Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Excuses. Here I am. So.
[00:00:06] Speaker A: Hi, guys, and welcome to this week's Profit first podcast. I'm Stephen Edwards. I'm the founder of Grow Profit First Accountants, and we are leading Profit First Accountants in the uk. So on this podcast, I talk about all things Profit first, but ultimately, anything that's going to help you build a better and more profitable, a more sustainable and probably a more enjoyable better business. Because when we've got more bandwidth and we've got more buffer in terms of cash and profit in our business, things just feel a little bit easier, which makes them more enjoyable, less stressful, and we're not focused on just surviving and, you know, paying all the bills. So today I want to talk about, I want to share a story off the back of a Mastermind event I've been to recently with around a dozen business owners. So one person in the room was talking about her targets for her business. She was talking about her personal income target, and she had a figure she wanted to aim for. She's had some personal challenges, she's had some issues, and she's got a figure that she, she aims for in her business. And she shared that with the people in the room in confidence. I'm not going to share the number, of course. And everybody pretty much had the same view. We all thought this number was too low, it was more than achievable. But the thing is, this business owner was pretty much asking for permission. She was seeking validation. It's, you know, business takes its toll on people. It beats us down. It's difficult. When we start a business, we're super excited. But then the reality kicks in. It's why so many businesses actually fail within the first few years. Is this tough? It's more difficult than what people realize. It can become easy, but you've got to go through that complexity, got to learn the lessons, pay the dumb tax, so to speak, to make it easy. And in her case, she's had a lot of challenges. She's feeling it's not where she wants it to be, but it was pretty clich. She's comparing us after other people. And comparison is the thief of joy. Comparison puts us into a scarcity mindset. Comparison drains our energy. And the problem is we, we're comparing our circumstances and our position and our success, quote, unquote success to other people. But the problem is we're all different. And when we're comparing to others, we need to change our mindset and we need to focus on ourselves. We've got our own life to, to, to worry about. Let alone worry about somebody else's. And that's the problem with social media. It's the problem with the interconnected world that we live in. You use comparisons from the perspective to say to yourself, oh my God, it's possible to do that. That's a roadmap, that's a blueprint, that's a design, that's something I can follow. But don't use it to make yourself feel that you're a failure. And one of the positive things you can do is to actually look at your own progress. Look backwards and realize how far you've come in the last 12 months, in the last three years. And you'll probably be quite surprised. I often back to my journals and I look at some of the things I was aiming for, which I'm going to lead you onto in a second and talk about, and I've achieved them. And it made me realize that growth compounds and over a sustained period of time we can get amazing results. So she kind of needed permission to, you know, is it okay to hit this number? And everybody said, yes, of course it is. More than okay, you should be actually earning more than that figure. And she was like, oh my God, okay, maybe I should up my figure. So one of the things I want to share with you, Lead, linking this into my own journey was around four or five years ago. I had an income target. And all of you, by the way, if you're listening to this and you haven't got an income target, you should have one. I promise you it's one of the most powerful things you can do because you're making it real, you're making it a reality. It's not just this wishy washy thing you want to achieve. And even better, the income target should relate to things in your life. You should, should budget out, cost out while you've got the income target. So if you want to earn, make up a number, you know, 70k a year after tax, I'm just making up that number. It could be less, it could be more. Cost it out. Why do you want that figure? Why is that figure important to you? How much do you need for holidays? How much do you need for your mortgage? How much do you need to set aside of pensions? How much do you need for running your house?
Literally cost it out. Make it a reality, make it real and make it exciting as well. Make it challenging. So I had a figure in mind a few years ago and had a target for what I wanted in my life. I and I realized that although it gave me Kind of all the core things I want in my life, I'll be super comfortable, you know, happy. From a financial perspective, I realized it was limiting me. I could achieve a lot more. And some of you maybe got a little bit of a money mindset issue around this, that sometimes when I talk to people about setting a higher target, they say, I don't need more. I'm not talking about needs, I'm talking about wants. You know, needs comes from scarcity. If we're just talking about what we need, no one needs to watch Netflix, no one needs to have two cars in the house, no one needs to go on holiday, no one needs to have a takeaway or go out for restaurant meals. We need to be careful not to be stuck on I don't deserve that or I don't need that. You know, there's a whole different conversation in terms of these things are not going to make you happy, which is a different conversation altogether. You know, some people want things they don't need and they're wanting things for the wrong reason. However, don't limit what you can achieve. Don't limit your thinking. Don't, you know, when you say, I don't need that amount of money, think about what you could do with that money. What does money mean to you? To me, money can create opportunities. Obviously there's a limit to what we need. But to me, money is not money. Money is actually a sign of you gave value to people because if you're being rewarded in monetary terms, you've earned it through value creation for other people because they're being rewarded and they feel it's an investment by spending money with you.
So it's actually recognition of value you've given, but it's also, it's also what do you do with that money? And you know, if you've got. For me, it's going on holidays, it's investing in my family's future, it's security.
So I had an income target and I decided it was limiting me. So I decided to double the target. I doubled it. I didn't need to double it. I already costed out what I kind of needed or even wanted to some extent. But I didn't limit what I can achieve because I'm limiting the value I'm creating. If I'm saying going to stop that, that means I'm basically not going to give more to more people because the more, you know, an enterprise is making in profit and the more the owner's kind of being rewarded in many ways. And obviously you want to share it with your team. The more value you're given to more people or, or you're going deeper into less people, the value you're given. So how did I emotionally connect to doubling the. The target? So for me it was about given. If I'm going to double it, I don't. Again, I didn't need it personally. I'm gonna, I'm in a better position to help my family, to help my mum, to help the in laws, to help my children and then to have that buffer. And it's fun to grow, it's fun to evolve. You know, the universe is always growing. Trees generally don't stop growing, they keep on growing. And our businesses should be the same. And you know, don't get too fixated on the fact is money, focus on the value you're given. But whatever circumstances you're in, it doesn't really matter what the number is. I just want you to not set the bar too low because subconsciously, whatever you aim for, your mind is going to think of ways to achieve it. The antenna is going to go up. You've got to tune into the frequency. If you're aiming to earn K a year, your antenna is going to tune into 40K a year. It's going to be looking for opportunities that can help you get closer to that target. If your antenna is trying to get a K a year, it's a different type of thinking, it's a different frequency. You're going to need to do things a little bit different, differently. You're going to need to have different conversations. You're going to start maybe going on more courses, mixing with different people, reading more books, getting a bit more serious. So the main takeaway is don't undervalue your worth. Don't undervalue the value you can provide to your team and to your customers and to the outside world. And don't feel bad for wanting more. I don't want you to limit what you can achieve. And in this case, with this business owner and this mastermind, the advice I gave her was double your target. Just expand your horizons. Double your target. Hopefully that's useful. Guys, as always, if you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to reach out to me or my team and have a great few days. Cheers. Excuses.
So.
