Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hi guys, it's Stephen, EDS for Grow Profit First Accountants, formerly cta, formerly Chatham Tax Accountant. You may be watching, reading or listening to the Profit first podcast newsletter. So the content I share is mainly around the foundation of Profit First. So if you're a business owner, you're an entrepreneur, and you're looking to build a profitable, sustainable business without the stress and overwhelm that comes with growth, you want it. You know, we, we don't. Turnover is vanity. Profit is sanity. We're trying to build sustainable, stable businesses that actually support the owners and their lifestyle. So the finance is a big part of this. However, that it's not the only part of the puzzle. And I can't just come onto this every single week and give you new Profit first insights. Although there will be plenty to come in terms of client stories, practical tips, advanced strategies, I like to mix it up when I come and share my experience being a business owner, entrepreneur, accountant, as well as a Profit first certified coach and professional. So today I want to talk about where I believe most business owners are going wrong in terms of focusing on the, on the wrong things in their business. And I've been guilty of this. This is why I'm going to share this briefly with you. So most of the time we're reading the next book, we're looking for the new podcast. We're going to the next business workshop Mastermind event seminar. You know, information is everywhere nowadays. I do not believe we need more information as business owners in 2025. Or you might be watching, watching or listening to this in the future. But I do not believe we need more information. I believe what we need is more focus, more action, more implementation.
[00:01:52] So the problem is we're always looking for the shiny new thing that's going to basically grow our business.
[00:02:00] Actually most of the time, in my experience and dealing with lots of business owners, we need to overcome the obstacles. We need to overcome the challenges, the problems, the constraints. There's normally something that's holding us back and it really aligns with profit first, that if we simply try and grow the bucket or put more water in the bucket, if there's already leaks in there, it's just all going to come out the other end. So I want to talk about, you know, partly inspired by other people. So, Ryan Holiday, the obstacle is, is the way, which is inspired by Marcus Aurelius and Stoic philosophy and thinking. But I want to articulate this in a slightly different way that suits business owners and I want to make it practical for what you can do differently this week in your business. So I've got an exercise I've created and I want you, I'd love you to go through this exercise to see if you make any distinctions in your life, in your business. I've done it in my business, actually done it this Sunday. And I'm going to share with you the kind of the outcome. So what I want you to do is first get a piece of paper, pen and paper. I use a remarkable. You can use an iPad.
[00:03:08] It's better if it's. Personally, I think it's better. It's not an iPad because you can get. Get distracted. An iPad's got Netflix, it's got emails. Pen and paper is probably one of the best things you can do this on. And the first thing I want you to do is just write down all of the obstacles, challenges and constraints you feel are holding you back in your business. Get them all off your mind. So pause this video now if you're going to follow through. If you haven't got pen and paper, pause the video, pause the podcast. Go, go and get a pen and paper and then you can follow through. Perfect. Okay, so you've took the time, you've put through all of the challenges, all of the obstacles in your business. The next thing I want you to do is I want you to chunk together, batch together, similar obstacles, similar constraints, similar challenges. So, for example, there might be something around people in your business, there might be something around marketing, there might be something around finance. Whatever it means for you, I want you to group it together. Ideally, we only want no more than three or four groups. And, and if you've got loads of random things and they're kind of a group of one, put them into a bucket called other or something along those lines, you could have three main groups. For example, you could have one for marketing, one for finance, one for people, one for training, whatever it means for you. And you could have other group for all the kind of miscellaneous things.
[00:04:30] So again, pause the video if you haven't done already and complete that exercise. The next thing I want you to do is I want you to name the themes so, you know, look, you group them together for a reason. Now name it as one thing. Marketing challenges, cash flow challenges, people challenges, whatever it is. I want you to name the theme, pause the video if you haven't done already, or pause the podcast. Perfect. So the, the final thing I want you to do is you should have, you know, anything from maybe two to four, five, six categories, depending on how many challenges and obstacles you listed in the first place. What I want you to do next is I want you to put them into an order of hierarchy in terms of causality. So cause and effect. So whatever you think impacts something else lower down the food chain that needs to go at the top. So let me give you an example. If you've got cash flow problems, as one, but you've also got a bucket saying, we haven't got customers paying us enough, paying us the right price, paying us the right amount of money for the work we're doing, what comes first? Is it the cash flow problems or is it customers not paying us the right amount? It would be customers not paying us the right amount that causes. That's more of the root cause. And then the symptom, the effect, is cash flow problem. So what I want you to do is, is look at one thing on your list and then look at the next and say, which one comes first? And repeat that exercise until you've got number one, number two, number three, or however, however many categories you've got on your list. And then you will see the themes of the main obstacles that are affecting your business. The constraints, the challenges, the things that are holding you back. And you've now got them in order. So pause the video and do the exercise. If you haven't already, pause the podcast.
[00:06:26] So you've pretty much done the legwork. But what I want you to do now is look at that list. What have you learned?
[00:06:32] I'll share my experience. So I believed that, as most business owners seem to think, if we can just get more customers, more clients, if we can bring them into our funnel, we're going to grow our business. At the back of my mind, I'm like, actually, though, I know we need to maybe do more with our existing clients. Maybe we can upserve, provide more value, you know, get more referrals, create more Raven funds, build a community around our existing clients. So back in my mind, I'm like, most people think it's new clients, but actually, in my mind, it's doing more for existing. Our existing clients. But what surprised me is there was something else higher up in the order above, looking after our existing clients. And it was all about our team. It. It was all about our systems. So some of the challenges, I listed some of the obstacles related to the right team members, the right systems, the right process, the right culture, the right training, the right leadership. So when you think about it, what comes first?
[00:07:33] Is it providing a great service to your customers, or is it training your team to provide a great service. So that was the light bulb moment for me and I want you to do this for yourself. I'm just sharing my experience and the reason I'm doing all of this is I'm coming back to Ryan Holiday's theory. The obstacle is the way you know originated from Marcus Aurelius is rather than chasing shiny new things all the time, what is holding you back? What is stopping you from breaking through that ceiling? Smashing through that ceiling.
[00:08:04] Normally we're trying to get to a destination in our life and our business, but there's an anchor on us. We want to release that anchor to free us up to get where we need to go quicker. If you've, if you've listened to this, we've watched this and you've not done the exercise, please go back and do the exercise. I'm going to share the, the four step process I just shared with you in, in an email as well. If you're watching or reading this and share with me any insights, any distinctions, anything you've learned, it'd be great to hear from you. Because we're all business owners. We've all got our own way of thinking and seeing our business. But what I can say for certain is not enough of us focus on the problem, the obstacle, the constraint. We're too chasing shiny new things. I know. I've certainly done that in the past. Thanks, guys and speak to you soon.
