Business Purpose #1: Meet the needs of our families.
This seems like a pretty basic purpose and it really isn't that earth shattering, but I think it is important to state and set goals around what that will mean for us in the coming year. If we cannot meet the needs or our own families through our business or don't have a plan to get the business to a place where it can support us, then we probably should reconsider whether we should even be in this business.
We believe it is vitally important that we build our salaries into the financial model and pay ourselves on a regular salary schedule so we can take care of our families. There may be times where we need to pay ourselves less for a while due to the nature of a startup, but our goal should be to get to a point where we are drawing a regular salary.
I've met people who don't have their own salaries built into their financial models or don't have any sort of idea what they should be paying themselves. This is very unhealthy for businesses as it creates a false financial picture and reality of their business. It is a very healthy practice to pay yourself a salary no matter how much it is starting out. It could be $50 a week or $5,000 a month, but either way you should build it into your model even when you are starting out.
It's also demoralizing to work on something and not reap any sort of financial reward. It's human nature to want to be see the fruits of our labor and financial reward is a big piece of that. We want to make sure that we aren't robbing ourselves of that psychological encouragement as we ramp up the business. There are enough challenges and hard work ahead of us with this start up and we want all of the encouragement we can get, even if they are small victories starting out.
We believe it is vitally important that we build our salaries into the financial model and pay ourselves on a regular salary schedule so we can take care of our families. There may be times where we need to pay ourselves less for a while due to the nature of a startup, but our goal should be to get to a point where we are drawing a regular salary.
I've met people who don't have their own salaries built into their financial models or don't have any sort of idea what they should be paying themselves. This is very unhealthy for businesses as it creates a false financial picture and reality of their business. It is a very healthy practice to pay yourself a salary no matter how much it is starting out. It could be $50 a week or $5,000 a month, but either way you should build it into your model even when you are starting out.
It's also demoralizing to work on something and not reap any sort of financial reward. It's human nature to want to be see the fruits of our labor and financial reward is a big piece of that. We want to make sure that we aren't robbing ourselves of that psychological encouragement as we ramp up the business. There are enough challenges and hard work ahead of us with this start up and we want all of the encouragement we can get, even if they are small victories starting out.
great word!
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