072: Getting Your Profit First with Mike Michalowicz

Episodes The Bearded Tog

February 6, 2019

When money comes in, what do you do to manage that? Are you running a business that isn’t actually profitable, or are you putting your profit first?

After reading one of the most influential books in my photography business, I knew I needed to have the author of this incredible book on my podcast. Mike Michalowicz, author of Profit First as well as other incredible business books comes on the podcast to tell the story of how he lost two million dollars in two years and worked his way back with his innovative plan around profit.

I think every photographer should take the time to read this book, determine your “why”, and put systems in place to getting your profit first.

Profit First with Mike Michalowicz

There’s a famous saying “when you have all of the money in the world, what would you do?”, but when combined with “when you have no money, what would you do?” and your answers are the same, Mike believes that is your calling.
The most common trap entrepreneurs fall into is thinking they need to grow the business more if they aren’t profiting.
If your business isn’t structurally sound and you grow, you put more stress on the business. Sales is responsibility.
Growth is a result of good systems, it doesn’t bring about good systems.
If you want to be profitable, the root cause is taking your profit first.
Every time a sale comes in, take a pre-determined percentage and run your business on the rest. This will reveal problems in your business and show where you need to make spending cuts and systemize your business.
Don’t be the superhero of your business, but rather a super visionary. Have a clear vision of the outcomes you want and strategically tackle decisions.
You need to determine why you want to grow your business. Then you need to tackle the biggest road blocks to getting there.
Determine what is working in your business, and do more of that. We have to scrap the things that aren’t working.
Profit is the nutrition for the business, and sales is the oxygen. Once you are getting money and keeping money, then it becomes about being efficient and having a better life.
83% of small business owners are surviving in a check-to-check mentality. The first thing that prohibits growth is mastery of profitability, not more sales. The masters get the master premium. Pick your category and become domineering by narrowing down your offering.