Your company is rich. Are you?

Hey there, Ben here. Welcome to the first issue of Contractors Digest. I keep each one short enough to read before the first jobsite call.

Picture an owner doing $6 million a year. Trucks are paid off, crews are busy, the backlog runs out to spring. Ask him what he's worth outside the company and he goes quiet. Almost everything he has is tied up in the business: equipment, receivables, retainage, and a line of credit with his name on the guarantee. If the company hit one bad year, one big claim, or one partner fight, his family's whole net worth would be standing in the blast radius. That's not a failure of hustle. It's a missing system, and most owners never get handed one.

How do you turn company profit into wealth that actually belongs to you?

The company making money and you building wealth are two different jobs. Here's how to make sure the second one happens on purpose.

1. Pay yourself on a schedule, not on leftovers. Most owners take whatever's left at the end of the month, which means nothing during a slow stretch. Set a fixed owner distribution date. Say you set a $10,000 monthly distribution on the 15th. That's $120,000 a year moving out on purpose instead of sitting in operating cash waiting to become the next truck.

2. Use a "pay the owner first" profit account. Open a separate account and send a set percentage of every deposit there. Say you move 5% of each customer payment. On $6 million in revenue, that's $300,000 a year set aside before anyone can spend it. Then you decide, calmly, how much stays for working capital and how much moves to you.

3. Stop commingling. Personal spending on the company card, company money in your personal account, one checking account for everything: it makes your books messy and can make it easier for a creditor to argue that you and the company are the same pocket. Separate accounts, separate cards, clean records of every distribution. (Issue 2 goes deeper on this one.)

4. Move wealth outside the blast radius. Money that stays in the company is exposed to the company's risks. Say you pull $150,000 a year out and build it into assets held outside the operating business. In ten years that's $1.5 million before any growth, somewhere a single bad job can't reach. Which structures and accounts fit you is a conversation for your CPA and advisors, but the habit starts with moving it out.

5. Review it quarterly. Put 30 minutes on your calendar every quarter: what did the company earn, what did I take, and where did it go? Looking four times a year beats looking once at tax time.

Log in to your bank and count your business and personal accounts. If any single account handles both business and personal spending, write down one step to split it this week. That's it.

If you read this and thought "that's me," start with the free Contractor Wealth Scorecard. It checks four areas (how you build, protect, invest, and plan your legacy) and shows you your biggest gap and what to fix first. No sales call needed.

Take the free Scorecard →

Hit reply and tell me: do you pay yourself on a fixed schedule, or whatever's left over? I read every reply, and your answers shape future issues.

Talk soon, Ben

P.S. The Scorecard is free and takes about 8 minutes. If you only do one thing from this issue, take it here and reply with your score. I'd like to see where you land.

Contractors Digest is for general educational purposes only and is not legal, tax, accounting, or investment advice. Talk with your own qualified advisors before making decisions for your business or family. Dollar examples are illustrative only.