by Adam Litster | Aug 30, 2024 | Entrepreneurship Newsletter, VPS, Profit First
Welcome to our weekly entrepreneur newsletter! If you are new and would like to check out any prior editions, click here! And feel free to reach out to us with any suggestions, questions, or feedback. On to today’s topic!
As a kid, I joined in a game one time where we were asked to walk along a line drawn in the grass that formed a large circle. The challenge was, however, that when it was our turn, we were blindfolded. Our goal was to walk in the circle as accurately as possible, and the person who most closely followed the line won the game. I was determined to win! I soon realized, though, how incredibly hard it was to follow a line that I couldn’t see and create a shape that I could easily envision in my mind, but was difficult to translate into real life.
I believe that the same challenge occurs quite often among entrepreneurs. Everyone starts a business with a dream or vision of what they want and hope to accomplish with their new creation. They can see what kind of lifestyle they want their business to enable them to live. We often (and should) dream very big. But how many of us are currently achieving that dream, or living that lifestyle that we envisioned when we started? Not enough. There are many things that can be done to help lead entrepreneurs along the right path toward building a thriving business, but we wanted to focus today on one of the most fundamental and also most important elements, essential to the foundation of every healthy business: defining our vision and living in harmony with our core values. In the “Pumpkin Plan” world, we also refer to core values as “Immutable Laws” or the rules of our lives. To quote a part of the Pumpkin Plan coaching resource guide we provide to our clients: “Immutable laws are the rules we have defined for ourselves, almost subconsciously, on what is right and what is wrong. What is acceptable and what is not. What makes you happy, and what doesn’t. They are with you for life and they barely ever change.”.
Have you ever known someone that is driven to succeed so much that they are willing to be anyone to anybody? They will accept any client, even if that client is difficult, rude, or dishonest. Or maybe you’ve had a co-worker or friend who is a work-a-holic, who sacrifices all their time, energy, and focus for their career and making money, leaving their family in the dust? On the other hand, how many people have we seen on their deathbed express that they wished they would have worked more or stayed longer in the office each day? I would guess it’s close to zero. I would also guess that most of us probably don’t start our business hoping that we will work 80+ hours per week. So why do so many of us end up there anyway? In our experience, we have come to realize that many entrepreneurs, in an effort to “save” their businesses, lose sight of the things that matter most to them, their why for being in business. In other words, their vision for who they wanted to be and what they wanted to achieve with their business got warped along the way. And as a result, they are inevitably not living in harmony with their core values, and are probably not even able to tell you what they are. We also believe this is one of the reasons so many businesses struggle to thrive.
We have found that when entrepreneurs work sincerely on identifying and articulating the vision they have for their life and business, and also defining and living in harmony with their core values or immutable laws, these entrepreneurs put themselves on a path to greater personal and professional success and fulfillment.
I recently found a real life example of how this can work when reading a blog post on the official Pumpkin Plan website. I think you would benefit from it as well. Click Here to access the post.
Why did you become an entrepreneur? We often hear the response, “To become rich” or “I want to become a millionaire”. While these are great goals, we want to dig deeper. We want to understand the real “why” for starting your business. What do you want to do in your life? What gives you meaning? What impact do you want to have on your friends, family, or the world? I believe it would be valuable to really ponder on these questions this week. These are the first steps to identifying and achieving your vision for your life and business (and these don’t have to be separate. Your business is an extension of you!).
Connected to part of our vision are our core values. There are many ways to identify and begin to articulate our unique core values (or immutable laws). As we know, these are part of us and they rarely ever change. The key here is identifying them and making them part of our conscious goals and habits. One of the most helpful and inspiring books we’ve read is “7 Habits of Highly Effective People“. This book focuses a great deal on helping us identify and live in harmony with our core values and shows how that contributes to living an effective life. If this isn’t on your reading list, we’d definitely recommend it!
In the Pumpkin Plan program, we often also take another approach to this. We encourage our clients to start paying attention to your emotions. Every time something triggers strong negative emotions (like anger), ignore what triggered it for a moment and think about what rule of yours has been broken. Similarly, when you feel strong positive emotion (like giddiness) think about why that incident made you feel good. Those inner thoughts and feelings are your Immutable Laws. Once you have been able to find your immutable laws, write them down, tell your team and clients about them, post them on your website, and most importantlymake them the rules your business lives by.
We have seen time and again that when we focus our life and business on our vision and core values, our overall effectiveness and success begins to increase. You will hire employees that align with our core values, who therefore provide the same level of care and quality to your clients as you would. You also start to attract clients who have similar values and see your value much more effectively. You will stop focusing on things that don’t really matter in the end and really just distract you from what does matter. You will feel energized and motivated every day because you are actively working toward your “why” for getting into business in the first place. The resulting growth will be explosive!
I hope this has given you something to think about over the next few days! If you have any questions or would like any support as you work on finding your vision and immutable laws, don’t hesitate to reach out via email or set up a call with us by clicking here!
Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!
Adam Litster
Certified Profit First Professional and Pumpkin Plan Strategist
(816) 500-5779
adam@betterbizinfo.com
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by Adam Litster | Aug 26, 2024 | Entrepreneurship Newsletter, VPS, Profit First
Thanks for being a part of our 3rd weekly entrepreneur newsletter! We are really enjoying writing these and hope that you are getting value from it as well! For today’s newsletter, we want to discuss one of the most common myths that we see throughout small businesses: “A business needs to spend money to make money”. Every entrepreneur wants their businesses to grow. This is a healthy and necessary goal for any business to be successful. However, many business owners focus solely on the top line of the business, sales. And they work tirelessly to grow this number as much as possible, often taking on an unmanageable amount of costs and often debt. We agree that growing our revenue is important, but one of the first things we help our clients understand when working with them is that revenue is not the only or even the best measure of a successful or healthy business. What we focus on and help our clients focus on is actually on the bottom line – profit.
Let me illustrate this concept with a simple example. Joe is the owner of a landscaping business. Last month he just crossed over that golden threshold of reaching $1 million dollars in sales for the year! Great news right! Unfortunately, Joe didn’t seem to feel the relief and excitement that we’d expect from this achievement. While the business made a million dollars in sales, Joe’s business also spent almost every penny of that on expenses like paying for employees, supplies, equipment, or investing in that next great thing that would help grow his business, etc. His business expenses were so high that he couldn’t even pay himself for the past couple of months. As a result, he spent much of his time worrying about how he would pay his mortgage that month, or how he’d keep food on the table for his family.
Too many entrepreneurs focus so much on growing their sales that they fall into this trap: that they need to spend money to make money. So, as soon as money comes in from a customer, that money goes right back out the door to pay for expenses that we hope will lead to more and more sales. While some expenses are definitely necessary (We agree that you should pay your employees on time etc.), this philosophy of spending money to make money often leaves nothing left for the most important employee of the business – you. You own this business. That means you take on all the risk, all the responsibility, you provide better service and better quality than any employee. So why do so many business owners not take a salary or a profit from the business? We have to break this mindset that so many entrepreneurs have and that is the reason the majority of small businesses fail. We need to focus on Profit First! We’ve found through working with dozens of clients that businesses that focus on profit first, making profit the top priority in the business (even above revenue); those are the businesses that are the strongest and the healthiest. Owners who are regularly taking a salary and profit from the business are the ones who feel most in control of their business and confident in the direction their business is taking. And strangely enough, these businesses actually grow faster and live longer than those who don’t! They actually outpace their competitors and have the best ratings from customers and employees! Why? Because they focus on what matters most!
In our experience, businesses that account for profit and pay the owners first go through a process that changes everything for the trajectory of their business. Even though the cash left over is less now (money left after taking out profit and owner’s pay), they are forced to find a way to operate their business just as well as they did before. The only way to accomplish this is to innovate. In other words, these business owners find a way to get the same or more value at less cost. This is the key to profitable and healthy growth. With that innovation comes greater differentiation in your market. You become better than your competitors and your growth becomes natural and accelerates! It’s an amazing process to watch and we are very lucky to see our clients go through this as they both take the profit and pay that they deserve and, at the same time, see their business grow more than they had ever dreamed.
We believe that reading “Profit First” and applying it is essential for every entrepreneur. If you haven’t yet, we won’t be upset if you stop reading and go start reading that book. You’ll see what we mean soon enough!
As always, if you have any questions as you start working through the Profit First principles, feel free to reach out or set up a call with us by clicking here!
Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!
Click here for my calendar to schedule a call or meeting
by Adam Litster | Aug 15, 2024 | Entrepreneurship Newsletter, VPS, Profit First
During today’s newsletter, I thought it would be beneficial to talk about how to make and sustain change in our businesses. It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that sweeping changes are necessary for success. We often think we need to overhaul our routines or adopt drastic measures to make progress. This is common in managing businesses, employees, and in basically every aspect of our personal lives as well. There has to be a better way right?
Have you ever set a goal to lose weight at the beginning of the year? We all make big goals like this and often make drastic changes to achieve these goals. When we want to lose weight, we often start aggressive exercise and diet programs, but how many times do we make it past a week or two before our goals are abandoned? The challenge is that these big changes often go completely against our current habits and routines. They are uncomfortable and, because we are creatures of habit, they are not easily sustainable. Research and experience shows that leveraging your existing habits can be far more effective and sustainable.
Big, dramatic changes can seem exciting, but they often come with a high risk of discomfort and failure. Our daily routines shape who we are and how we function. Rather than trying to force major changes, we are proposing that we use our existing habits to accomplish our goals. For example, instead of going from never running to running 5 miles a day, perhaps you could start by walking on the treadmill while you watch tv for a few minutes every day. This will not be that big of a lift, and then maybe start jogging during the commercial breaks. Pretty soon, with these little changes, you will easily be running every day and not even noticing how much you’ve changed in the process.
I want to go through some really crucial goals and changes that every business owner generally wants to make, but first, here are a few reasons why we believe this would be more successful as we work on positive change in our businesses and lives.
1. Making small tweaks to existing habits is typically less daunting than overhauling your entire routine. This approach minimizes resistance and makes the transition smoother, increasing the likelihood of long-term success.
2. Your current habits are already integrated into your life, which means they’re part of a system that’s working for you. By building on these established routines, you can achieve your goals without disrupting your entire life.
3. Small, incremental adjustments are more sustainable than large-scale changes. They allow you to gradually integrate new behaviors into your routine, making it easier to stick with them over time.
4. As you make progress with small changes, I promise you’ll start to experience a boost in motivation and confidence. Each small win reinforces your ability to achieve your goals and makes you more excited to continue working toward your goal.
Now, let’s talk about a big goal every business owner wants (and needs!): increasing and maintaining profit.
Most entrepreneurs spend countless hours working to grow their business, all with the dream of turning it into a large enough business to support the life they want and achieve their dreams. Sadly, for most business owners, taking a profit, or even receiving a reasonable paycheck feels impossible. In reality, for most small businesses, as the business grows and revenues increase, expenses increase just as fast or even faster. It feels like we can’t keep up. We often fall into the trap that if we keep slaving ourselves, all we need is that one big client and we’ll be set. This rarely ever happens though and can leave us discouraged.
We want that to change and there is a very simple way to do it! Just as I mentioned above, let’s work with our existing habits to make positive change in our business. One of the most prevalent habits entrepreneurs have is called “bank balance accounting”. We don’t look at the profit and loss or balance sheet to make decisions or know if they are able to pay the bills this week, we look at our current bank balance, and if there’s money there, we can spend it! Most accountants will say, DON’T do that, but that’s just not how our brains naturally work. What I’m suggesting is– let’s use that natural thinking and habit to our advantage! This is what Profit First is all about.
If you haven’t read Profit First by Mike Michalowicz, start reading it today! It’s a fantastic and simple tool that is guaranteed to make any business profitable if the principles are followed. Here’s a link to the amazon page:
Click here to purchase this book on Amazon
If you email me, I can also send you the first 2 chapters for free!
As a summary, Profit First teaches us to use these natural habits that entrepreneurs have to make simple lasting changes in our business that lead to permanent profitability. The Profit First system is very simple. Before paying bills our normal way, we separate our profit out first into a completely separate bank account. Now, with the amount left over, we pay our bills with the funds available to us in our operating account! We always spend what we have available to us. So now, if we have less available (because we already accounted for profit), we will force our business to operate on less and achieve the profit and success that we want.
Remember, success doesn’t always require grand gestures. Sometimes, the key lies in making thoughtful adjustments to the habits you already have. Embrace this approach and watch as your goals become more attainable and your journey more enjoyable.
I understand this is a simplified summary that is discussed and explained through an entire book, but I’m hoping this can at least pique your interest so you will decide to look into it more yourself. If you have any questions or would like a partner and guide to help you through the Profit First system, we are here for you! I’ve included a link at the bottom of this article so you can set up a free call with us to learn more.
Best of luck to you and your business!
Click here for my calendar to schedule a call or meeting
Adam Litster
Certified Profit First Professional and Pumpkin Plan Strategist
(816) 500-5779
adam@betterbizinfo.com
by Bill Litster | Nov 23, 2023 | In the News
by Bill Litster | Nov 23, 2023 | In the News
COURIER TRIBUNE
NOV. 3, 2023
Bill Litster is the founder of Better Biz Info, a consulting firm focused on assisting small business owners.
Liberty, Missouri–(Courier-Tribune – November 3, 2023) – A trip to explore Israel and take part in a work conference turned into a series of challenging and formidable events to get out of the war-torn area for Liberty couple Tina and Bill Litster.
Bill was taking a trip to Israel for a small business development conference where he was going to be a lead speaker.
“I wanted to go to Israel to do some sightseeing,” Tina said. The couple managed some sightseeing, but in the early morning hours of Oct. 7, everything changed.
Read the full Release in Courier-Tribune
by Bill Litster | Jul 28, 2023 | In the News
PRESS RELEASE Newsfile
Jul. 25, 2023, 10:13 AM
Bill Litster is the founder of Better Biz Info, a consulting firm focused on assisting small business owners.
Liberty, Missouri–(Newsfile Corp. – July 25, 2023) – Bill Litster has just announced his speaking role at the upcoming Profit First conference in Israel. Profit First Professionals is an organization that encourages accountants, bookkeepers, and financial experts to transform their compliance-focused organizations into sustainable and impactful businesses. The Profit First methodology was made to be a package of systems and tools any entrepreneur can utilize to achieve their dreams.
Read the full Release on Business Insider
by Bill Litster | Jul 21, 2023 | In the News
Serial entrepreneur and business consultant Bill Litster has been chosen as Profit First Professional of the year for 2022.
Liberty, Missouri –News Direct– Prodigy Press Wire
Bill Litster, a business professional with over 25 years of experience, has recently received the Profit First Professional Firm of the Year award. The reward was made to select an entrepreneur that has the largest impact on their clients.
Read full article here
by Bill Litster | Jun 25, 2023 | Profit First
Did you know that the famous Profit First cash flow system can be implemented in your personal finances too? The premise of the system is exactly the same, and will help you to save more while spending less in your personal life!
When you implement Profit First, you open 5 (or more, depending on your needs) separate accounts, and transfer pre-determined percentages from your revenue into each account on a regular basis (learn more specifics here).
For your personal finances, you’ll do the same! Here’s how it works:
Setting Up Your Accounts:
1. INCOME: this account is for deposits only
2. VAULT: a savings accounts to cover the unexpected/emergencies.
3. RECURRING PAYMENTS: for the recurring, fixed, varying, and short-term bills.
4. DAY TO DAY: for groceries, school supplies, etc.
5. DEBT DESTROYER: all money remaining after transferring your predetermined amounts into each of the other accounts goes into this account. Goodbye debt!
Then, determine your allocation percentages, and schedule, and get started!
We are Profit First Professionals, trained and certified to help you open these accounts, calculate your percentages, and implement this system in your life! We will help you to save more, spend less, and achieve more financial security in your personal life!
Sick of never having any profit leftover at the end of the month? Sign up for our newsletter to receive our "5 Ways to Increase Profits" worksheet that gives actionable strategies for increasing your profits immediately, along with a way you can customize them for your business!
by Bill Litster | May 31, 2023 | Profit First
Do you want to know how to pay off debt faster? Are you in personal or business debt and want to know the best ways to destroy that debt? You’ve come to the right place. Try out these 4 Tips for Paying Off Debt Faster.
These are proven strategies that we have implemented with clients and gotten real results.
Case Study: One of our clients had 3 loans she’d been trying to pay off for years, and with these strategies, she paid them all off within 1 year! Watch her testimonial about her experience here.
1. AVOID GETTING INTO DEBT
The best way to pay off debt is to never get into it in the first place! Going into debt should be a last resort in both your business and your personal life, and should only be done after much consideration and research. As Mike Michalowicz (author of Profit First) has said, “if you can’t pay your bills, you can’t afford your bills!” Don’t take out loans just because you can. It’s time to tap into the old entrepreneurial mindset and find innovative ways to do business!
2. USE THE BOXING METHOD
Pay the minimum balances due out of your operating account every month, treating them like regular bills. If you have extra money in your operating account each month, use it to pay off more! Each quarter, if you receive a Profit payout (see #5), take 95% of that payout and slam it into your debts! It’s called the boxing method because you give small punches to the loans on a regular basis (minimum payments), and then hit the debt with a massive uppercut (quarterly payments). Continue with this routine until all your debt is destroyed.
3. LEVERAGING YOUR HUMAN BEHAVIOR: PAYING OFF YOUR SMALLEST DEBTS FIRST
While logic dictates you should pay your highest interest rate debt first, we as Profit First Professionals teach you to leverage your human behavior-we celebrate “early successes”. When we see early progress in our management of money, we become more committed to the processes that got us those successes, even if the progress is small. In regards to debt, that means paying off your smallest debt first, while continuing to pay the minimum balance due on all the others.
Once the smallest debt is paid off, you should target the next smallest and add the amount you were paying to the first debt onto the second. This creates a snowball effect that will wipe out your debts more effectively and make you feel better about it in the process.
This is not a new concept-Dave Ramsey and Mike Michalowicz have both supported this strategy, and thousands of business owners as well as millions of people have used it effectively.
4. MAXIMIZING YOUR CASH FLOW SYSTEM
Knowing where your money is going is a vital first step for any success in a business. If you know where you are spending your money, you can identify where you can make cuts. We teach the Profit First system, in which you allocate your incoming revenue into separate accounts (things like Profit, Tax, Owner’s Comp, etc.) and the remainder leftover is what you can spend on operating expenses. This way you don’t have all your money in one pot, waiting to all be spent.
It also forces you to cut down on unnecessary expenses, and still save money for profit (which will come in handy every quarter for your uppercut payment on your debt from #2). Once you’ve cut down on expenses, you can free up more money to pay off your debts faster (paying more in minimum payments from #2).
Implementing an effective cash flow system like Profit First that plans for things like Profit and Debt will change your business and reduce the stress of owning and operating your company.
We are certified Profit First Professionals, masters at helping you implement such a system. Contact us to get started on increasing profits and destroying your debt!
Download PDF Worksheet here.
by Bill Litster | Apr 26, 2023 | Profit First
You started your business expecting to take a profit after all your hard work. If you’re in a position now when you are still struggling to see sustained profit in your business, then this system is for you. The Profit First cash flow system organizes and manages your finances in such a way that will increase profits, cut expenses, and reduce the stress of operating a business!
Profit First Basics: What exactly is Profit First?
Profit First is a cash flow management system developed for small business owners by small business owners. It was founded by Mike Michalowicz, and asserts that you, as the owner, should be rewarded for your hard work and take your profit first! It takes many of the strategies that Dave Ramsey suggests for personal finances, and applies them to business finances.
Profit First is a system that splits your revenue into separate business accounts (Profit, Tax, Owner’s Comp, and Operating Expenses). You regularly allocate a certain percentage of your revenue into each of these accounts, starting with Profit, and watch as the balances grow.
After implementing the system, you will immediately see a growth in Profits, be better prepared for your tax liabilities, and you will learn to cut expenses across your business. See how this business owner achieved increased profits, and was able to save 3x the amount she owed for taxes using Profit First.
So how does it work? The psychology of Profit First
The Profit First formula:
The GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) formula for determining a business’s profit is Sales – Expenses = Profit. It is simple, logical and clear. Unfortunately, it’s a lie. The formula, while logically accurate, does not account for human behavior. In the GAAP formula profit is a left over, a final consideration, something that is hopefully a nice surprise at the end of the year. Alas, the profit is rarely there and the business continues on its check-to-check survival. With Profit First, the GAAP formula of…
Sales – Expenses = Profit
changes to….
Sales – Profit = Expenses
With Profit First you to flip the formula to Sales – Profit = Expenses. Logically the math is the same, but from the stand point of the entrepreneur’s behavior it is radically different. With Profit First, you take a predetermined percentage of profit from every sale first, and only the remainder is available for expenses.
Parkinson’s Law:
Author and historian C. Northcote Parkinson theorized that our demand for a resource increases to meet the supply of it. That is why when we are given two weeks to do a project it takes two weeks, and when we are given eight weeks to do the same project it takes eight weeks. That is also why when given $1,000 to complete our work we get it done with $1,000 and when given $10,000 to complete the same work, it takes $10,000.
Profit First makes Parkinson’s Law an asset. By taking profit first, the money available for expenses lessens, and we are forced to find ways to get the same things done for less money.
Bank Balance Accounting:
Most entrepreneurs don’t have the time or gumption to read the different accounting statements necessary to manage the financial aspect of their business. Theoretically you should review and correlate your Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statement monthly (or more frequently), but few entrepreneurs do. Most resort to “bank balance accounting,” where we check our bank balance every day and make financial decisions based upon what we see. Per Parkinson’s Law, we consume what we see in our bank account. If all your money is in one pot, that encourages us to spend it all, leaving nothing for Profit, much less other things like tax or debt.
Profit First encourages the entrepreneur to continue “bank balance accounting” by first allocating money to profit (and other accounts) so that the entrepreneur sees the actual portion of deposits that are available for expenses and they automatically adjust their spending accordingly. It creates multiple pots so that you can spend everything in your operating expenses account without having to worry about taking a profit, because you’ve already taken it!
Leveraging Your Habits:
Many entrepreneurs try to force themselves to become better at accounting and to become more disciplined in their fiscal management by pure willpower. But just like a muscle, willpower can be drained. And in a moment of financial stress or bigger than expected expenses the entrepreneur will break their own fiscal rules and spend the money they have.
The Profit First principle does not try to change your habits (that is nearly impossible to do), Profit First works with your existing habits. By first allocating money to different accounts, and then removing the temptation to “borrow” from yourself, your business will become fiscally strong and you will benefit from regular profit distributions.
Watch this 2-minute video to learn the basics of how the system is implemented, then read on to learn the specifics of Profit First implementation!
How do you implement the system?
Profit First is best implemented in your business using a certified Profit First Professional. We have achieved Mastery level certification in teaching Profit First implementation to small business owners.
Here are the basics of how it’s done:
1. Set up the 5 key bank accounts (Income, Profit, Tax, Owner’s Pay, and Operating Expenses).
You can rename your current business account as Operating Expenses if you wish.
The Profit and Tax accounts should be savings accounts, and you may want to even open these two at a different bank to make it harder to steal from these accounts to pay bills.
2. Determine your TAP (Target Allocation Percentages
You will do an Instant Assessment for your business to determine what percentage of your income should be going into each account (We can help you do your instant assessment). These are called your allocation percentages.
3. Perform your allocations
All deposits/receipts should be going into your income account. On a regular schedule (we suggest the 10th and 25th of each month), calculate your percentages and transfer the amount into each of the other 4 accounts. The amount will change every time because your revenue will vary (we have a tool that automatically calculates the amount for each allocation).
4. Pay Your Bills with what remains in Operating Expenses account
What is left in your operating expenses after each allocation is what you have to pay all your operating costs until the next allocation. This allows you to set aside money for things like Profit first, and reduce your spending on unnecessary expenses. If you don’t have enough to buy for something, this forces you to be creative and find other ways to pay your bills or cut them down.
5. Take a quarterly profit bonus
Each quarter, you will take 50% of your profit account and pay yourself as a Profit Distribution! This is a bonus to you as the hardest working employee in your business and a reward.
Learn more about Profit First here, and schedule a free profit call with us to learn how it can be implemented in your business!
Get help from a Certified Profit First Professional
It is highly recommended to use a Profit First Professional to help you implement Profit First in your business. We are expertly trained and certified to correctly determine your allocation percentages, and we can help you understand your financial reports, activity, and cash flow in a way that regular bookkeepers or CPAs cannot. Our goal and focus is YOUR business’s profitability, and we are committed to helping you achieve permanent profits in your business.
We at Better Biz Info offer a free Profit call to discuss your needs and talk about how Profit First can be implemented in your business. Schedule your Free Profit call today!
