As an owner of a small retail business I have a decision that my accountant requests of me. We meet at the very end of December and he tells me how much my nursery has made that year and he asks me if I want to take all the profit out by writing my paycheck(s) for that amount. Since we are a corporation, any profit I leave in the business gets taxed, separately, as a corporation. Sometime in the future when I do take the money that is left it will be taxed yet again. So every December 31st  I write myself 12 payroll checks that represent the nurseries profit for that year. Here is the sad part. There is never enough money in the bank to actually cash the checks until after Spring. It doesn't matter if I make five thousand or five hundred thousand dollars in profit. The federal taxes, social security, matching social security, medicare, matching medicare on those checks have to be paid by January 3rd. Then we go into our worst sales months of the year during a time that we have to build inventory... so cash drains quickly. We essentially run out of cash by the end of most February's unless we borrow money from a bank or I personally loan my nursery money. 

My big fear is having an awful Spring. That could be because of cold weather into April or wet weather through May, or both. Then I would have paid substantial taxes on a salary that I can't cash the checks for. That happened in 1980 and it was really stressful. 

I would like to know how a nursery gets through a winter when the winter is 5-6 months long? Maybe I have it better than I thought. I better stop writing now while I am still feeling sorry for myself.