Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Excuses. Here I am. So.
[00:00:06] Hi guys and welcome to this week's Profit first podcast and newsletter. It's actually been some time, so I apologize for people that have been following the podcast, reading the newsletter and you enjoy staying up to date with my thinking and anything that's going on in my business and ultimately my, my world. So just give a little bit of background in terms of the podcast, the newsletter.
[00:00:32] I run Grow Profit First Accountants. We are certified Profit first professionals. We are a proactive accountancy firm that helps business owners build a better business. But starting with the finances. We believe that the finances are the foundations to a solid business. You, yes, when you start your business you are probably not obsessed about your finances. You maybe you are to the point that you want to pay yourself a wage, you want to better pay your mortgage. Ultimately you're kind of a little bit in survival mode when you first start a business. But as your business grows, when you become VAT registered, when you become a limited company, when you take on team members, at some point, you cannot wing it when it comes to your numbers and you need to understand your numbers at a deeper level. And you can try and become a bookkeeper, try and become an accountant. You know, we've seen people do qualifications around accounting, which is really interesting because in my experience qualifications is the, the kind of cost of entry, but it's the experience which really makes all of the difference.
[00:01:41] But I'm not saying as a business owner you cannot, you know, learn and grow because we are big believer in self development.
[00:01:49] But I believe as an entrepreneur it's not about the academics, it's about understanding the fundamentals, the reality, the nuances of business, the nuances of your finances. So if you listen to this podcast, I will help you understand your finances better over time. We've also got the Grow Academy. If you go onto our website it's we are grow and it's Grow without a W G R O We are grow. So W E A R e g r o.co.uk and click on I think it's Academy or Learn in top right corner. You can sign to our school account and we will teach you some of the fundamentals to a profit first. It's fairly new but we are adding a lot more resources over time. If you are a client you get higher level courses, programs, material.
[00:02:36] But even if you're not a client of ours, feel free to join and get some, some, some material. So let's dive into the meat of the topic. So why have I not done the podcast for a few weeks. Quite simply, my virtual assistant has left the business.
[00:02:51] So it kind of broke the workflow a little bit because we were dependent on her to help production get out there. But we're back on track and, you know, we'll be back on a weekly routine of sharing insight. So what I want to talk about, I want to talk about a couple of things. One is I had 10 days in Orlando, Florida about a month ago. And I believe that absolutely, as a business owner, I hear people and you've heard me talk about this before, probably if you've been following the podcast, reading newsletters, or you know me, is taking the holiday taking time out from your business, it's not a nice to have. It is essential.
[00:03:29] You need to protect the asset. The asset in your business is yourself. It's you, the business owner. If you get burned out, if you're overwhelmed, if you're lacking energy, if you're lacking clarity, if you're lacking focus, motivation, how is that going to impact your business? How's it going to impact your thinking that then impacts your actions, that then impacts your results? And when we're talking about profit first, if you listen to this for the first time, thinking, what's this got to do with profit first? Yes, we will talk about the mechanics of profit first based off the book and we go into deep detail. We're certified in that system. However, it's all about making more profit. It's ultimately all about building a business that gives you the life you want and you need to be more profitable to do it. But you often need to work on yourself, work on your mindset. It's all related. You cannot just work on one. You know, Tony Robbins talks about the wheel of life, but there's also the wheel of business mindset, finance, marketing, operations, how you solve your issues. All these things are into connected. So taking time out of your business is a must have. So if you've not been on holiday for some time, I urge you to just start with a week. If you're not comfortable taking that amount of time off your business, you start with a weekend, then build it towards a week. And then the goal should be to literally take more time away from your business over time. So I've took a month off from my business for the last few years. Yes, I appreciate, you know, we're all in different places in our journey.
[00:05:02] I've got a team of more than a dozen in the business now and I'm very fortunate. But I've been working on this for over 10 years, probably about 15 years.
[00:05:10] So it needs to have the intention of how can I do that in my business? Even if you're a freelancer, a consultant, it's just you. What cash reserves do I need to build up? What can I build? A holiday pot in my business that I've got this extra fund of money, that I've got the peace of mind, I can take that time off.
[00:05:27] Do you need a subcontractor or someone to help manage stuff when you're off? There's always a way of doing it. So, so we're all on our own journey. And the other thing I want to talk about today is the game of business.
[00:05:43] So I'm just going to share a little bit of a story. So ultimately business is. A lot of people think business is a game because there's rules, there's best practice, there's a way of winning, you know, winning success is an interesting topic in itself because it means different things to different people. But, but it's fair to say when it comes to business there's ways of going about it, but being more profitable, having a more enjoyable business, creating a better service, having a bigger impact.
[00:06:08] These are the universal rules of business. And if you're a smaller business, you are.
[00:06:14] At the end of the day it's all about the owner and their family. Giving yourself the freedom, money wise, mind wise, purpose wise, to be able to do the things you want and to get that kind of work life balance. You want to earn more and probably have more flexibility with your time. So there's best practice to get to that point. You know, there's kind of rules of the game and I want to give you an example.
[00:06:39] So I've always been a little bit of a gamer. You know, I was, I was a teenager in the 90s, I was born in 83 so I've always been fond of kind of retro games, although Pac man was a little bit before my time. I think it's, you know, quite cool because I grew up with Nintendo and gaming so my wife got me a Pac man machine from one of the Smith's toy stores. It's kind of a replica, slightly smaller than the real size and a lot cheaper. But it's, you know, it's really, I really like it and it. And it's in our living room, it's in the corner and we've got a kind of wall where we've got kind of fun stuff like that going on.
[00:07:15] And everybody was trying to get the highest score on Pac man. And I think people struggling to get above 12 or 13,000 points.
[00:07:24] And I was maybe I got to 14 or 15. And that was through sheer grit and determination. I was just focused 100%, put all the effort in trying to beat my score. And that got me to, like I said, around 15,000, you know, something along those lines. And I was quite proud. But I wasn't that much above everyone else, but. And I played more than everyone else. And then, then I decided to do some research and hopefully my, my family who, who've played the game, don't listen to this because I'm going to give you a tip or strategy, let's call it, because that's more fits the bill.
[00:08:05] So I decided to do some research. I decided to go deep and take it seriously. I'm not trying to be a Pac man world champion, but let's just, let's think a little bit more strategic. So I went on to YouTube and I looked at strategies to get high scores on my particular version of Pac man. And I found there was a set routine, bit like a dance routine, you know, a kind of, what's the word? A kind of roadmap of a pathway. Exactly. Where do you, how do you approach the game rather than just making up as you go along with, which is what a lot of business owners do in our businesses, we try and make it up as we go along. So anyway, it didn't really take me that long. I watched the video for a few minutes, I practiced, and before you knew it, within a few days it probably took me two months to get to 15,000 or maybe 17,000.
[00:08:58] Then I went to about 35,000 in days because I had the right strategy. I understood the rules of the game, I understood how to hack it, I understood what was important to get the points.
[00:09:15] So in business, I want you to think about this. In your business, are you making it up as you go along?
[00:09:20] Do you know the rules to the game? Do you know the strategies? Because there's strategies to make your life easier. Ultimately, like I said, we're all trying, we're all trying to build a more profitable business to give us free freedom financially and time wise and mind wise, you know, in terms of our mindset so we can detach from the business and go on holiday. It's not just about the money, it's also about being able to detach yourself mentally.
[00:09:46] So my results in Pacman doubled and also when I look at my own business journey, my results have gone through the roof. Since I followed systems. There's systems out there to grow your business.
[00:10:00] The systems out there to manage your cash flow, make more money. The systems out there to manage your team, to grow a team. The systems out there to get more customers, to attract the right customers that can invest the right amount in your services, that appreciate you.
[00:10:16] And I've been on that journey in business for probably the last 10 years now, so hopefully you can relate this to your business. Where do you need a new strategy? Where do you need a different strategy? And that's about learning. Whether you go and invest in a business book, whether you go and invest in a personal development book for yourself, whether you find a team of experts, whether you go and work with someone who understands marketing, who understands how to get the best out of people, who understands how to manage your numbers and optimize your profits.
[00:10:52] Whatever it is.
[00:10:53] There's rules to business and there's strategies to be more successful.
[00:10:58] So hopefully that's useful. Guys, I'm glad to be back on the podcast. As always, reach out to me if you've got any questions, whether you're a client or not.
[00:11:07] I'm also going to be more hands on for our clients for the rest of the year.
[00:11:13] I'm excited to announce I will be running live workshops and the recordings will go into the academy. If you're a client that grows, you get access to these workshops. They will help you build a better, more sustainable business and hopefully I'll see you there.
[00:11:30] Excuses.
