I run a business

A business that pays its owner

Six lessons for someone already in it. Each one ends with a number about your business you did not have before.

1. Lesson 1
   Say your break even aloud

   If it takes more than a minute to find your break even with your own salary in it, that is the first job.

2. Lesson 2
   The cash gap

   Profitable businesses go broke in the gap between delivering and getting paid.

3. Lesson 3
   Does one customer make money?

   Before growing, ask whether one customer, fully counted, is profitable: what they cost to win, what they pay, what they cost to serve including your time and returns, and how long they stay.

4. Lesson 4
   Pay yourself first, then judge the profit

   Owners who take irregular draws never know if the business works.

5. Lesson 5
   Read your own numbers every month

   A profit and loss statement is a page that says what came in, what went out, and what is left.

6. Lesson 6
   Keep more of what you make

   An owner can put several times more into retirement accounts than an employee can, through a Solo 401(k) or a SEP, and most never do.

Each lesson asks for one number, one piece of arithmetic, and one real mission, and keeps your answers on My steps.

Five quick questions before you start mark where you began; the same five after show what the road did.