Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Excuses. Here I am. So.
[00:00:07] Hi guys. Happy New Year and welcome to the Profit first podcast. I'm Stephen Edwards. I'm the founder of Grow Profit First Accountants. So if you've been following the podcast, listening to the podcast, or reading our newsletter for the last few months, you will know we go deep on a lot of the Profit first topics.
[00:00:27] We've got lots of resources, we've got lots of guides.
[00:00:30] We're kind of there on the ground, in the trenches, helping small business owners implement profit first. Get results, we give them their accountability.
[00:00:39] We understand what the challenges are, but we understand what you need to do to be successful with Profit First. But we are also more holistic.
[00:00:47] We believe there's three main ways that your accountant can actually help you build a sustainable and profitable business. And Profit first is one of the pillars. The two other pillars that the first one is actually strong finance foundations, putting the foundations in place so you've got up to date information, the numbers make sense, there's no uncertainty and there's no surprises when it comes to your finances. Number two is all about the profit improvement. That's where profit first comes in. And number three is proactive tax planning or wealth maximization.
[00:01:21] So we, we do take a holistic approach. Ultimately, we want to help you build a more profitable, sustainable and enjoyable business. And because the, the time of year we're into January, I still think in many ways we're in, we're in planning mode because we're coming to the end of, of January. We're in week three in, in 2026, if you haven't already. It's not too late to get your plan sorted for the year and I'm going to give you a really simple system to create a business plan. Because business plans get a bad reputation, a lot of people overcomplicate it, A lot of people think they need to always spend two days and full disclaimer. We did actually spend two days and I'll explain why in a second. But you don't need to spend two days, days, days, weeks, hours and hours creating your business plan. It can be quite simple and I believe this is the most powerful resource and framework to create your business plan you've probably ever come across. And this is from experience and I've took the best of the tools, the resources, my own learnings and what other people do to create a business plan process that tailored for smaller businesses, typically under a million pounds. The beauty in terms of revenue, the beauty with this is if you're more than a million pounds, you can still use the same framework. That's where the two day planning comes into play. Or if you've got a bigger team and it's not just you, so let's dive into it. So essentially this business plan is all about answering, asking and then answering is eight questions. So if you're a client of ours and if you have monthly meetings with, with Richard, who's the senior profit first accountant in our team, Richard, we're more than happy to go through this with you because there is something to be said in terms of using someone as a sounding board, having accountability. But you know, if you're new to planning, you by all means you can do this on your own and you can get that first draft done. Something is better than nothing because your plan doesn't need to be perfect.
[00:03:32] It's actually the exercise of planning that is where the value comes from. It's not the plan, it's planning itself. Because when you're planning, you're thinking, you're being more strategic and you can adapt to situations. If you have no plan, then how do you even know if it worked or not?
[00:03:50] So it's the planning process that's the most important. So I'm going to go through the eight questions you need to ask yourself and then you can answer to have a plan for 20, 26. And by the way, if you want a copy of the resource we've got where you can literally fill in the boxes and it's all there on two pages, just drop me a message and I will send you a copy of the eight question business plan. So number one, question number one, and I do appreciate that some of you have never probably been thought about these questions before. You've never really.
[00:04:25] So it might be harder for some of you than others because this, for some of you, this won't be your first rodeo with these questions. You've probably thought about it before. If you're completely new to it, that's fine, just have a go at it. As a rough rule of thumb, I would say give yourself two hours, a two hour session or maybe half a day with breaks to get version one done. Because version one is better than version nine. None. That's what we're looking for with this business plan. So question number one is what are your core values? What are the core values in your business?
[00:05:01] So when we actually work with people one to one to help them create the business plans, we go a little bit deeper. There are methods, there are processes to understand what your core values are. But at very high level, what are the standards in your business that are core to the way you are, who you are as an organization of often it comes initially from the owner, the founder. You know, try and pick three values that you know, you've probably, if you've employed people before, what made someone a good team member? What's made someone a bad team member?
[00:05:34] So look at the traits, look at the commonalities. What are the, the traits and the, the things you admire about the brilliant team members? They just get it, they understand, they get it. What it takes to be a team member for you or what your personal values. If it's just you, if you haven't got a team, what your personal values. So have a think about and I'll share what ours are and ours have changed over time. We used to have five or six and you know, you can, you can have more than three values but there should probably only be three core values really main ones and Pro TIP use an acronym. So our acronym is can K A N. So you have a can do attitude if you show our core values. The K stands for Kaizen Continuous improvement. The A stands for above the line of thinking, taking, ownership and accountability and responsibility. And the N stands for no eels. If you're familiar with Winnie the Pooh eels, very doom and gloom. He's negative, he's boring, he's. He's a drainer, he drains the energy. So we don't want eels in our business. We don't want toxic toxic positivity but we don't want people draining our energy. So that's our core values. Question number two is your. And by the way, you could probably spend four hours doing a core value workshop. But we're looking at a high level plan. We're looking for version one. We, we're looking for the 8020 principle just to get something to get you focused for 2026. Number two is your core focus. What is your core purpose, cause and passion?
[00:07:00] What is your core focus in terms of who do you want to work with? What's your core business offering? Because businesses get complex and sometimes we take on too many things.
[00:07:10] So what is the core focus? Who are your core customers? What's your core mission? What's your core purpose?
[00:07:17] What can you be the best in the world at? Because you know, I see these restaurants where there's a restaurant near our old office that said it was always struggling, trying to be successful and, and then it rebranded and it was pizza, pasta, sandwiches, etc.
[00:07:34] You can't be the best in the world at all. These different Things. There's like six or seven different things they do. But you can get businesses just restaurants just known for their steaks or just known for world class pizzas, or just known for the best ice cream you can get or the best coffee. Focus is key. What's your core focus? It could be your customers, it could be your mission, it could be your purpose. Just try and articulate what is your core focus. That's number two.
[00:07:58] Number three is what's your 10 year target?
[00:08:01] Just have a. This might be difficult for a lot of you. You might have no idea. But try and vision. Where do you want to be in 10 years time? What does ideal look like? Because if you have no idea where you're going, you are not going to get there. If you have some idea where you go in, you're more likely to head in that direction. So what is your 10 year target look like? Where, where do you want to be? Where do you picture the business and your personal life being in 10 years? It's not so much about you personally, it's about the business.
[00:08:28] However, as small businesses we do need to think about our first. So you could almost do some extra homework on what you want first. And then what does the business need to look like in 10 years? Put some numbers down, put some measurables down. You know, is it £1,000,000 in revenue? Is it 100k in revenue? Is it £10,000,000 in revenue? You make something that's kind of measurable so that if you were to Fast forward in 10 years time, you have an idea whether you hit it or not, doesn't it be perfect? If 10 years is too far ahead, try five years. Okay, but 10 years is often a good thing for the bigger picture. Don't limit what's possible. So that's question number three.
[00:09:05] Number four is your marketing strategy. Most businesses get stuck on playing the price game, trying to compete on price. If you have no marketing strategy, you will be stuck competing on price. You need to be different, you need to be unique. What are your three uniques? What make you unique in your industry, in your business or you as a person, in your experience? What's the three uniques about your business? This is key to a marketing strategy.
[00:09:32] Also, what's your proven process? Why? Why work with you? How do you do things? Do you, you know, for example, you might have a three step process but you've never thought about it that way. It might be if you're a builder, you, you always go around to the house to meet them face to face and Understand their needs, understand, you know, what, what their plans are, what their visions are, the difference it's going to make to the house. You might then go away and, and do a proposal. You then step three might be you come back and you run them through the proposal.
[00:10:04] That's before they even sign up. And there might be a process for how you deliver the work, but what your proven process or process is and try and keep this simple, you're probably already doing something. Just if you were to explain to a new customer what your proven process is in maybe three to seven steps, what does it look like?
[00:10:24] So three uniques, proven process. And do you offer any guarantees?
[00:10:28] Because if you offer a guarantee, it gives people peace of mind. Who wants to buy, you know, get a house built from a builder with no guarantee? Not me. And I imagine you don't as well. You know, imagine going to a restaurant where they say our food is so good, we guarantee you'll be satisfied or you get your money back. Obviously people can manipulate these things, but in our experience, most people don't take advantage of guarantees. But just offering one gives your customers peace of mind. So that forms your marketing strategy. So that was number four. So core values, core focus, 10 year target marketing strategy. Question number five is your three year picture. We're bringing it closer to home.
[00:11:09] Write the date in three years time. What's your revenue, what you want your profit to be and just a few measurables. How will you know you get there? Is it a new office? Is it certain amount of people in your team? Is it certain amount of customers?
[00:11:21] Is it something tangible? Just try and articulate. What does the three year picture look like for you in three years? Can you see what we're doing? We're trying to create a vision, we're trying to give you an idea where you're heading. Because if we don't do this, how on earth can you plan your week or your month if you don't know where you're going? You can't, you're, you're working backwards. If you're just showing up at work with no vision, it's virtually impossible to be successful. So what I'm talking about is the vision. So number five is the three year picture. Now what we can do is we can make it a bit more tangible. We can talk about the next 12 months. We can bring it to earth. So we've talked about the bigger picture, the vision. Now we can talk about your one year plan. We've done the 10 year bigger vision target, we've done the three year picture. Now we've got the one year plan. What are the goals for the year? What are the big things, one to seven things that need to happen to, to make it a successful year. In addition to your target for your revenue and a target for your profit, what are the, you know, one to seven goals, what needs to happen for you to get closer? Bear in mind where you want to go in three years, where you want to go in 10 years, what are the bigger picture goals? There's no point.
[00:12:32] You know, I speak to people that have amazing to do list with apps, AI, all these different things. There's lots of people using AI nowadays and, and they're like, oh, I ask AI to plan my week. But I can tell you it's not going to plan a week that suits your circumstances and your life if it doesn't know what your vision is or if you don't know what your vision is. So that's why we need to do the 10 year, three year picture first and then we can break it down to earth. What's important, what needs to happen by the end of the year. And then we can work backwards and think about what goals have you achieved. But definitely put down a revenue figure, definitely put down a profit figure because this is about accountability, this is about holding you accountable to that number.
[00:13:15] You want to push yourself, but you also want to be realistic.
[00:13:18] So that was number six. Number seven are what are your rocks? What are your 90 day goals? What are your 90 day projects? So we've got the one year plan, we've got the maybe one to seven goals that need to be achieved by the end of the year. What needs to happen in the next three months. And what we want you to do is plan each quarter as it comes along for the rest of the year. You know what the one year plan is, break down what's the focus for the next three months. They are your rocks, they are your 90 day priorities. What are the rocks? Because if you, you know, if you take a jar, you've got sand, you've got pebbles, got big rocks.
[00:13:57] If you put all the, the sand and the pebbles in first, there's no room for the rocks. There's a Great video on YouTube by Stephen Covey that explains this. There's no room for the big important things if you put the rocks in first. Everything else takes care of itself. So the rocks for your personal life are your health, your family, your friends, your well being, all of these things, you know, making sure you've got time for yourself.
[00:14:23] So what are the rocks for the next 90 days for your business by the end of March 26th? What are the rocks that need to happen to get you closer to that one year plan and ultimately that three year picture and that ten year picture?
[00:14:40] Finally, that was actually number seven. Finally. What are the issues? Because you've probably got loads of obstacles, you've got constraints, you've got resource problems, you've got capacity problems, you've got, you've probably got all these kind of challenges. What the big issues you need to focus on to get you to where you need to go. So an issue might be we haven't got enough team members or we can't afford the right team members. Or an issue might be your lack of time as the owner or the lack of cash in the bank to invest in certain things, or the lack of leads coming in to your business or the lack of knowledge. You can't do it all on your own. You need help. That's where we come in. Or business coaches come in or someone you can work with to move in the right direction. What are the key issues in your business? A lot of people understand the 80, 20, Pareto principle, Pareto principle when it comes to, you know, revenue, revenue generation and income. But they don't think about it when it comes to their obstacles. What are the 20% of the issues giving you 80% of your problems? You know, if you've got 10 issues altogether, chances are there's two or three of them that are disproportionately causing you more hassle. What are those key issues? Get them down, you know, and identify those key issues.
[00:15:56] There's more to this by the way. So we've just talked about the eight things and just give you a recap. We've got your core values, your core focus, your 10 year target, your marketing strategy, your three year picture, your one year plan, your rocks and your issue list. The key thing to all of this is if you can do this. If you put answer these eight questions, reach out to me if you want the document. I've got a document for you to write all this down.
[00:16:23] You don't need. You could just do a piece of pen and paper. But got a really nice document if you do want to write it down. I've not shared it with everyone because I'm trying to encourage engagement. So feel free to reach out to me and my team if you do want a copy of the document. If we work with you one to one, just bring it up and there's something we can Arrange the problem with a lot of people. Even if you do this, this eight question business plan is accountability. You might create it and it goes in a drawer, it gets saved on your computer and you never look at it again.
[00:16:55] So accountability is one of the most underrated skills in business. It's not, I mean, when I say it's a skill, it's the awareness that you need accountability. I'm around a lot of business owners, there's a lot of knowledge out there, there's a lot of books, you know, training courses, coaches, mentors, online resources, podcasts.
[00:17:15] Most people don't need more knowledge, they need more accountability.
[00:17:20] They need more focus, more discernment.
[00:17:24] So accountability is a key skill. So what I urge you is, yes, you can create this plan as step one.
[00:17:30] How are you going to be held accountable to achieving this plan?
[00:17:34] So that's why we meet with a lot of our clients with Profit first every quarter. We hold them accountable, we know what they're trying to achieve and we look at their numbers with them and we hold them accountable.
[00:17:45] So this year we're actually introducing accountability coaching and we're doing it in a way that is really affordable. It doesn't have to be one to one. If you want that one to one attention, which we do with a lot of people, we meet a lot of people every month because their businesses are probably turning over several hundred thousand pounds. You know, they've got ambitious plans to grow their business and we're kind of more like a finance director and they need that one to one accountability.
[00:18:11] However, if you're a smaller business and you want more accountability, just carry on. Watching out for the podcast, reading the newsletter, we've got some exciting news. But ignoring what we do at Grow Profit First Accountants, in terms of what you need to do, answer those eight questions and you've got your business plan to get you going. And then think about how are you going to hold yourself accountable or who is going to hold you accountable. Have a great week. Cheers, guys. Excuses. Here I am so.
