If you have just started a franchise business, your focus should be on sales, but with initial set-up costs, marketing and stock level building not coming cheap, how can you ensure your personal finances are accounted for?

Many franchise buyers are reluctant to pay themselves a wage in the early days, and this can have a misleading effect on business projections.

While it may seem like your business is profitable, the profits that you are generating are in fact a reflection of the wage you should be taking home, meaning that despite sales figures, the business is not profitable at all.

The owner, like anyone else in the business should be paid, and as a result, this wage must be built into the cash flow projections.

Together with Ian Dong, director of Rucker Financial, we put together this video outlining everything you need to know about paying yourself a wage as a franchise business owner and how to create a cash flow projection that accounts for it.