Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine

The philosophy and mindset about how to run finances in your buisness completely changed my friends buisness in huge ways. Implementing these ideas as well as a few other minor mindset changes from his buisness mentor had His buisness making 3x in the first quarter what it had made the entire preveous year.I inturn started a buisness and started off using these ideas and i saw great financial success in my first two months.This wont fully fix a broken buisness model, nor is this the "be all, end all" of how to run a buisness. But as far as buisness finances go it is a model that shows success from day one.I highly recomend reading this whole book, but there is a condensed "pamphlet" version of this book that is super small, i think 10 pages-ish, that highlights the main ideas, and even if thats all you read its very worth it

I'm a small business owner and was recommended this book by a friend. I am currently in chapter 2 but can already tell that all the information in this book is relevant, and beneficial to my current situation with my business (which is it needs a little help, haha). Would recommend this book to anyone who is looking to tackle their finances and improve their business.

Update: May 11, 2019 ***I was just browsing Amazon and came across this book again. I thought it would be helpful to give an update. My first review was probably October 2018. The advice / method in the book really worked for us and it has helped us so much that I tell every business owner about the method.I went back and reread the book in December to make sure we were doing it right. We were but we tweaked some things in Feb. (Like I take profit out every month - 100% of what I saved) We still do our cash flow and pay bills 3 times a week - doesn't work for us to do it 2 times a month. Too many bills since we do a lot of manufacturing. Although we are now starting to get ahead of bills by a week or two so when that happens we reduce how often we sit and do cash flow and pay bills.We started out doing 3% profit and now were are up to 8.5%For the first time ever I wasn't angry about paying taxes. Having a separate account to save for that is brilliant. We save for end of year taxes, payroll taxes and estimated taxes. We had $8000 or $9000 extra in the account after April 15 so we moved that money to pay off our Line of Credit (taken out a few years ago when we owed so much in taxes and had not saved)I don't wake up with the sick feeling every day wondering if enough money is coming in to pay the bills.We made some other changes to stop the roller coaster since we do manufacturing we get a lot of money in and then a lot of money out.We pay payroll every week - not every 2 weeks.We moved other things to pay once a week instead of every month or 2 weeks. Justhelps us (having payroll taxes in another account that is saved for helps as well since that was a big expense once a month)Personally we also set up accounts differently. I pay my car payment once a week (1/4th of a payment), my line of credit also once a week. I also put in 1/4 of my mortgage into a savings account since they only let me pay them once a month. All of that reduces strain and the roller coaster balances.Union bank is trying to charge me fees for so many transfers per month. I've been in talks with them as I'm not happy that they are charging me when it is in between my own accounts and it isn't a cost to them however since we are far more stable and profitable now, I am starting to reduce how often I transfer the funds out of income into Profit 1, Taxes, Sales Tax, Profit 2 (college account) and then to Operating expenses. It was every day before but now we are getting down to 2 times a week.Hope this helps! By the way, I'm still shocked it works or makes a difference. I thought we were frugal before so I'm not sure how we are seeing more profit but we are.______My husband and I have had a business for over 14 years. We first read and started implementing the plan in the book about 2 weeks ago. I found the book helpful. Some solid new ideas that I've not read anything else. It did help us to pull out taxes and a small amount of profit first before putting the rest into an operating expense account. We used to take an owners draw when we had a large positive swing in cash flow. Later we'd be scrambling to pay payroll or sales tax . Now I feel like I have a bit more control over our income and expenses. Basic premise is about changing human behavior. When you make more you tend to spend more. You wonder where the cash went at the end of the year and you're upset that you owe a lot in taxes and dont' have the money. Overall I feel like we have a better pulse on our cash flow and can do something immediately if we notice that it has dropped too far. The Author recommends doing bills on the 10th and 25th. I think that might work for us in 6 months or a year but for now 2 times a week is better while we get things back under control. Hope to finally get into a habit of once a week in the next month. We pay ourselves and our employees once a week now because it made cash flow more even and our employees appreciate seeing a check once a week too.Dont' expect the author to be. an accounting genius - you'll be disappointed however the ideas he has come up with do seem to help. It is about human behavior and changing it by putting some checks and balances in place.

I'm a small business owner and I'm totally intrigued! I had a great year in 2021 and couldn't figure out where the money went! 2022 was a disaster. This is just what I've been looking for!

I am still working my way through this book. I would never have thought a business book about financial matters would be a page turner, but I’m totally inspired. I’m still working my way through the book and implementing its principles. I’m very excited for the impact Profit First lessons are going to have on my business!

I love this book. I've read it multiple times. The Profit First system simplified how I manage money in my business. I've been using the Profit First system for over four years. Every quarter I give myself a profit distribution. This is my favorite part of the Profit First system because it gives me something to look forward to. Every 3 months I get a bunch of money to reward myself for running a profitable business.

I liked this book so much I bought a copy for my accountant plus my team. It’s a simple concept that you’ve been simpler to not do. I love the way Mike writes. Easy to read easy to comprehend with tons of resources available. You will not be disappointed.

Very well written and full of great practical knowledge

I LOVE this book! I've been following the work of T Harv Eker and Ann Wilson regarding how to manage my personal finances for a number of years, and this book takes the simple idea of Paying yourself first to another level, specifically for your business.I trained with KPMG Chartered Accountants in the 80's so I'm familiar with the idea that Revenue - Expenses = Profit, but the simple idea of rewriting this as Revenue - Profit = Expenses, seems so simple and yet it's a huge paradigm shift.I bought the book initially on Audible, read it in two days, then bought the hard back on Amazon, and then signed up for the course with Creative LIve. I also wrote to Mike with a question, which he responded to within hours, twice. The one thing that surprised and delighted me this morning was that someone who I perceive as being an expert, could be so approachable, and so freely respond to my question, with no agenda. I feel extremely grateful to Mike for his work and his prompt, thoughtful reply. I've been recommending the book to all my friends and fellow entrepreneurs. It is now one of my favourite finance books. A must read for anyone in business.

Oooof. This book made me take a long, hard look at my finances and I did not like what I saw.Some books are life-changing, and I think this is one of them. I loved it. Because, like many business owners, I often don’t really know what’s going on with my numbers... and that’s a problem.Maybe this sounds familiar to you: “You’ve done great! You’ve made a profit of [lots of moolah] after taxes and expenses!” And you do a little jig, because how cool is that?Only... where is that money? It’s certainly not sitting in a fat pile in your bank account, is it? So you look at your accountant, perplexed, and say, “Wait. I’ve made all that profit... but where is it?”“Oh, it’s gone,” she says airily. “You’ve spent it.”“What? How can it be profit then?”At which point your head explodes.Well, this is the book you need to read. It helped me understand exactly what's going on.The author has been in exactly our position – and much, much worse. He’s gone from millions in the bank to his last few quid – then lost that. And he’s been as confused as the rest of us.So he wrote this book to come up with a system that works for real humans. Because (sorry accountants!) most of us business owners do not and will not ever think like accountants. We will not sit for hours poring over statements and spreadsheets and profit and loss calculations. We just won’t.So the author came up with the Profit First system. My accountant tells me it’s the accounting system under another name, but that’s the point. He uses normal-people words, ideas, and examples. He takes accounts and puts them in a format I can understand – and gives me a system I can not only understand but will actually use.When you’ve read the book, do the things the author tells you to do. Do the instant assessment of your business. It’ll hurt, but only briefly – then you can start to fix things. This is one of those things you won’t want to do because it’s scary. But once you face the music and know exactly what’s what, it’s like a huge weight has been lifted.This is a beautifully simple book that takes a complicated subject and makes it easy to understand for those of us who can't get their heads around traditional accounts.

The problem is that the 'programme' of Profit First involves opening a bunch of extra bank accounts (one for profit, one for tax, one for expenses etc etc) so that you are putting money aside and not over-spending what you don't really have. And - that's a huge ask and I'm not going to do it. In a nutshell. The palaver involved in changing direct debits and standing orders, setting up new ones, dealing with 5 extra cheque books and bank cards for my 5 accounts... Phewie, there's just no WAY I'm getting into all that!I get the basic premiss: Put the focus on profit. Know what your profit really is, after expenses, so you don't over-spend and go from elaborate spending to scrimping and saving, backwards and forwards...But I think I prefer the simpler system, which is: Constantly try to save more money. Reduce expenses as low as they can go. It's working for me anyhow.In short: If you're not prepared to do some pretty radical stuff involving your finances and bank accounts, don't bother getting the book.

Well. What can I say. Some books leave imprints on your heart and you are never the same. And, Profit First is one of those books.This year am committed to understanding and managing my finances and making a profit in my business.By staying open and listening to my heart and taking the first steps, reading Profit First and watching the YouTube videos...and opening my Profit First account...I feel confident in achieving my heart's desire.Mike has written a gem of a book which shows you how easy it is to manage your finances. I am excited and will be 're-reading and applying the techniques and mind set shifts as I go along.Highly recommend this book if you are looking for ways to reduce your debt and live a profitable and fun life, without stress or struggle. Thank you.

Wow, this is the book I've been searching for since I started my business nearly 10 years ago!Finance has always been one of the biggest challenges of growing a business and I've always found it way too complex.The other big problem is that all you focus on is making profit, and you only find out if you've made a profit retrospectively.What I love about the Profit First system is that you focus on ensuring you make a profit from day one.We've also believed in the idea that you need to re-invest to build the business and while that has been a success, I can now see that we could have continued to grow the business, provide a great service to our clients and achieve what we wanted, while still making a healthy profit along the way.I honestly wish I'd read this 10 years ago... It's a top 10 must read business book for me and I've read a lot.Focus on making a consistent profit and the rest becomes a great deal easier...