Calculating Your Total Owner Benefits

About this episode

RJon Robins discusses how to calculate Total Owner Benefits for law firm owners, emphasizing the importance of understanding true profitability beyond just financial statements.

“There are three ways you’re going to get compensated from your business. One is W-2 Salary. Two is K-1 distributions. Three is other benefits.” – RJon Robins, author of Profit First for Lawyers How profitable is your law firm? The answer might be more complicated than what shows up on your P&L statement. In this third part of our seven-part financial literacy series, we revisit a topic from season one: Total Owner Benefits. A topic of such importance that it has an entire chapter devoted to it. Listen in as RJon takes a law firm owner through an exercise to calculate the true value they are receiving from their firm. Beyond the Bottom Line RJon poses a powerful question: Would you rather own Firm A (making $1M but working 70-hour weeks doing work you hate with no vacations) or Firm B (making $500K working 50 hours doing meaningful work with real time off?) Your banker might say Firm A is more profitable, but which would contribute to your family’s happiness more? The Real Math In the 2019 workshop, RJon shows how a business that appears to have a 20% profit margin actually delivers 38% in Total Owner Benefits when you account for all three components…

People in this episode

Host: RJon Robins

Topics covered

• owner benefits
• law firm profitability
• financial literacy
• business compensation
• work-life balance

Keywords

• Total Owner Benefits
• W-2 Salary
• K-1 distributions
• law firm
• profit margin

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Profit First for Lawyers

More episodes of Profit First for Lawyers

• A/R: It’s REALLY Worse Than You Think · June 9, 2026 · 50 min
• Understanding the Stages of a Law Firm’s Growth · June 4, 2026 · 30 min
• Regaining Time · June 2, 2026 · 30 min
• You’re Not Bad With Numbers · May 28, 2026 · 14 min
• Getting Rid of Guessing · May 26, 2026 · 37 min
• Think Like a Business Owner, Not Like a Lawyer · May 21, 2026 · 14 min