Are you constantly sacrificing your own salary to keep your salon afloat? Many salon owners pay everyone else but themselves, leaving their personal accounts empty. This isn't just a temporary fix; it's a trap that hides the truth about your business's financial health and leaves you feeling unmotivated and undervalued.

In this episode, Phil Jackson exposes why you're not getting paid what you're worth and how to structure your finances to ensure you always take a proper, non-negotiable wage.

**THE TRAP OF 'WHATEVER'S LEFT'**

* Phil's past experience: "a fully booked salon, but my personal bank account full of crickets and cobwebs."

* Skipping his own paycheck for 2-3 months, and even buying stock on a personal credit card when the business account was empty.

* From the outside, the business looked successful, but was "just scraping by, surviving off the back of me" through unpaid hours and cash flow subsidies.

* Realisation: "I didn't actually have a business at all. What I had was a grueling job."

* Your pay isn't a bonus; it's an expense, a non-negotiable cost of the work you do – like rent or electric.

**TWO POTS OF MONEY: YOUR WAGE VS. PROFIT**

* **Your Wage:** This is the money you earn for the specific jobs you do within the business (e.g., as a therapist, manager, or receptionist). It should be a predictable, non-negotiable cost, just like any other employee's salary. If the business can't afford you, it's a sign of a deeper issue, not a reason to skip your pay.

* **Profit:** This is a completely different animal. Profit is your reward for taking the risk, for the late nights and the worry. It's the "bonus in the good times" and should only be paid once all other costs, including your wage, are covered. Profit is for building wealth, reinvestment, or that much-needed holiday.

**FLIPPING THE SCRIPT: PAY YOURSELF FIRST**

* Make your wage a "line in the budget," a legitimate cost like rent or rates, removing any guilt from taking your rightful pay.

* When the business genuinely can't cover your wages, it becomes a "real red flag," signalling that prices need to increase, costs need to decrease, or other drastic changes are required.

* "Stop hiding behind credit cards and subsidies" – confront the true financial state of your salon by paying yourself properly.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📊 RESOURCES: Get Paid Properly: getpaidproperly.com

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 💬 WORK WITH ME: 1:1 Coaching: https://buildyoursalon.com

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎧 LISTEN: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BuildYourSalon Spotify: https://go.philjackson.me/Spotify Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3MZp6jP

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ CHAPTERS:

0:00 - Introduction: The "I'll take what's left" trap

0:55 - How I Subsidised My Own Salon

2:25 - The Truth About Your 'Successful' Business

3:20 - Your Pay Should Be an Expense, Not a Bonus

4:05 - The Two Pots of Money You're Owed

4:40 - What Your 'Wage' Actually Is

5:30 - What 'Profit' Really Means

6:40 - The Power of Paying Yourself First

7:50 - Stop Hiding the Truth About Your Salon

8:25 - Your Job This Week: Separate Your Finances

#SalonFinance #SalonProfit #PayYourselfFirst #SalonBusiness #BuildYourSalon