comes out of your business account AFTER business expenses. Calculating what you need to make personally cannot match the total revenue of the business. It may seem obvious, but make sure you have a spreadsheet calculating each and every expense for the business and add that to the “need to make” number when determining your pricing.

What are your business goals?

What you pay yourself is going to be different depending on your goals for the business. Are you in startup mode and each and every dollar is invested back into the business? Or maybe you’ve been in business for awhile and are looking for a more consistent compensation plan that you can maintain for years to come. Maybe you’re thinking about selling your business in which case the influx of cash would come after the sale (and not in the monthly payroll).

Make sure you’re keeping your long term goals in mind when setting your salary and not copying someone else’s pricing which is based on an entirely different set of priorities, life circumstances and goals.


Grab my PROFITABLE PRICING GUIDE here! 

Here is a great resource for calculating your salary! 

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  1. Emma Street says:

    Jenna thank you so much for this podcast. I run an online shop and have spent so much time trying to figure out how to get margin right that I didn’t even think about how or how much I would actually get PAID. The steps you give are so simple but something I hadn’t done yet. Now I have a clear picture of what my sales need to look like (and how much to keep my expenses in check) in order for me to get paid what I need. Here’s to embracing the numbers!

  2. Rose-Marie says:

    Loved this epsiode! It is something I have been struggling to understand how to do for a while. Thank you for your clear commonsense guides. You are amazing! Rose ~ Queensland, Australia.

  3. Anna Swonetz says:

    This is sooooo great! I wish I had something like this when I started my last company 8 years ago. I’m starting my second business now and am going to do it the right way from the beginning. Thank you thank you so much for this!!

  4. This is such great information I am always looking to grow and expand my email list for sure! Love everything you post!

  5. Miriam says:

    Hi Jenna,
    Thank you so much for this episode. It’s really inspiring to read about your journey especially as someone who just launched their first start-up online shop whilst also juggling life as a new mum. Thanks for sharing your experiences and for being such a great #girlboss.

  6. Knowing how much to pay yourself is so important. At the outset of my freelancing career I just paid myself everything and didn’t invest into the business at all because I wasn’t making enough. Eventually, I was able to invest in things like a website and marketing. I’ve rebooted my business into the world of coaching and have since started back at square one but am very excited to level that up and start paying myself a steady paycheck with an investment of profits back into the business.

    I find that, at the beginning, it isn’t necessary to have a separate business bank account (as long as you’re a sole proprietor here in Canada – I don’t know about elsewhere). But even if I never incorporate I think I’ll be starting up a separate account in the future.

  7. Also, it would be great for networking if we could reply to other people’s comments on here to discuss our thoughts more fully.

  8. Shelby Forman says:

    Thank you for all of the tips your provide creatives!

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A small town Minnesota photographer, podcaster, educator and puppy rescuer, my happiest days are spent behind my computer screen sharing my secrets with the world. I'm glad you're here.

I’m an expert at online marketing, a nerd when it comes to the numbers, and my obsession is teaching others how to make a living doing what they love (without it taking over their life). 

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