Survive. Live. Thrive. Bite Sized Goals

When we are on the Financial Journey we look at our goals in a Survive, Live & Thrive lens.

Survive is based on business over head. How much money do I need to make to "break even" and pay all the bills? Do you have low or high expenses? These are all the bills you need to pay monthly in your business, minus your own paycheck.

Live is based on my business expenses PLUS how much I would make to be content. You may be the type of person to be content with an extra $100 a week, $1000 a month or maybe $5000 a month. How much would you need to make to in order to feel like you accomplished something? Personally, when I break this down I always add an additional amount to save for tax. You can set aside 20-30% of gross profit. If you're the type who would rather give themselves a tax return or over estimate go with 30%. At 20% you may still owe a little more money depending on your profits for the year. (*cough talk to your tax professional*)

Thrive is where you go "how much would I need to make to save for retirement, grow the business to its full potential?"

Add your Survive, your Live and add in 15% for retirement, etc. This is a very personal number. 

FINAL THOUGHTS.
In full disclosure these numbers do not take into account commission, taxes, and a lot of the reality of life but these are just to give you a short example.  If you are an employee you may be forced to be grooming 10+ dogs a day to make that $6000/month after taxes.. I don't think that's realistic, some people can groom 10 pets per day, 5 days a week and not be burnt out. Personally, I find 5-8 is my limit to have energy to go home to my family. If you are a business owner who has achieved Thrive you have lots of options to grow your business.  Employees, price increases, a focus on add ons, speciality grooming etc  Our bodies will eventually break down so figure out when you go from "Live" to "Thrive" how you will do that with grace and dignity so you are not one of the cautionary tales of a broke and broken former groomer.