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You can overcome the challenges of paying yourself – I promise. I keep saying it but it comes back to knowing your numbers. KnowGetting paid. It sounds so simple and it’s why we all go into business for ourselves in the first place. But dang, it can be a STRUGGLE! You’re worried about paying taxes, you don’t want to not have the money available so it just sits there, or you feel like there is NO money to pull out. 

I hear that last one from business owners a lot, especially when they’re just starting out. They feel they don’t have the right to take money out of the business to pay themselves. They think they haven’t earned it.

I get it. 

But it’s SO important to pay yourself – even if it’s just $100 in the beginning – so you don’t start to resent your business that you’re pouring your blood, sweat, and tears into. And it’s not as hard as you think. Like so many things, being able to pay yourself is a matter of knowing your numbers. 

I’ve got a warning for you. When you get into the habit of not paying yourself, all of a sudden you haven’t paid yourself for three months, six months, nine months and boom, your savings are gone. Now you’re in real trouble. 

So now I want you to ask yourself… what’s YOUR reason for not paying yourself? 

If it’s because you’re too scared to pull money out, then start small so you’re comfortable. You need a reward, even a nominal one, for all your hard work!

If you’re worried you’re not withholding enough for taxes, tax bracket information is readily available online, so you can figure out where you land before withdrawing. While I don’t do taxes at Number Nerd (I’m not a CPA), I can tell you the typical rule of thumb is to withhold 15% to 35%. Feel like that’s too much? Then it’s time to raise your prices to offset those costs! You need to be paid!

Your overhead, your services, where your time is going. How is that going to help you break down the pay yourself barriers? Because once you know how much you have to spend each month to keep the lights on, what is making you the most profit and where you’re wasting time, then you can begin to price for profit, cut unnecessary overhead and make sure your time is being spent making you money. That is how you get paid, plain and simple.  

I know figuring out the numbers can seem overwhelming, so remember: break it down into small, bite-sized chunks. Set aside the time regularly and tackle things one step at a time. You don’t have to master it all today, but figuring this part of your business will empower you to take the leap and pay yourself. 

The final takeaway here – you work too hard to feel like you never have enough money, you have no free time and you now resent your business. There is no point in having a business doing things you love if you’re not rewarding yourself at ALL. Price yourself so you can pay yourself and get off the business hamster wheel. 

If you’re looking for some extra support on how to set your prices so you can get paid, check out my 3 Secrets to Pricing for Profit webinar. It covers how you can determine the right pricing for your offers and what to do when you’re afraid your audience won’t pay it. Figure out your pricing means figuring out your profit—and that’s how you get paid for all your hard work!

If you’ve been around here long, you know I’m a big fan of efficiency. I don’t like wasting my time or yours, so today, we’re jumping right into it. 

But first, answer me this: How many hours do you work each week?

As entrepreneurs who feel like the work never ends and that there’s always something more we could be doing, it’s easy to get sucked into working around the clock. Always trying to do more and multitasking trying to do everything at once. I know I’ve been guilty of this in the past, but the longer I’m in business, the more I realize this isn’t the way to build a sustainable business that brings time and financial freedom for the long run. 

Think back to the number of hours you said you work each week. Do you actually know the number, or was it just a guess? Many of us say that we work 50, 60, 70+ hours per week, but studies have shown that when we guestimate how many hours we work, we almost always overestimate.  

We live in a world that loves busy and multitasking and makes it easy to tie our worth to our hustle and the number of hours we put in each week. It’s no wonder we subconsciously raise that number in our minds to make ourselves feel a little better about how hard we’re working. But if we’re overestimating the amount of time we spend working each week, where on earth is all of our time going?

Your time is your most valuable resource – even more valuable than money. Money can always be replaced, and it’s always coming and going, but we have a finite and unknown amount of time available to us. Once it’s gone, it’s gone for good. As a bookkeeper, I’m a big advocate of being a steward of your finances: knowing where your money comes from and where it goes, and making smart decisions about how you use it. I believe just as strongly in being a steward of your time. It’s so important to make sure you’re using this precious resource wisely. And I’ll let you in on a little secret…when you know where your time is going, it also helps you make better decisions about your money, and ultimately make more of it.

When you know where you’re time is going, you can make informed decisions about what you say “yes” or “no” to, you’ll know exactly how long each task in your business take you, and you can price your offers accordingly. This is why it’s so important to track your time.

Many of my clients, especially the creatives, are hesitant at first about all this time tracking business. It can feel a little restricting and tedious in the beginning, but all of my clients who have gotten serious about tracking their time find that it makes them work much more efficiently, and ultimately brings them more freedom in their lives and businesses. You see, when you record where you spend your time, it eliminates multitasking and helps you to focus on one task at a time. In the same way that keeping a food journal helps people who are trying to lose weight get better, faster results, when you track your time, it makes you more efficient and helps you free up more time in the long run.

There are many different tools out there that make time tracking simple. Personally, my team and I use ClockShark, and Harvest is another great option to get started with time tracking for free. You could also use a simple spreadsheet, or even pen and paper to track your time. The important thing is that you choose a time tracking method and stick to it. Try tracking your time for 2 weeks, and I promise you’ll get some eye-opening insights to the way you spend time in your business.

What method will you use to start tracking your time?

Check out these other resources to help you track your time and run your business more efficiently:

Technology Tip Tuesday: Harvest Time Tracking

The Ultimate Pricing Guide for Creative Entrepreneurs

Are You Pricing Your Services Right?

Find out how much money you’re really making in your business, and how to adjust your prices accordingly.

Pricing your offers can be tricky, especially in the early stages of business. When I started working with clients on their pricing, I quickly realized that many were setting prices without much rhyme or reason behind them. I’ve heard everything from coming up with a number on a whim, to basing prices solely on what competitors are charging. Trust me, this is NOT the way you want to calculate your prices.

The problem with setting your rates this way is that there’s no backbone to your pricing.

Your prices should be based on a logical and repeatable calculation, so that you can confidently share your prices knowing that they’re justified. Click To Tweet

Today, I’m going to help you do just that. 

I’m sharing the process I go through with my clients to help them understand their numbers, and make informed decisions about their pricing.  9 times out of 10, this process reveals that they’ve been undercharging, sometimes by a whole lot. By the end, they can see all the underlying time and monetary costs in their business, and confidently raise their prices knowing they’re justified. Sound good? Let’s get started.

Personal Expenses First

Before you start looking at you’re prices, let’s take a steps back. You need to know your personal expenses, and what you need to make each month to meet your personal income requirements. This is why you went into business in the first place right? You’ve got to take care of yourself first. Try to find both your NEED number, (the bare minimum you must make each month), and your WANT number, (enough to afford extras and have the lifestyle you want). You want to aim for the WANT number, but it’s important to know the non-negotiable amount that you can’t dip below.  

A good way to calculate these numbers is to look at your expenses, and categorize how much you spend on different things. This process takes time, and you may need to pay track your spending for a month or so to get a clear picture of where your money is going. 

Also consider how much you made in your previous job and the income you want to replace. Were you making enough to cover your expenses? Do you want to make more than that?

Whatever the number is, you need to know your personal expenses so you can pay yourself enough to cover them.

Next, Business Expenses

 Now let’s look at the costs of running your business. Make a list of all of your overhead costs: subscriptions, software, rent, office supplies, payments to team members, everything you spend to keep your business running. If you’re trying to replace a corporate salary, be sure to include the benefits that your company paid used to cover – this usually includes things like health insurance and taxes taken out of your paycheck. 

Add up your business expenses (don’t forget taxes!) + your personal expenses and you’ve got your minimum that you need to make every month. Calculating your expenses this way helps you see the full picture of everything you’re spending (or would like to spend.) How are we doing so far? If these numbers don’t reflect what you’re currently making, hold on. We’re not done yet.

Time = Money?

You’ll also want to consider the number of hours you work each week when calculating your prices. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting you charge your clients an hourly rate, or that you create a business model where you simply trade time for money. But you need to know how many hours you’re working and where that time goes, to get the full picture of how much money you make.

Do you know how much time you spend on the different tasks in your business? If you offer services, how much time do you spend on each stages of a client project? If you sell products, how much time do you spend making or curating your offers? Don’t forget about the marketing and admin work that keeps new clients coming in the door. While these aren’t things that your clients pay for directly, they’re essential parts of running your business. 

You can use a free tool like Harvest to track time and break it into categories and see how much time you spend on different activities. Many of my clients, are apprehensive at the thought of tracking their time so meticulously, but it doesn’t have to be restricting.  Think of it as an experiment. There’s no need to judge the time you spend on different tasks, you’re just getting an idea of where the time is going. And you don’t need to track your time forever. Commit to doing this for one week, and I promise you’ll gain amazing insights about your business and how you spend your time. 

Also think about how many hours you’d work in an ideal week. Would it be less than you’re working now? You have your NEED and WANT number for your personal income, now calculate your CURRENT and IDEAL weekly working hours.

Crunch the numbers 

You have all the info you need to look at your numbers and get an accurate view of where you are now, and where you’d like to be. Here’s a recap of the numbers to keep in mind:

• Average monthly revenue in your business
• Total of all business expenses
• Amount you NEED to cover personal expenses
• Amount you WANT to cover ideal personal expenses
• CURRENT work hours/week
• IDEAL work hours/week

Here’s an example of how to calculate what you’re currently making in your business: Say you’re business brings in $4,000 each month, you have $1,000 in business expenses, and you work 40 hours each week. Subtract the business expenses, and you make $3,000/month, or $750/week. Divide that by 40 hours/week, and you’re making $18.75/hour. If you’re feeling queasy because you just realized you pay your dogsitter more than you pay yourself, don’t panic!

Almost all of my clients are in shock after calculating their hourly pay (and $18.75/hour is high compared to some numbers I’ve seen.) No matter how shockingly low the number is, the good news is that you know where you are now, and can start making a plan to get to where you want to be. Play with these numbers and plug in your ideal salary, and ideal work hours to see what number you get. You’ll start to see how you could get closer to the ideal by raising your prices just a little.

Getting comfortable with these numbers is the first step toward raising your prices and getting closer to the ideal life and business you want.

If the idea of going through your numbers and tracking your hours feels overwhelming and tedious, I want to make it easier.

Many entrepreneurs struggle with facing their numbers and building the confidence to raise their prices. This is something I work on with my clients through my DIY Bookkeeping Program. If you’re ready to take control of your numbers, and work toward a price increase that supports your ideal life and business, I’d love to help you get there through the DIY bookkeeping program.

Schedule a discovery call to learn more about how we can work together!