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Coaching Your Business To The Next Level Series Part 7 Pay Yourself First

Guest post by: Leanne Hoagland-Smith

Article Overview: The concept of paying yourself first is alien to many entrepreneurs or small business owners. Read how by not doing so is actually quite counter-productive.

Coaching Your Business To The Next Level Series Part 7 Pay Yourself First

Building a small business requires entrepreneurs to wear many hats. Many books have been written about all of these roles such as "The E Myth." By wearing all of these hats helps the entrepreneur to reduce costs and increase the bottom line. At the end of the year, that hard working entrepreneur is very happy when he or she reads black and not red.

Yet, even if they read black should they be happy? Why, because they probably failed to embrace this tip.

Tip #6 - Pay yourself first

Mistake: Wearing all the hats and not paying yourself what you are worth. Entrepreneurs wear many hats when they establish their business. As time progresses, they continue to wear these hats because money is tight and they believe that they can do things better. The end of the year approaches and the company made a profit. By paying yourself first, you will focus on what you do really well and delegate those other activities to others at a far lower rate.

After providing this proactive suggestion to my small business coaching clients, I usually hear the following just to name a few:

 I can’t afford to pay myself.
 You don’t understand the business that I am in.
 What a ridiculous suggestion

I then ask them a series of questions. (And yes, the are still around because they really want to be paid more.)

 How much were you making in your previous life?
 Do you want to make the same, more (please estimate) or less (please estimate)?
 How many hours are you working wearing all of these hats?

At this point, I ask them to do the math. Take your total hours and divide it into your desire income.

Are you happy with that hourly rate?

If not, then let’s answer the next series of questions.

 Wearing what hat provides you with the greatest income?
 Wearing what hat provides you with the greatest sense of accomplishment?
 Are you wearing that hat as much as you should to grow your business to the next level?
 What would it take to be able to wear that hat more?

If you begin by paying yourself first and rewarding yourself for those efforts that dramatically grow your business, you will find that you will have money to have other people wear those other necessary hats. When your efforts are spread among a variety of hats of different sizes, shapes and colors, your overall achievements are diluted.

Focus on what you do well and reward yourself for those accomplishments. As the old and true belief goes Success breeds success.

Upon conclusion of this series, an e-Book will be available. Reserve your company at http://www.processspecialist.com/contact.php

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