Maximize Growth or Prioritize Pay?

Being a business owner comes with many difficult decisions— do you pay yourself this month or reinvest every dollar back into the business? Spoiler alert: the answer shouldn’t involve surviving on instant noodles for months on end. ??

Did you know that 50% of business owners actually skip their own paychecks just to keep their business afloat? (Yes, half of us are out here working for free, apparently.) But there’s a better way to approach this—without sacrificing your paycheck or your growth.

Here are the four key phases every business goes through. The timeline may vary, but if there’s one lesson I’ve learned in 30+ years, it’s this: being ??????????-?????????????????????? and consistently paying yourself last are recipes for stress, gray hair, and a love-hate relationship with your bank account.

1. Start-Up (6-18 Months)

Ah, the start-up phase—a time filled with excitement, ambition, and a never-ending shortage of cash.

Here’s the thing: You need enough capital to cover payroll (yes, including your own) during this stage. If you don’t, you’ll spend the rest of your entrepreneurial life playing financial catch-up. And let’s be real—no one likes feeling like they’re one missed invoice away from hosting a yard sale just to keep the lights on.

Pro tip: Just because you’re a business owner doesn’t mean you should live like a starving artist. You deserve to get paid—period.

2. Building (1-3 Years)

By now, you’ve built some momentum. The business is moving forward, but guess what’s eating up all your money? Growth. It’s like a teenager with a bottomless pit for a stomach—it consumes everything.

But here’s a rule: Get yourself on payroll by year one, even if it’s a modest amount like $3K/month. Sure, it’s not enough to buy a yacht, but it’s enough to stop you from googling, “How to live on $5 a week.”

Paying yourself creates healthy pressure to grow a profitable business. Plus, it prevents you from being the last in line to get paid, which is a surprisingly common trap for business owners. Fun fact: Getting paid for your hard work is actually good for you! (Who knew?)

3. Growth (3-5 Years)

At this point, you should be drawing a real salary. That means a W2, direct deposit, and the feeling that you’re no longer an unpaid intern in your own company. ??

By year three, your salary should align with industry standards—so it's time to move beyond asking your friends what they make and start doing some real research. Benchmark your pay against the market to ensure you're compensating yourself fairly. If you don’t, you might end up resenting the very business you’ve worked so hard to build and trust me, that’s a road you don’t want to go down.

Bonus tip: No, you can’t pay yourself entirely in company merch. (Yes, people have tried.)

4. Scale (5+ Years and Beyond)

This is where things really take off—at least, they should be. By now, you should have access to capital for growth through banks, investors, or—here’s the dream—your own business cash flow. ??

With that kind of financial foundation, you can finally turn on the afterburners and take your business to new heights. Just make sure those heights don’t require sacrificing your sanity, health, or relationships. Because while “business mogul” is a cool title, “burnt-out mogul” is not.

??Final Thought: Growth demands cash—lots of it. But remember, your financial health is just as important as your business’s growth. (Yes, really!) If you’re constantly investing back into the company without ever paying yourself, you might end up with a wildly successful business but a very tired, overworked, and underpaid version of yourself. Not a great trade-off, right?

So, prioritize yourself without guilt. You deserve it. Pay yourself first, invest smartly, and keep growing—without sacrificing your life or well-being along the way.

What do you think—should you pay yourself first, or reinvest profits? Drop me a reply with your comments! And if you found this helpful (or mildly entertaining), feel free to give it a reshare to a friend or colleague.

Sincerely,

Patrick

p.s. Most of the clients I work with didn’t start on the right path—but with a solid plan in place, they’re now headed in the right direction. If you're ready to gain control of your finances and build a stable, prosperous business, let’s chat!

About Me:

As a veteran in financial coaching with over 30 years of corporate banking experience, my mission is to empower small business owners like you to become numbers confident, optimize cash flow, leverage debt, and pay yourself competitively.

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Here’s how I can help you:

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