Module 1 of 6 · 3 minutes
Two tins
Yesterday you took money.
How much of it was yours to spend?
Nothing you type here is sent anywhere.
The idea
The money in your tin is not all yours.
Part of it belongs to next week's stock. It's already spoken for. It just hasn't left yet.
Most owners can't say what's theirs. Not because they're bad with money, but because there's one tin and no moment where anyone decides.
Let's give you that moment. It takes three numbers.
Your numbers
A normal week
Everything that comes in. Guess if you have to.
Stock, transport, airtime, rent: everything the shop needs to open again.
Read this one carefully
There's nothing left over.
On these numbers, the week costs more than it brings in.
That's not a discipline problem and it isn't your fault. It's a price problem, and you've just found it. It's been leaking quietly for a long time. Now you can see it.
A wage you can't pay isn't worth setting today. Module 3 works out what one item actually costs you, and that's the one to do next.
If the numbers were a rough guess, go back and try again with closer ones. Small changes move this a lot.
Your wage
Split the tin
Pick a number under what's left. Not the whole thing, under it. The gap is what covers a bad week.
What if a big bill comes?
It doesn't come from the business tin. That's a different problem with its own answer, and setting the wage is what makes it visible in the first place.
What if family asks?
Your wage day is fixed and they know when it is. The answer stops being "no" and becomes "that's next week's". Say the day out loud at home. A private rule gets broken quietly.
What about a bad week?
The wage still comes out. The shortfall shows up in stock money, and that's your signal to change the number, not to quietly take more.
Your day
Same day, every week
One direction. Money moves from the business tin to yours, never back the other way.
Pick the day that already means something: the day you restock, or the day before your busiest one.
Your wage
Send it to yourself so it's in your chats when the week gets loud.
Module 2, Three numbers, is the next one.