What Should Entrepreneurs Pay Themselves? Start Here. It's not a simple decision, but there is a right answer.

Jacques Spitzer was having a great run. He's the founder of Raindrop Marketing, based in San Diego, which scored triple-digit growth in each of the past four years. And yet, the success worried him. The problem: He had no idea what to pay himself. "Believe it or not, growth became frightening, not fun," Spitzer says. "I was afraid to touch our increasing profits until after each quarter's taxes were filed." And even after the paperwork was done, Spitzer and his partner, Adam Wagner, still worried that their own salaries would screw up their company.

So they played it safe, paying themselves the bare minimum to cover their lean lifestyles.