In 2017, my W-2 from my own business was $7,800. The next two years weren't much better. At one point I was seriously ready to sell my house and live in a van just to keep the business going. In this episode of Built By Doing, David Alan and Stan answer one of the most common questions in business: how much should you pay yourself as a business owner? We start with the number most people skip: what you actually need to live, not what you want. If you need $100,000 a year and the business only makes $100,000, the business can't grow. It can't hire, it can't advertise and it can't test anything new. Worse, if it only makes $80,000, you end up on loans and credit cards, hurting the business to fund your personal life. David shares the real numbers from his early years. Paying himself almost nothing. Running the math on giving up a $2,800 mortgage as a last resort. Digging out of $60,000 to $70,000 in credit card debt that was really business debt. Giving up nights out, trips and even some friendships to keep the business alive. Stan shares a client who lived on $2,000 a month for three years and passed $1 million this year. Then we get into how owner pay changes as the business grows. We cover W-2 salary vs. distributions, when an S corp election makes sense, what the IRS means by a reasonable salary, guaranteed payments in partnerships, the Profit First model, and why one client saved over $40,000 in taxes this year just by restructuring how he gets paid. We also talk about reinvesting in ad spend and hiring, paying off debt fast, and how the biggest players borrow against equity instead of paying themselves at all. The big lesson: every dollar you don't need personally can go back into the business and make more. But your story isn't anyone else's story. Know your number, know your goals, and get someone in your corner who understands the tax side. If you're an entrepreneur, small business owner, startup founder or side hustler trying to figure out what to pay yourself, start here. www.builtbydoingpodcast.com