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I have yet to have a single day when I am not sweating over the bills coming up in the next few weeks.... and honestly, I have yet to pay myself. I DO pay our sitter out of the store (owner draw - then pay from our account) so that working doesn't actually cost us money but then again it doesn't pay us, either. I know I'm sitting on a significant amount of inventory and could sell the store so I am creating real value - but adding money to our family budget or even just socking it away for retirement is my goal. I do hope to get to the point of paying myself within the next 18 months.
That might sound desperate - but since day 1 of opening the store I have been able to pay every bill fully, on time, and never bounced a check. It's the sweating over the budget and only ordering what I can pay for that has really paid off. I just recently got a great line of credit from the bank for emergency protection and hope to have a big loan lined up by the end of the year so that I can expand and relocate to a bigger store.
So - getting back to your question - I guess my initial plan is a three year plan - with the goal of paying myself, having a larger more extensively stocked store and offering more services and having more business by the end of year three. The plan for the next few years after that is even more ambitious - and my kids will be in school.
There is a real difference between a service business (yours, Rebecca) and a product business (mine, Louise's). Your cost of doing business is significantly less - but then you little business value to sell when you pull out. YOU are the product. For Louise and I the products are the very expensive part of the business to create - but at the end, those products are sitting on the shelf to sell.
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