🔥 STEP 4ad — BUSINESS ACCOUNTS

A Complete Master-Level Guide for Entrepreneurs, Side Hustlers & Wealth Builders

Part of Step 4: Setting Up the Framework

Tone: Motivational + Conversational | Icons: Emoji + Bold Headers

🌟 INTRODUCTION — Where You Become a Real Business Owner

You’ve structured your:

Personal accounts
Savings buckets
Investment accounts
Brokerage strategy

Now you enter the entrepreneur’s domain — where money stops being earned only from your labor and starts being generated by systems.

Step 4ad is the moment where:

Your business becomes financially real
Your side hustle becomes an asset
Your taxes become strategic
Your income becomes scalable
Your money becomes clear, organized, and protected
Your business becomes ready to grow

Most entrepreneurs never build a business properly because they never build the financial structure that supports growth.

This module solves that forever.

By the end of Step 4ad, you’ll have:

A complete business banking architecture
A Profit First engine
A tax protection system
A cash flow structure
A predictable payroll system
A money flow map
A stable platform for growth
A foundation for your future business steps
A structure your accountant will LOVE
A system wealthy business owners use every day

Let’s turn your business into a financial machine.

🧭 SECTION 1 — WHY BUSINESS ACCOUNTS MATTER MORE THAN MOST PEOPLE THINK

Most entrepreneurs make one huge mistake:

👉 They run their business money through their personal accounts.

This causes:

Tax chaos
Overspending
Missing deductions
Stress
Mis-reporting income
IRS red flags
Mixed liability
Zero clarity

Businesses cannot grow in chaos.

A business without structure is a business that will:

Stay small
Stay fragile
Stay stressful
Stay unpredictable
Stay stagnant

But with structure?

Your business becomes:

Predictable
Scalable
Tax-efficient
Professional
Protected
Organized
Aligned
Stress-free
Wealth-ready

This isn’t just accounting.
This is business engineering.

🏦 SECTION 2 — THE 5 BUSINESS ACCOUNTS EVERY ENTREPRENEUR NEEDS

There are five core business accounts required for a stable, scalable, profit-driven business:

✔ 1. Income Account

✔ 2. Operating Expenses Account (OpEx)

✔ 3. Owner’s Pay Account

✔ 4. Profit Account

✔ 5. Tax Account

This is the core of the Profit First methodology — but improved, simplified, and Life’s Wealth Quest optimized.

Let’s break them down.

🏁 1. Income Account (The Business Command Center)

All business income flows here first.

You do NOT:

Pay bills from this
Pay yourself from this
Pay taxes from this
Run expenses from this

This account’s only job is to collect money and then distribute.

Think of it as:

“The bucket that catches all business revenue before it's poured into the right containers.”

⚙️ 2. Operating Expenses Account (OpEx)

This pays for:

Software
Marketing
Tools
Subscriptions
Contractors
Supplies
Business equipment
Any expense required to run the business

This account keeps your business honest.

If your OpEx account is low, your business is overspending — NOT you.

Most businesses fail because their OpEx is unregulated.

Not yours.

💵 3. Owner’s Pay Account

This is your salary from your business.

It is NOT:

Profit
Bonus
Extra income
Random draws

It is a predictable, stable income you pay yourself as the owner.

This:

Creates consistency
Creates personal stability
Helps you budget
Helps you plan
Feeds your portfolio

As your business grows, your Owner’s Pay grows.

🟩 4. Profit Account

Profit is not what’s left over.
Profit is planned at the beginning.

Every business should generate profit from DAY ONE — even if it's small.

Profit is:

Growth fuel
Emergency buffer
Owner reward
Business stability
Expansion capital

You will transfer a percentage every time money arrives.

Your business becomes profitable by structure, not accident.

🟥 5. Tax Account (Very Important)

This is where you eliminate tax fear forever.

You will:

Calculate an estimated tax percentage
Transfer it every time income comes in
Let it accumulate
Sleep well

When tax season comes:

You have the money
You’re not stressed
You don’t scramble
You’re ahead of 95% of business owners

This account alone can change your entire entrepreneurial life.

💼 SECTION 3 — OPTIONAL BUT POWERFUL ADD-ON ACCOUNTS

If your business grows beyond $5k–$10k/month, you may add:

✔ Marketing Account

✔ Payroll Account

✔ Emergency/Reserve Account

✔ Equipment Fund

✔ Inventory Fund (for product businesses)

✔ Annual Expenses Account

✔ Consulting/Coaching/Education Fund

But in Step 4ad, we focus on the core 5.

🧭 SECTION 4 — WHERE TO OPEN YOUR BUSINESS ACCOUNTS

Here are the best options:

🥇 Chase Business

Excellent for scaling
Great interface
Good credit card ecosystem

🥈 Bank of America Business

Good for established businesses
Decent for loans

🥉 Novo (Online)

Great for small entrepreneurs
Excellent for online businesses
Clean interface

🟦 BlueVine

High-yield business account
Simple setup

🟩 Mercury

Perfect for tech, startups, creators
Best interface for digital entrepreneurs

Pick based on:

Monthly revenue
Business type
Local vs online preference

📊 SECTION 5 — THE PROFIT FIRST PERCENTAGES (Adapted for Life’s Wealth Quest)

A simple breakdown for your first $250k/year in revenue:

🔸 5% → Profit

🔸 15% → Taxes

🔸 30% → Owner’s Pay

🔸 50% → Operating Expenses

This is the starter structure.

But as your business grows:

⭐ Revenue under $100k/year:

Profit: 1–5%
Owner Pay: 30–50%
Taxes: 15%
OpEx: 30–50%

⭐ Revenue $100k–250k/year:

Profit: 5–10%
Owner Pay: 20–35%
Taxes: 15–20%
OpEx: 35–55%

⭐ Revenue $250k–500k/year:

Profit: 10–15%
Owner Pay: 25–35%
Taxes: 20–25%
OpEx: 30–45%

⭐ Revenue $500k–1M/year:

Profit: 10–20%
Owner Pay: 20–30%
Taxes: 20–30%
OpEx: 30–40%

You will adjust these algorithms in Step 5 of your Quest.

🏦 SECTION 6 — THE BUSINESS MONEY FLOW SYSTEM (Your Ultimate Blueprint)

This is your business pipeline:

Income Account → Profit → Owner Pay → Taxes → Operating Expenses

Every time money hits your Income Account, you will transfer percentages to:

✔ Profit
✔ Tax
✔ Owner Pay
✔ OpEx

This creates:

Stability
Simplicity
Clarity
Predictability
Profitable behavior

This is the soul of a scalable business.

📘 SECTION 7 — THE RULES OF BUSINESS ACCOUNTING FOR ENTREPRENEURS

These are non-negotiable:

✔ Rule 1: You NEVER mix business and personal money

✔ Rule 2: You ALWAYS pay yourself from Owner’s Pay

✔ Rule 3: Profit is transferred FIRST

✔ Rule 4: Taxes are sacred

✔ Rule 5: OpEx must live within its account

✔ Rule 6: You check accounts weekly

✔ Rule 7: You run your business like a CFO, not a hobbyist

These rules turn business into wealth.

📚 CASE STUDY — Lisa Before & After Profit First

Before:

One account
No clarity
No profit
Tax panic
High stress
Barely paying herself

After implementing the 5-account system:

5% profit immediately
Paid herself consistently
Tax money available
Expenses reduced 23%
Stress disappeared
Revenue grew 38%
Profit doubled in 12 months

Structure = freedom.

🧠 SECTION 8 — HOW TO DETERMINE YOUR BUSINESS TAX PERCENTAGE

You will base tax allocation on:

Entity type (LLC, S-corp, sole prop), Lesson in Step 4c: Incorporation
Revenue level
Profit level
State taxes
Federal rate bracket

General guideline:

✔ 15% for revenue under $100k

✔ 20% for revenue $100k–250k

✔ 25% for revenue above $250k

Your accountant will refine it, but this system will keep you stable.

🧾 SECTION 9 — HOW TO PAY YOURSELF AS A BUSINESS OWNER

If you’re:

👤 A sole proprietor or LLC (non-S-corp)

You take Owner’s Draw into your personal Owner’s Pay account.

👥 An S-Corp owner

You run a reasonable salary through payroll AND owner’s distributions from profit.

💼 A multi-member LLC

You follow the operating agreement and distribution schedule.

C-corps, will be explained in later sections.

Your pay is NOT random.

It is structured.

🧱 SECTION 10 — BUSINESS EMERGENCY FUND

Every business should hold:

✔ 1–3 months of Operating Expenses (minimum)

✔ 3–6 months of OpEx (growing business)

✔ 6–12 months (established business)

This protects you from:

Slow months
Revenue dips
Economic downturns
Business emergencies
Stress and panic

This fund will SAVE your business someday.

🚀 SECTION 11 — BUSINESS CREDIT & FUNDING SYSTEM

Once your business accounts are structured, you can build:

✔ Business credit

✔ Vendor credit

✔ Business credit cards

✔ Credit lines

✔ Business loans

✔ Growth funding

This opens the door to:

Real estate
Inventory
Expansion
Hiring
Major growth moves

You cannot build business credit properly without separate accounts.

🧭 SECTION 12 — THE BUSINESS ACCOUNT SETUP CHECKLIST

✔ Open Income Account

✔ Open Owner’s Pay Account

✔ Open Profit Account

✔ Open Tax Account

✔ Open Operating Expenses Account

✔ Choose your percentages

✔ Automate transfers

✔ Build your business emergency fund

✔ Create your Business Money Map

✔ Review monthly

Once these are done, your business becomes financially engineered.

🎯 SECTION 13 — YOUR ACTION PLAN FOR STEP 4ad

1️⃣ Open 5 business accounts

2️⃣ Choose a bank (Chase, Novo, Mercury, etc.)

3️⃣ Assign your Profit First percentages

4️⃣ Automate your transfers

5️⃣ Move ALL income to Income Account

6️⃣ Pay yourself from Owner’s Pay

7️⃣ Fund your Tax Account weekly

8️⃣ Reduce OpEx as needed

9️⃣ Review quarterly

🔟 Build your business emergency fund

This is how entrepreneurs scale.

🚀 CONCLUSION — YOU ARE NOW A FINANCIALLY ENGINEERED ENTREPRENEUR

You now have:

A complete business financial system
Profit First integrated
Personal and business separation
A predictable income model
A tax protection system
A scalable cash flow engine
A foundation for millionaire-level business growth
A structure that will support Steps 5–7 in your Quest

You are no longer “running a business.”
You are building a financial machine.

You’ve completed all of Step 4 — Setting Up the Framework.