If Only Every Business Had Implemented Profit First Pre-Pandemic
Over the last 2 years, I have helped numerous businesses implement Profit First. Profit First is a fantastic cash management system that helps you keep an eye on your cash as well as look at ways to increase your profits and consequently the amount you pay yourself for all the efforts you put into the business.
The first step on this journey for clients I have helped over the past 2 years was for them to read the book which is now a best seller on Amazon to understand the basics. Just reading the book on its own will not help the business which is where I come in and give the support and guidance that is needed to get Profit First working in the business.
Business owners must be willing to spend some time implementing the system and to have the motivation to change the way they run their finances in the business otherwise it will not work, and you will not see the true benefits of running this system. Over the last 2 years, I have seen an increase in the number of businesses wanting to implement Profit First as they have had the time to get to know how it works and they know they need a cash management system when businesses get back to normal as we all know cash is sanity and profit is vanity.
I have helped all sorts of businesses ranging from a restaurant in London to an engineering company and I’m pleased to say that 100% of businesses I have worked with on implementing the Profit First system has seen an increase in profits, cash, and take-home pay (check out this article to read more about implementing Profit First.) The business owners now have the confidence to keep on top of the weekly allocations (you will know what this means if you read the book linked above) to the respective bank accounts and have taken bonus profits each quarter.
The business owners had to make some tough decisions in respect of cutting wages and having some hard discussions with suppliers, but it made them look hard at their figures knowing that the result would be higher profits and more money in their pocket each month.
When you first read the Profit First book, you might think you can go ahead and implement the methodology alone, however, I know from first-hand experience that you need to be accountable to make positive changes, and with my experience getting businesses up and running with the Profit First system, you will find yourself with the motivation to stay on top of your finances and move funds between the bank accounts. I often compare business owners to athletes; you want to continuously improve and break their personal bests which means you have to have a coach who pushes you and makes sure you get things done. We should take the same attitude in the business world, and it has proven that if you are held accountable things will get done and you will see the improvements.
At Raffingers, we are one of only a few certified Profit First firms in the UK and we're thrilled to have the author and creator of the Profit First methodology, Mike Michalowicz join us on our podcast – Beyond The Balance Sheet to talk through the Profit First method and how he came up with it, to begin with. Check out the interview here.
For more info on Profit First – feel free to explore these links:
Profit First - https://profitfirstbook.com/
Mike Michalowicz - https://mikemichalowicz.com/
Connect with Mike - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemichalowicz/
If you would like to get in touch with Lee or any of our other Profit First professionals, click here to find out how we can help.