How should a new shop owner pay themselves?
Deciding on an owner pay structure involves choosing between taking a regular salary, drawing a commission on services, or taking a low salary combined with business dividends. Without a clear framework, new owners struggle to balance taking a fair cut for their daily labor with keeping enough cash in the business to fund its operations.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Asking for a percentage of revenue generated insteadDid this help you?
- 2Negotiating a fixed retainer plus a performance bonusDid this help you?
- 3Building your own account to own 100% of the revenueDid this help you?
- 4Comparing earnings with other restaurant owners on online forums to gauge realistic expectationsDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“How much typical owner take home in a year. Forget about the 2-3% nonsense because a place with 2M can’t be just taking out 60k! So how much really you guys taking?”source ↗
“Depends. I’ve made 100k - 150k for years. Now after all this winning the US has been able to achieve through thr great minds of the GOP. I’m making 65k”source ↗
“They are offering me 20% from the net profit, tell me if 20% is good to go for giving my 100% to manage their accounts.”source ↗
“I’m planning on opening a barbershop and was curious about how I should go about pay structure. It’s going to be a 6 chair shop. As the owner, how should I think about how I get paid out?”source ↗
“Should I treat myself as an employee and say take a 50% commission. Should I take a salary and all the services I do simply just feed the business? Both?”source ↗
“I’ve heard some people take a low salary and distribute dividends. Any salon owners out there that can provide any insight?”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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