Your business is
making money.
So why are you broke?
A tax strategist's guide for paying yourself a real owner's pay, covering taxes, and building reserves, so your business and your life both win.
Read it tonight. Use it tomorrow.
Money comes in. Money goes out.
Somehow, nothing is ever left for you.
Here is what is actually happening when a profitable business still leaves you broke.
You run on one account. Income lands. Expenses go out. You pay yourself whatever is left. You set aside for taxes whenever you remember. No system. No order.
You pay yourself last. Sales minus expenses equals profit, and profit becomes your paycheck. But expenses expand to fill the income, so there is rarely any profit. You work for free.
You never set aside for taxes. Self-employment tax alone is 15.3 percent. Add federal, state, and local, and 25 to 35 cents of every net dollar belongs to the government. Then April hits.
You confuse revenue with profit. A $10,000 month is not a $10,000 paycheck. After expenses, taxes, and real pay, that business might take you home $3,000. Most owners spend the full $10,000 because it landed in their account.
Watch one dollar of income
split itself the moment it lands.
Every dollar of business income gets divided across separate accounts before you ever touch it. Here is a $5,000 month for a service-based business.
Your owner's pay that month is $2,000, moved to your personal account on payday. The IRS money is already parked. The business keeps a little profit. Nobody scrambles.
37 pages. One system.
Every dollar in its place.
The 5-account system
Income, Operating, Taxes, Owner's Pay, and Profit. What each one is for and how money flows between them.
The exact starting percentages
The split to begin with, plus how to adjust it for your overhead, your state, and your tax bracket.
Calculate your real owner's pay
A three-step worksheet that sets your paycheck off your actual life, not whatever happens to be left over.
The payday schedule
Weekly, biweekly, or monthly. How to turn random draws into a paycheck you can budget your life around.
The Tax Account rule
How to hold the IRS money, hit your quarterly deadlines, and use the safe harbor method so April is a non-event.
The Profit Account strategy
Four ways to use profit: quarterly bonuses, cash reserves, strategic investments, and retirement contributions.
The weekly transfer habit
The five-step routine that makes the whole system run, plus a printable transfer log to track it.
The 10 mistakes and a 90-day plan
The errors that break the system, and a day-by-day checklist to set it up over your first three months.
Built for the owner who's tired of
finishing last in her own business.
Side hustlers and small business owners who can't keep any of their revenue
New owners who want to set cash flow up correctly from day one
Service providers who have never paid themselves a real, scheduled paycheck
Owners losing sleep over an unexpected tax bill in April
Anyone running a profitable business and still feeling broke
Owners ready to pay themselves first and reinvest from profit, not panic
Stop guessing where your money went.
Give every dollar a job.
The first month you pay yourself a real owner's pay, this guide has already paid for itself.
Chanell Johnson · Founder of Chanell Helps