and less in the business and with each stage comes more freedom. It also makes the business easier to sell as the Seller is not integral to the operations and so does not create a key person issue. This can take years to accomplish, but with diligent effort and understanding that this level of freedom is one of the objectives of the business, it can be achieved in most cases (often with the help of a business scaling coach). There is one caveat to the pursuit of freedom for its own sake. We have seen some new business owners be so successful that they feel they have lost their freedom to HR issues, VAT reports, legal issues, doing everything for 60 hours+ a week, etc. and come to us and feel the solution is to sell their business to get their freedom back. We always counsel that generally there is a better way than selling as a successful business producing yearly cash flow is a great thing to have and hard to replicate. The solution often is simply to change the way of working to get their freedom back, although this is very difficult to do without help. Fortunately, help is at hand. There are great business scaling coaches that can help with structuring your business to delegate more and get your freedom back while still enjoying the fruits of your business. One of them has written a guest chapter later in this book. 2. Financial Return - Making a Good Living - It goes without saying that if you own a business, you control the bank account and can pay yourself what you want within the limits of the profits, business plan and good tax advice. This is different from having a salary that you have, a 3rd party owner or a boss that you need to negotiate with every year. If the business does well, this allows you to extract a good living. For some of our clients, a very good 7-figure living! How you pay yourself is a matter for you and your tax advisor. Usually, a minimal amount is PAYE and dividends make up quite a big portion, but these can be paid to family members who have a small shareholder to minimise tax. So there are many opportunities
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