from profitability. Some people
do it as a percentage of prof-
it. Every month, I sit down and
establish how much I need to pay
for signage, etc.—these are busi-
ness expenses from the profit-
ability that I have to reinvest into
the business in order to keep go-
ing, and of that I try to determine
what I need. I try to pay myself as
little as possible. I determine how
much I need to survive and have
a little extra. Then everything
else, I try to put into business
savings and I set up a SEP IRA to
establish some kind of retirement
from my business.”
KEEP YOUR EXPENSES LOW
“I always said that if I ever move
to Atlanta, I want to be able to
live off of something I can pan
handle and make sure I can pay
my bills, that way I can take
more chances. Living above your
means is a huge no-no. I would
say putting aside some of those
wants at the beginning because
if you’re working hard, you’re
going to bring in money. If you’re
doing what you’re supposed to
be doing, you’re going to make
the money. But just making sure
that once you hit a windfall and
you start to become profitable
that you don’t start spending
everything that you have coming
in. Frugality is key. Keep your
living expenses low so that you
can reinvest in the business and
make more money. Because
profitability is of course the goal
of all entrepreneurs.”
LIVE BELOW YOUR MEANS
“You’re going to have ups and
downs, you’re going to have
peaks and valleys it’s a whole
learning curve and you don’t want
to be so strapped for bills that
it stifles your creativity. You can
move a lot differently when you’re
not bogged down by a bunch of
bills that you’ve laid on yourself
trying to impress people who
don’t care anyway. Keeping that
overhead low but frugality is key.”
SET UP A RETIREMENT
ACCOUNT
Setting up a retirement account
for yourself if you’re an entrepre-
neur whether that’s a SEP IRA,
a Roth IRA or a traditional IRA—
something that you can start
putting money into, even if it’s
just $100 or $50 into. So often
small businesses and entrepre-
neurs don’t think about that and
you look up and 5-8 years later
and you don’t have anything set
up. You’re not going to be young
forever and be able to do some
of the stuff you’re doing now. So
establish something for when you
get those windfalls of cash you
can put $1500 or $3000 into into
an individual retirement account.
The newest one is a SEP IRA be-
cause it not only allows you to not
only set up retirement for yourself
but also for your employees.
FOR MORE FINANCIAL
INSIGHT FROM
ASHLEY MALTBIA
visit themaverickfirm.com or
follow her @ceomaltbia.
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