Steady Salary Amid Uneven Revenues
February 23, 2021
by Eric Johnson

I started my business as a tax preparer before I started serving as a Profit First Professional. One of the major issues of my business was the uneven revenue throughout the year.

From January to April, revenues were strong, so I paid myself a lot–and frequently. But after April 15th, revenues would drop dramatically. I’d be able to pay myself from the excess throughout the summer. But fall and winter months, I was barely able to pay myself anything from the business, if at all.

Here’s how Profit First allowed me to pay myself a steady salary throughout the year WITHOUT having to earn extra revenue:

Set-Up

The Profit First system required that we set up our 5 core accounts, and allocate predetermined percentages to each account. The core accounts are income, profit, owner’s pay, taxes, and operating expenses. Here, we’re going to focus on owner’s compensation because you deserve to be paid for the work you’re doing!

Lifestyle Lock

It’s important to establish a lifestyle lock amount, the amount you need to maintain the lifestyle you want to live. It’s what you will pay yourself each month, consistently.

The lifestyle lock puts a limit on how much you will take from your owner’s compensation account, no matter how much money is in there, to support your lifestyle. My lifestyle lock number was $3,500 a month. So, during tax season, even though my owner’s compensation accounts easily had more than $10,000 in there, I’d only pay myself my lifestyle lock number ($3,500).

Slow Months

Revenue would still come after tax season, but much slower. But because I only paid myself the lifestyle lock number, I was able to pay myself consistently throughout the year from the owner’s compensation account, well into the fall.

The post-tax-season revenue, although much slower, would make sure that money was still being allocated to my owner’s compensation account. And there was extra revenue built up there from tax season to make up for that lower revenue. The end result was being able to now pay myself year-round, as well as greater confidence in my business’s finances, and a much happier wife (true story).

No-Revenue Months

Every year, especially since implementing Profit First, I have at least one month where I do not generate revenue. Using the lifestyle lock helped (and still helps) me to take a month off, but still be able to pay myself in full. This is huge because typically when solopreneurs stop producing revenue, the impact on the salary is normally felt immediately. The lifestyle lock helped me to break the month-to-month, check-to-check cycle.

Conclusion

Profit First works and paying yourself with your own lifestyle lock works wonders for any business owner who experiences high seasonality with their income. It offers peace of mind for yourself and your loved ones and takes the stress out of the question, “Where’s my next paycheck coming from?”

If you’d like to learn more about how to even out your salary or take-home pay using the Profit First cash flow management system, we’d love to see how we can help you. Schedule an appointment, and we’ll talk about it!