Profit First: Transform Your Business into a Money-making Machine with Mike Michalowicz

October 1, 2019

The Guest

By his 35th birthday Mike Michalowicz (pronounced mi-‘kal-o-wits) had founded and sold two multi-million dollar companies. Confident that he had the formula to success, he became an angel investor…and proceeded to lose his entire fortune.

Then he started all over again, driven to find better ways to grow healthy, strong companies. Among other innovative strategies, Mike created the “Profit First Formula”, a way for businesses to ensure profitability from their very next deposit forward.

Mike is now running his third million dollar venture, is a former small business columnist for The Wall Street Journal; is the former MSNBC business make-over expert; is a popular keynote speaker on innovative entrepreneurial topics; and is the author of Profit First, Surge, The Pumpkin Plan and The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, which BusinessWeek deemed “the entrepreneur’s cult classic.”

The Episode

Our episode today is all about creating profit in your company by implementing the profit first system. Mike explains the action steps needed to start setting aside profit immediately.

Mike also shares why profit is necessary and important, and how to put a system in place so that we aren’t spending more money as more money comes in.

Mike leaves listeners with the advice, “Set up that one bank account. Do it today. Go to your bank, get one account set up for profit. Start allocating 1% of what flows into your accounts towards profit.”

Topics Covered

Why Mike decided to write a book about profit
Suggestions for entrepreneurs who have not made profit yet
What it means to grow broke
Mike’s thoughts on investment accounts
How profit relates to diligent savers
An actionable plan to implement profit first in your own business
Tips for entrepreneurs who are not paying themselves right now
How to play catch up after years of no profit
Ways to fire your lowest end customer
Advice to get started right now with profit first

Quotes from the Episode

“Profit is necessary and important. It’s the only way to care for customers. It’s about sustainability, to ensure there’s a constant infusion of cash into the business to deliver the things that you are doing.”

“Profit has to happen now. Instead of making profit an event, we have to make profit a habit.”

“We have to do what serves us. We are defined by our life’s experiences.”

“The intended use of money is to amplify ability.”

“We need to be very in tune with our emotion around money and let that emotion be served properly.”

“If you don’t build a profit habit now, you will never be profitable in the future. The more you do something the longer it builds that habit. Businesses that take their profit first, typically grow faster than the competition. When a business takes its profit first, it forces them to be more selective in what they do.”