Money you've put in

[uppydown]

Aibu to ask if you own your own business how much of you own money you have invested into it.

I'm sitting close to £60k all spread across credit cards. This basically kept us afloat during Covid but now I could really do with it being paid off but with the cost of living crisis it's so hard to run a business that has surplus cash.

We turnover around £80k a month but this goes towards buying stock, wages, VAT, rent etc etc so trying take even a sliver back is so hard.

I would love to know from any other business owners who have skin in the game

Is this more about how much you can pay yourself rather than how much you’ve invested?

No I'm interested to know if other business owners have money in their own business or if I'm a total anomaly and I should do something g drastic to get it out.

I'm paying myself a fairly basic salary each month

Anyone? Feeling like I've been stupid adding my own money in

It sounds like you’ve had the business a while and if you’re turning over £80k a month you should be able to make enough of a profit to pay yourself back

You need to forensically analyse your income to make sure your pricing is correct and your expenses to see what you can reduce

If you’re turning over about £1M per year I would expect you to be able to pay yourself more than a basic wage, pay yourself dividends, and also recoup your investment.

What kind of business is it, and are you sure your profit margins are enough?

We took on a lot of debt over Covid as we were one of the industries that got closed so we have a really heavy debt repayment. It just all feels very hard at the moment.

I suppose I'm just looking for some hope and light.

We've just managed to improve our profit margins by changing to a cheaper supplier so I'm hoping soon we'll see that impacting.

I was really looking for anyone else who has personal money invested in a business. Maybe this doesn't happen as much as I thought?

I suppose if you are managing to pay off the debt then that gives you a projection of when you can get your money out too. Sorry things have been difficult for you. I did invest about £100k in my business but that was several years ago and I got it back out within the year. Different times I guess. I hope it resolves for you soon.

@JustPleachy thank you so much this is what I needed to hear. That someone else has done this and that it worked out. We are chomping away at the debt but by bit.

I did, a small amount to start up (about £5k) but managed to recoup it by year 2 of running my business.

I work with small businesses and a lot of them invest their own money into the business. How and when they take that out depends on their business model.

I would say that if your turnover is 1M you really should be looking at significantly increasing your margins/ diversifying your offering to generate more profit.

I put about £20k of my own money into my business and I now have it back. I don’t think it’s unusual to put your own money in. I know a lot of business owners that have. As long as you’re a major share holder it’s fine.

What are your profit margins?

We took a Covid bounce back loan which we are paying back but otherwise no borrowings or money invested

I put in £45,000 initially but took it out in stages over year 3 and 4. None of it was credit cards. All savings.

Running your business on credit card loans is not wise. Why have you not done a full business plan and presentation to the bank for a business loan?

Also what do you call a basic salary being taken out each month with a turnover of £80k monthly? This is really important.