When you started your business maybe you had dreams of making enough money to buy the things you wanted. Maybe your vision was more realistic and you were prepared to make less than you were used to as an employee. The reality is that many entrepreneurs cannot afford to pay themselves when they’re just getting started. Some even might not see any money for a few years reports the Daily Herald. How long did it take for your business to pay you?
It was September 2005 when Penny Vickas put her plan in place: Creating what was then a part-time gift basket business that would provide a safety net if she lost her job – which she did.
“When I got laid off last year for the third time in 4½ years, I decided I had had enough,” Vickas says. “I made the decision to give my business a (full-time) go.”
Good idea. Good plan. Just one problem: Five years in, Vickas has yet to take a paycheck, an often overlooked startup reality that should give pause to others planning to take the entrepreneurial plunge.
“I’m really hoping to pay myself next year,” Vickas says. “I don’t want to have to go back to work. But the reality is, ‘How long will it be before I run out of money?’”
She has sought advice, primarily from SCORE small-business counselors at the Elmhurst chamber. And Vickas has started gift basket home parties, a suggestion from customers.
But there’s that paycheck thing. A good severance package and a willingness to “save pennies” has helped. “I have a good family, too,” Vickas says.
“I’m not gonna lie,” she wrote in an e-mail response to an earlier column. “It’s been rough. This year, especially the third quarter, really dug me into a hole. However, that doesn’t mean I can’t get out of it.
“I’m not gonna use the recession as an excuse to fail. If anything, it has helped me stretch myself and explore ideas I would never have thought of to expand my business.”
Photo by Andy Nguyen