A common piece of advice to business owners is to ‘pay yourself first.’ This works great, except being a business owner often means inconsistent cash flow and operating costs that need to be paid to sustain (e.g., try paying yourself before the cell phone company or your team and see how long your business lasts). This uncertainty makes it difficult to budget and have a consistent financial plan. One way to alleviate this concern is to look at business owners’ lack of consistent pay as a way to build the equity value of the business over time rather than just expense or lost opportunity.