Profit First Principles: How to Guarantee Your Business is Always Profitable

Speaker A00:00:00

You work incredibly hard, don't you? You've got revenue coming in. Your bills are paid and your team is always paid.But your bank account, well, that rarely even has enough left for you or even think about having a profit. Does profit feel like an accident in your business? Does it feel like this distant dream that's just over the horizon?Do you constantly live in this cash crunch, even when you've got good sales? Hey, maybe for you, you feel busy but broke. You ever feel that way in your business? That financial anxiety, it's draining, isn't it?It steals your peace and it makes you doubt whether you can even do this. You doubt whether you're savvy enough to be in business. But let me ask you this. What if profit was a guarantee? Yeah, you heard me right.What if profit was a guarantee? What if I could ensure that you would always be paid first? That's the promise for today's show. It's simple, it's revolutionary.But it's a system called profit first. And today I'm going to share with you the gritty steps that can give you real financial freedom. So stick with me today.I've got something great to cover for every small business owner.

Speaker B00:01:06

Running a business isn't easy. It's long hours, tough calls, and relentless pressure. No shortcuts, no handouts. Just grit, grind, and the will to keep going when most would quit.Welcome to Grit and growth Business, the show for entrepreneurs who know success is built the hard way.Hosted by Ralph Estep, Jr. A seasoned business coach, accountant, and fellow fighter in the trenches, each episode brings you real talk, proven strategies, and the unfiltered truth about what it really takes to build something that lasts. Because if you've got persistence, perseverance, and determination, this is the place for you. This is Grit and Growth business.

Speaker A00:01:54

Welcome back. I'm Ralph Estep, Jr. I'm so happy you're joining me on Grit and Growth Business.This is the weekly show where we try to help small business people take their business to the next level. Now, if you missed last week's show, we talked about building a resilient mindset. It was a great show.We talked about how to snap back from those subtle things that happen in your business. And listen, if you're in business, you been in business like me. I've been doing this for 30 years. Things happen.If you missed last week's show or missed any of our shows, I'm gonna encourage you to go check it out. You can go see those@gritandgrowthbusiness.com Again, that's grit and growth business dot com. But today I've got a special new show for you.Today I'm talking about this one is fantastic. And we're going to talk about the profit first principle because this is truly revolutionary.It's not something that I've ever really got into until just about six or seven months ago I started to understand this more. And it's the truly what I now a profitable foundation for business people.And once I started to roll this out for my own practice, and that's where I started my own practice, it changed everything. And now I'm starting to use this with some clients. And let me just tell you right now, the results have been amazing.Now you're probably thinking, Ralph, as an accountant, you've probably all got it together, don't you? Guess what? No, I didn't. The truth is they don't teach you this in textbooks.In accounting school when I was at the University of Tiller, they don't talk about profit first. You know, we learn that traditional model that sal sales minus expenses equals profit.If you're a business owner, you probably know exactly what I'm talking about. That's the tried and to probably, hey, if you go to the bank to borrow money, what do they want to look at?They want to look at your profit and loss statement again. Revenue, expenses, profit.The problem is expenses always expand when you live in that model and that profit for most people, hey, it's nothing but theoretical, hey, maybe I'll get to that next month. I've had so many small business owners say to me, Ralph, I'm not supposed to make a profit the first couple years, am I? Absolutely, you are.It's crazy to think that you're going to go in business and not make money. Now I'm not saying that your profit is going to explode when you first start. That's not at all what I'm saying.But the truth is so many small business live in an emotional reality. This crushing anxiety every month.They're scrambling to pay their bills, they're scrambling to meet payroll, they're scrambling to make sure everyone else is paid but then the owner isn't paid, there's nothing left over. The money just disappears. I've got so many clients who are working hard, they want to be happy with their life, but they're just scraping by.And when I talk to them, when I do one on one coaching and I'll talk to you a little bit later in the show, how you can become one of my customers to do Coaching. I'd like to sit down and work with you. I'll talk about that a little bit later. But they're just scraping by. They feel like a failure.And, you know, I did a show back on episode four again that's in our catalog at Grit and Growth business called Busy but Broken. That was my reality, and it's the reality for. For so many small business people.Hey, and if you're like most small business people, it's a constant cash crunch. Am I going to have enough for this Friday's payroll? Am I going to have enough to meet this month's bills?And that kind of lifestyle, that type of business is just unsustainable. You might be sitting there right now. You're right, Rav. You are. You're preaching the gospel to me, brother. I hear you coming through loud and clear.And it's not sustainable and it wears you down over time. And that's why I was so excited to find this thing called profit first, because it completely flips the equation. And listen to this.Revolutionary to me. Not a lot of people even talk about this, but here's that model. It flips the equation. It starts with sales minus profit, equal expenses.Think about that for a second. You start off with sales. Hey, that's the driver of all things.When I talk to a small business owner, a person that I'm working with, it's all about driving revenue. It's all about driving sales. But here's where we change the script a little bit. We go to sales minus profit.See, you take the profit out first and then whatever's left over, that's what pays your expenses. And it's not just a theory. A lot of people say, oh, that's a good theory, Ralph, but that'll never work out in practice. It's not a theory.What it really is is a behavioral system. And I'm going to tell you right now, it transformed my relationship with money.It transformed my relationship with my business, and it makes profit a reality, not just some accident that happens happenstance when you're in business for after three years. So many people say that to me, Ralph. I'm not expected to make a profit for the first couple years. Of course you are.Why are you in business not to pay yourself? Why are you in business not to make a profit? It doesn't have to be an accident, because in this model, profit is a habit. It's truly a habit.It's a priority. It's not what's left over. See, the traditional model works like this. Sales mine Expenses equals profit. That's what's.It's the leftover, it's the scraps. We don't want to live in that scrap mentality anymore.And now I just want to take a few minutes and talk about the painful cost of not operating with profit first.And listen, I'm going to tell you right now, most of my business life for the last 30 years, I've operated in that traditional model because, hey, that's what I was taught in school. You look all over all the textbooks, all the theoretical, you know, financial gurus, they're always talking about that bottom line, profit.But if you don't move past that, if profit just continues to be an afterthought, this is what happens to you. And I bet you can relate to this. For most people, if you live in that traditional model, you constantly have cash flow anxiety and stress.You're probably sitting there right now listening, going, Ralph, I'm right there. I don't know how many small business clients I've worked with over the years, like, Ralph, you know, how much is payroll going to be this week?We do payroll on Monday. And they're like, okay, I got to get ready for payroll. Am I going to go have to go hit the line of credit? They're all always worried about money.They're always wondering, do they have enough to pay their bills? Like I said, do they have enough for payroll?And when you live in that constant state of stress, I've talked about this on the show when I talked about burnout. It leads to sleepless nights. It's constant financial instability.And if you live under that constant stress, that constant instability just slowly drains your energy. And it takes all the. It's like I talked about on the show a couple weeks ago.What do you do when you hate your business because it shrinks your capacity for actual growth? Because you get stuck in this perpetual, busy but broke syndrome. I talked about that on the show before. You're working hard.You might be working tirelessly. You got revenue dollars coming in the door, but by the time it gets to the bottom, the money just evaporates into those expenses.It seems like you're always finding another expense to cover. It makes sales. Yes, you're making sales. You might be growing revenue. Hey, you might be growing revenue by increasing 10, 20, 30%.But ask yourself this, are you really building wealth? Because the pain that most people feel there is a complete demoralization. They don't have anything left over. They're not even able to pay themselves.I don't know how many small business clients that I work with that say to me, Ralph, I can't even afford to pay myself. Yeah, I make sure my people get paid. They're important to me. I make sure my vendors get paid.I make sure that the bills are getting paid around the office. But, Ralph, when it comes to me getting a paycheck, and half the time I'm just barely scraping by, and what does that build?It builds resentment because you're working hard, but it's not paying off for you. And how long can you sustain that? If you're working hard, but it's not paying off for you, you're building a demanding job.Yes, you got a job, you're reporting to work like everybody else, but you're not building a wealth generating asset. So let me ask you right now, does this resonate with you? Or maybe you're one of the people I just mentioned. There's no owner's pay.There's inconsistent pay at best. In your business, are you always the last one to get paid? Right. Maybe for not you don't get paid at all. Or it's wildly inconsistent.Some weeks, listen, I've got clients right now. They will call me every week and I'll say to them, hey, Kate, I take payroll this week. Ralph, I don't know, can you take payroll?But they're constantly wondering, do they have enough in the business to sustain even paying themselves? And the problem is what that does is it trickles down to personal financial instability.Listen, if you can't pay yourself from the business, then how do you pay your personal bills? How do you plan your life? How do you plan your family? Because, listen, you're sacrificing everything. Listen, this is the truth.I was scrolling through Facebook this morning and somebody put up a comment, I thought this was great. They said, yippee. I went in a small business for myself. What was I thinking? And hey, that's a reality for many small business people.You might be right now thinking, yo, Ralph, that's me. I'm right there with you, dude. You're sacrificing everything.You're sacrificing your time, you're sacrificing your energy, you're sacrificing, hey, listen, to be honest with each other, you're sacrificing relationships and you're pushing it all into this business, but you're not even able to pay yourself. You're not building wealth because here's the truth. You deserve to be paid well for your ingenuity and for your grit. Right?You deserve to get paid for that. The other problem with living in this traditional mindset are the tax surprises that Gomer Pyle is over. Well, we've got surprises here, my friends.Or that panic.I see this all the time during tax season because you haven't had any extra margin, you haven't set aside any money for tax time, and then you've got this mad scramble.I get so many clients say to me, Ralph, all right, I'm going to get in early this year to get my taxes done because I need to figure out how I'm going to pay them. That just leads to this mad scramble, this huge unexpected bill. And guess what happens? You put yourself in this cycle.I have so many clients that say, yeah, I'm going to pay my taxes, Ralph, I'm going to hit the line of credit at the bank. I was just talking with a client yesterday. Now, they're doing good financially, but their bank wants to lend them money.I said, of course your bank wants to lend you money. Banks are in the business to make money at your. At the cost to you. Banks are in business to keep you in poverty.That's the truth, and I'm not bad mouthing the banks. But guess what? The more you borrow, the more interest they can charge, the more profitable they are. And this is just one of those things.I got so many clients say to me, Ralph, I'm going to pay my tax. I'm going to go hit that line of credit because they're unprepared for it. And so many people have said to me, Ralph, this has crippled my business.It's crippled my personal finances. And see, here's another big thing.If you don't have the ability to pay yourself, if you don't have that wealth building in your business, how do you grow? How do you invest in growth? How do you plan for those emergencies? If you've got no dedicated profit reserve, you've got no account set up.There's no capital for buying new equipment. What are you doing again? You're going to the bank again. You're borrowing money.Maybe you want to build a marketing campaign, but you don't have any money to do it. So what do you do? You go hit that line of credit. You go put it on that credit card.Maybe you could improve your sales culture by sending your folks to train. Hey, maybe you need to do some training yourself. How do you pay for it? There's no reserve. There's no extra. There's no buffer.And when you constantly live in that old model, that Whatever's left over the scraps model, I call it. You just live in this state of stagnant growth. You're missing opportunities. And the problem is you're vulnerable to a downturn.Hey, if you've got a bad month of sales, if the sales don't come in like you're expecting, man, that just exacerbates the problem. Because you're always playing defense.It's kind of like you're watching a football game and your offensive team never gets on the table, never gets on the field, you're never on a fence. Does that sound familiar to you? I'm going to tell you right now, if it does sound familiar to you, you're not alone in this.This is common because we teach a broken model. It's common, it's deeply felt by so many people. But here's the God honest truth for today. All of this can be reversed.That's why I did this show today, because I can change this for you. I can help you change your mindset and really shift to that profit first. So let's get right into it, because that's the beauty of today's show.This is where the actual growth is going to happen. And listen, I said at the beginning, it's simple, but it's truly revolutionary. And again, let's go back to this.The old model, sales minus expenses equals profit. That's the old business model. But I want to just let you in on the new business model. Just let this soak in for a second. It still starts with sales.Like I said a few minutes ago. It starts with sale. That's the driver of this. But then the first thing that comes out is your profit. See, your guaranteed profit from the beginning.And then what's left over is the expenses. You might be saying, Ralph, how do you do that? Well, here's how you do it. You allocate profit first, then you allocate your pay.You allocate to pay your taxes. And then after all those things, your operating expenses get paid. You might be saying, Ralph, wait a second, I'm confused. How's that going to work?But here's why it works. It forces you to be efficient and it makes profit a guarantee. So let me ask you right now, are you ready to implement this?Have you got tired of dealing with the same old model that's not working for you? Well, listen, I'm going to give you the gritty steps right now, starting this week, that you can make this happen. Are you ready to do it?Let's jump right into this the first thing, and this is the most crucial thing of this. And it took me a while to really get on board with this part. But you've got to think about moving beyond just a single bank account.You might be saying, oh, Ralph, here we go. You're going to complicate my life. But you've got to open up dedicated bank accounts. This is the foundation. So let me talk about this right now.The problem is so many small business owners have one bank account. Now, I've got a lot of clients that have an operating account and a payroll account. That's not what I'm talking about here.But most people have just one bank account. The problem with that is it's all in one big bucket. Leads to confusion, it leads to overspending, because you live by that checkbook.I get so many clients. It's kind of a funny story, but I've got clients that'll say to me, Ralph, my business is doing well because there's money in my bank account.And the truth is, I can't really argue with them. That's true. If you go and look, is there money in your bank account? You're probably doing okay if there's money in your bank account.Because the opposite is. There's not. We got problems here. So the first thing, the first gritty step, you've got to set up five separate bank accounts. Yes, you heard me right.Five bank accounts. You're probably saying, Ralph, five bank accounts. That sounds like a hassle. It's really not that big of a deal. Your bank will be happy to do it.But this is what I thought, too. It was going to be so complicated.But physical separation is the key to this, because so many people think, oh, but then it's going to be complicated, Ralph. I got to make sure I'm moving money around. Yes. Oh, I got to make sure there's money in this account. Yes.It's an intentional, It's a methodical approach to this. So you're going to have these accounts, you're going to have the income account. That's where it's all going to start.All of that sales money, all that revenue money, that's where it comes into it, lands there first. That's the driver of the whole thing. That's your income account. And I would suggest you call it that.Move away from that idea of operating checking account. Don't call it in anymore. Call it. This is my income account. One of the beautiful things about this is you can watch that puppy grow.That's the first account. Second account is your profit account. This is a pure business profit. This is the most sacred account of all of them.This is where you're going to store your profits. What do we talk about? You're going to grab that profit and allocate that first. So that's the second account. First account, your income account.Second account, your profit account. Well, then you're going to move on to your third account. This is your owner's pay account. Again, call it that owner's pay account.This is your salary. You're going to guarantee that you get paid every single time. Sounds good, doesn't it? All right, let's move on. The next one is your tax account.This is just for taxes. No more surprises. No more April 15th. Ralph, I owe how much? How am I going to pay for that, Ralph? No, you are going to allocate that as you go.So that's your fourth account, tax account. And then your final account is your operating expense account. You call your OPEX account. This is your day to day. That's what's left to run the show.That's what's left to run your business. So let me go over this one more time. Is your income account. That's where all your revenue lands right from the jump.Then you've got your profit account. We're going to talk about how to allocate these in a few minutes. But that's where your pure business profit is. That's that sacred account.You don't touch that third thing. That's your owner's pay account. That's where you get paid. That's where your salary comes from. Then we've got your no more surprises account.That's your tax account. And finally, at the very bottom, and yes, intentionally at the very bottom is your operating expense account. That's the day to day thing.That's what's left to run your business. And why this works is it's a clear visual boundary. There's no more borrowing. You didn't hear me say your get out of debt account.You didn't hear me say your pay down your debt account. It's just all about peace. So that's the first step. You got to build those accounts. Well, here's the second, and this is just as crucial of that.You've got to determine your target allocations. We'll call those your taps. You got to start somewhere. You've got to have a plan for how to distribute this revenue.Like I said, it's going to start with that income account. But here's the next challenge, you're going to assign a percentage of that income to each account.Now listen, I'm not expecting this to be perfect from the start. And guess what one of the big objections is. I was planning for the show today. I said, hey, let me go out there and ask around.What is the big objection to this? The biggest objection is, Ralph, if I'm just starting in business, how am I going to have a big profit? Well, you might not.So that's where you allocate something. Maybe 1%, maybe 2% of profit. I'm going to suggest at the front end, maybe you set that target at 5 to 10%. That's your profit portion.So in that income account, that's where all the money's landing. The first thing it goes to is 5 or 10% into the profit. That's going to be your allocation. The next one is your owner's pay.Now this depends on your lifestyle, but let's just say we're going to allocate 20 to 35% in there. Next one is the tax account. Again, this depends on your personal situation.If you're a S corporation, if you're an llc, you might have some self employment taxes to worry about. You might have high state taxes or local taxes.But for sake of our argument today, let's just allocate 10 to 15% into that tax account and then what's left over, that's the operating expense account that we're going to allocate 40 to 60% in. Well, here's the thing, it just, this is the whole point of this whole allocation. If you wanted me to. Let's cut to the chase, Ralph.You know, let's get past, let's get to past the transparency. What that really is doing, if you think about what that's making you do, it's making you make conscious decisions right from the jump.So as soon as that revenue dollar hits, you're starting to think, hmm, okay, I've got to put 5% into the profit account. I've got to put 30% into my paying myself account. Oh, but then I've got to put money into the tax account.I put 15% over there, whatever's left, hey, that's what I got to figure out how to work. Now, this is going to adjust over time. If you're just starting out, there's no way you're going to be at that 5 or 10% profit, maybe to start at 1%.But here's the thing. Do something, say to yourself, I'm going to have A profit, even if it's $1.As I was talking about this show last week, one of the things I said as I teased this show at the end of last week's episode is one, what if you could start a business and have profit from day one? Well, if you think about the model I just talked about, this gives you profit from day one. So that's the second step.First one, set up those accounts, those five bank accounts. Second, decide on those allocation percentages. And then you've got to take the time to actually do this allocation.Now, I'm going to recommend that you do this weekly or bi weekly. This is what I'm going to call your profit first ritual. And this was the game changer for me.The problem is so many small business people, and you're probably one right now going, rob, this is me. You live in this inconsistent cash flow anxiety. So you've got to take the bull by the horns here and do this profit allocation.And it's really two specific days a month or every Friday, whatever works best for you. I kind of like the model of doing on the 10th and the 25th, you log into your account, you go to that revenue account and.And you start transferring to those other accounts based on those percentages you set a few minutes ago. And listen, it's a simple ritual, but when you start to do this, it will change the dynamic of your business. It will change the dynamic of your life.And hey, you're going to move away from that constant anxiety, those constant cash crunches, and you're going to find a place of peace because for so many business people, and just like me, the money just sat in that main account. It never knew that it was safe. See, think about what we're doing here in this model. We're taking money from that and we're putting it into safety.It's kind of like, think about, in terms of, you walk into the bank, right? You walk into the bank and there's a big vault there. And in that vault you've got these drawers, safe deposit boxes, for lack of a better term.Well, this is what you're doing with your bank account. You're saying, you know what, I'm going to put so much in that profit safe deposit box. I'm going to put so much in that owner pay safe deposit box.Hey, I'm putting that tax safe deposit box because I know Ralph's going to tell me at some point and hey, you owe some money. That's a great thing to owe taxes, by the way. We'll probably talk about that in another show.I love it when a client owes money on their taxes because you know why they're making money. That's the key to that thing. But you know it's safe. And then you can say to yourself, listen, that owner's pay account, hey, that's my money.That profit, that's really profit. It's sacred. It can't be touched. And that operating expenses, bottom line is that you can budget, because this is what I've got left to pay.It's consistent, it's predictable, it leaves you to peace. And guess what? There's no guessing anymore. And then I'm going to encourage you to do one more thing, and that's practice the capsule method.For expenses, you spend what's left over because you're going to find that you're going to get lean. Because most small business people have this problem. They suffer from overspending.The reason they're able to overspend is because the money is in the account. They dip into that profit, they dip into that tax money.I don't know how many clients have said to me, rob, yeah, I've got money in the bank account, so I can pay this bill, right? But they haven't thought about that was their profit they just spent, or that was the owner's pay they just spent.Or, hey, even worse, that was a tax money they just spent. But see, that operating expense account, that's your capsule. You can only spend what's in there. There's only so much in there.If there's not enough for your expenses, guess what? You got some tough decisions to make. You either reduce your other expenses around you or you don't buy it. It really comes down to being that simple.You look at your budget saying, look, there's only so much that's left in that operating expense account. But you've got to take the sacred oath to yourself. There's no dipping into that profit account.There's no dipping into that owner's pay account, and there's no dipping into that tax account. And listen, I'm going to be very honest with you. This is the hardest part.It was the hardest part for me because you've got to make some tough choices. And I'm about tough choices. You may have to make some really tough choices. Do you not spend money on marketing this month?Do you not buy that software you really were wanting? You don't do that upgrade that you wanted to do to your showroom or whatever that is for your business.But here's the thing I really love about this model, it forced me. And it's going to force you to be creative. It's going to force you to be resourceful because you've only got so much money.Everything else is spoken for. Every other dollar has a job. And when you really do this, and I'm going to encourage you to do this, just try it out.Even if you will, it's going to help you build financial discipline. It's going to make you more efficient. Hey, it's going to make your business leaner. It's going to make your business stronger.And at the end of the day, if you do it right, it's going to make your business more profitable because you never touch that profit account. Let's. Hey, here's the best part. Unless you want to give yourself a reward. See, that's what that profit account becomes.That profitable account comes your reward for working hard. We started off this show talking about you're frustrated. Everybody else is getting paid. Your vendors are getting paid.Your employees are getting paid. Your team's getting paid. Ralph, I'm not getting paid. Well, in this model, you've got that profit account.That's where you can give yourself a reward because you've been using your profit for operations. And when you use your profit for operations, you're preventing yourself from actually building wealth. You want to tell me what the big.Here's the big takeaway for today. The real big takeaway for today. This method, this profit first method will help you build wealth because that profit account is sacred.It's untouchable for those daily operational expenses. It's untouchable for emergencies. And then I just want to encourage you to do one more thing. Schedule those distributions.Give yourself a bonus, if you will, whether that's quarterly or semi annually. It's a great time to celebrate your success. Call it a bonus. Make strategic investments. Maybe you want to go do something else with the money.It helps you build a healthy reward system that builds true, lasting wealth for you and your business. How good does that sound right now? Does it sound good to you? You can do this. And maybe you're thinking right now, you know, Ralph, this sounds great.This profit first, it's good. And I'm going to tell you right now, it's not just an accounting system.If you thought I was going to talk to you about an accounting system today, it's so much bigger than that. This is truly a revolutionary behavioral change system. It's a change system. Let me tell you right now, your profit is an automatic Habit.It's not a struggle. And you have complete.A lot of people say, in business, I feel like I don't have any control over my business, Ralph, but in this profit first model, you have complete control because the business pays you first. You got the grit to build it. You just got to get the bill, the grit to apply and guarantee that profit.You might be saying, ralph, this really excites me, but I'm kind of lost in the minutiae how to do this. It seems daunting to me. Five accounts, Ralph. How do I even figure out the percentages? My business isn't like everybody else's business.But, Ralph, I know I'm also tired of that flow, that cash flow roller coaster. And Ralph, I'm ready for peace. Well, maybe right now it's time to take a deeper step.One of the things that I do offer, it's one of the reasons I do this podcast, is I want to help you. You know, because this podcast can give you principles. But sometimes you need something bigger than principles.You need somebody to walk alongside you to give you personalized advice. You need somebody who's been there.You need somebody like me who's implemented this profit first and seen how it works and really opened up the hood and got in there and tinkered around with it. It's been in the trenches. Let me help you customize it for your business.I can help you with guiding in that and setting it up and troubleshooting it. One of the big things I talk about with small business people all the time is get yourself an accountability partner.Why be happy to be your accountability partner. Let's talk about making profit over reality. Let's talk about making profit a reality every month from the beginning.Imagine, if you will, having a trusted advisor who can help you diagnose what's really going on in your business, who can help you ease into setting this thing up to help you refine those percentages and to really help you build that consistent guaranteed profit. And like we talked about today, help you really build wealth over time. Are you ready to stop guessing?Are you ready to start building a wealthy business? Well, I'm going to encourage you right now, explore my coaching services. Listen, this isn't me telling you what to do.A lot of people think, oh, Ralph, you're going to show me what to do. No, I'm going to help you learn what to do. I'm going to be your coach.I'm going to put my arm around you and say, hey, here's how we get to the next level. I'm going to take some time to really understand your business. Couple of the first meetings we're going to do.We're going to get really into details of what is your business, what excites you, what motivates you, what makes you want to get up and open this business every morning. It's going to be us working together side by side. Because here's the deal.At the end of the day, I'm going to help you unlock your next level of grit and growth so that your business pays what you deserve and it's not an afterthought. And you can see all of my coaching services@gritandgrowthbusiness.com coaching Again, that's gritandgrowthbusiness.com coaching.It all starts with a free discovery call. Absolutely no strings attached. You can just book that call. Again, that's@gritandgrowthbusiness.com coaching.I would really like to talk to you about how we can build your legacy together so you can move past this old model and getting to this profit first model. Hey, and for everybody else, maybe you're not ready to get on a coaching call with me.Maybe you're just, you know what, I'm still trying to figure this out myself. I'm just getting started. But you want to jump start that guaranteed profitability.Well, I've created like I do for every show, I've created a simple action sheet for this episode that really lays out what we talked about today. It's free, it's downloadable and it'll guide you through those steps of opening those five accounts.It'll talk about how to determine those percentages and we get into that ritual of how to do that allocation. It's a practical tool that's going to integrate the principles we've talked about on the show today.And listen, you can get my action, my action sheet by going to grit and growthbusiness.com action. Again, that's grit and growth a business.com action. And here's a little, here's a little secret. Once you go there, you sign up for the action sheet.You'll have access to all the action sheets for all the shows. We've already done so again, I want to encourage you to go get that. That's@gritandgrowthbusiness.com action.Download that today and start making profit your priority and start doing it today. And as I close today, I don't want you to hear this. Profit isn't an event. You got to move past that. Profit is a habit. It's A system.It's, it's a mindset change we talked about. It's a behavioral system change. So I'm going to encourage you right now. Implement profit first.Listen, I was so skeptical when I first learned about this, but the truth is it will transform your financial reality. It's a promise, my friend. If you do this, it'll work.Because listen, I know you've got this and I'm here working, I'm here walking alongside you in the trenches. So I want to thank you for joining me today.Every week I bring you a show that empowers small business owners just like you to build thriving, profitable business. And, and every week I'm committed to honest conversations and truly bringing you practical strategy just like today's strategy is practical now.Next week we're going to be talking about marketing. We're going to talk about how to scale your marketing to attract your ideal customers completely and consistently.We're going to move beyond just throwing stuff. I was talking to somebody yesterday, they said, Ralph, I feel like my marketing, I just throw stuff against the wall and see what sticks. Guess what?That's not sustainable. Those random acts will just spend your money and you're not going to get anywhere with them.So, so let me help you next week to start build a predictable system to get you to write customers again and again to grow that revenue, to grow that sales so that we can really find that profit. So I'm encourage you go follow the show.You can do that@gritandgrowthbusiness.com follow and again you can download that action plan by going to gritandgrowthbusiness.com action. And I just want to thank you for joining me today. Thank you for giving me just a little bit of your time.And again, if you're interested in those coaching services, reach out to me. Let's do that free discovery call because here's the thing. I know you can do this. I've got confidence in you. You're hard working, you're gritty.Now let's get that grit and turn it into growth. God bless you and I'll see you again next week.