Entrepreneurs believe in sacrifice.

They sacrifice for clients, employees, and vendors and willing to overcome anything that might stand in the way of dreams.

The sacrifice mentality affects owners and their families because they do not consistently compensate themselves. With all the effort and perseverance needed to run a small business, a business owner must be able to maintain their livelihood and support their family’s needs, or eventually, the business will fold.

Be nice to yourself!
As an entrepreneur, when you ask somebody to work for you or perform a short-term task, compensation is expected.  As an owner, you do five times the work of someone working with you, but never consider compensating themselves.

Business owners should be nicer to themselves; you find ways to pay every other bill and but you don’t find a way to pay yourself. if you are cognizant of paying someone else, why not look out for yourself?

I know it's rough and sometimes it goes against conventional wisdom, but you have to be nice to yourself.

Start with this Habit
My advice for business owners is to build a habit of paying yourself, even if only $100 or $50 per pay period.  As revenues grow, your paycheck can be increased, and you will make enough to take care of yourself, possibly even pay yourself a bonus.

Look at it this way – flight attendants tell passengers to put their masks on BEFORE assisting someone else if cabin pressure drops.  In other words, we have to care for ourselves before we care for others.

Being a founder, leader, CEO or boss are all positions where sacrifice is necessary – but if the owner/founder does not take care of themselves the business may not be around for the long term.