For the first year and three quarters of Garden Ninja Studios, we didn’t take a dime out of the business. We put up a very small amount of startup capital, and then just let the business pay for itself, and begin to accumulate. We lived off my teaching income for the first year, and then our savings and my some-time shipping assistant gig for the next eight months.
And then, six months ago, we ran out of money in the family accounts. We needed to start drawing from the business, and so we did. April marks the sixth month of our lives paid for entirely through funds from Garden Ninja.
But the amount we needed to pull in order to pay taxes and maintain our lives was larger than the amount that Garden Ninja was bringing in each month. This was scary, because it meant our business was now shrinking, rather than growing. So we bit our nails and watched as each month the amount of increase from the business crept closer to the amount of money we needed to live. Either that gap was going to close, or we would eventually run out of money and have to rearrange our lives.
I did the March accounting today, and discovered that last month we pulled from the business exactly the same amount of money that the business brought in. That’s AFTER business expenses.
Which means for the first month ever, we held even.
I don’t expect we’re going to be there every month, because these things fluctuate. But this means it’s possible.
And that is cause for celebration.
