10/29/2026
If your business is only surviving because you keep sacrificing your paycheck as the CEO, that’s a huge financial red flag.
This Black Enterprise headline says nearly two in three small-business owners sacrifice their pay as costs soar.
So if you’ve been telling yourself, “I’ll pay everybody else now and pay myself when I can,” you're operating in survival mode.
So let me tell you what to do to go from surviving to stabilizing to scaling profitably.
First. I’m Dr. Octavia, a Virtual CFO, that helps consulting firm CEOs turn their top-line revenue into their bottom-line profit and reduce taxes.
Start by getting clear on your Financial Floor™.
That’s the minimum amount your business needs to bring in each month to cover operating expenses, pay YOU, and fund your planned taxes and reserves.
If you know what it costs to pay everyone except yourself, you haven’t calculated the full amount your business needs to support.
Let’s say your monthly operating expenses are $40,000 and your compensation target is $8,000.
You need to plan for $48,000, plus taxes and reserves.
When you leave your pay out of that calculation, you can hit your revenue goal and STILL struggle to pay yourself.
Once you know your Financial Floor™, compare it with the revenue you’re actually bringing in.
If there’s a gap, identify what’s causing it.
Are your prices too low for the work your team delivers?
Are you doing additional work without charging for it?
Has spending grown faster than revenue?
That’s where you start making changes so sacrificing your paycheck stops being the solution.
Then, check when client payments will arrive against when your bills and your pay are due.
As you move toward scaling, use these numbers to evaluate whether a new hire or another client contract will leave enough cash and profit to support the business AND compensate you.
Your pay needs a place in the plan at every stage.
Join me on Zoom this Friday at 12 p.m. Eastern for CFO Strategy Session Live, where we’ll work through this with live consulting and Q&A.
Enter CFO in the comments to join me for CFO Strategy Session Live this Friday!
Source Black Enterprise
