It's the dark secret of many small business entrepreneurs – most are a couple of bad months away from total bankruptcy. I learned this lesson the hard way after generating hundreds of millions and having nothing to show for it. While I changed that over the last few years, I am still a work in progress. And many small business owners I know are still living check-to-check.

The book Profit First changes all that once and for all. Ask yourself. “What would it be like if I could immediately start taking profit from ny business – this month, and every month from now on? What if I could be permanently profitable?”

Spiritual Foundations

Keeping your accounting straight and your business profitable is not just a good idea – it’s biblical.

“Be diligent to know the state of your flocks,
And attend to your herds;
For riches are not forever,
Nor does a crown endure to all generations.” – Proverbs 27:23-24

Tip of the Week

Try this with me: one book, one month, deep.

Profit First, by Mike Michalowicz.

Feature Presentation: “Profit First, Broke Never”

TESTIMONIALS FOR PROFIT FIRST

Darnyelle Jervey: “It feels good to be building a business that serves me. Profit First is helping me to live out my mission in my own business.” Bottom Line: $296,763.20 in profit, 258 percent revenue growth, and more than a million dollars in sales.

Carrie Cunnington: “My business finances are organized and clean. I’m profitable (yeah!), disciplined, in control and motivated.” Bottom Line: Debt free and posting quarterly profits.

Christian Maxin: “I now need just 60 minutes a week to manage my financial planning.” Bottom line: Christian can see the financial health of his business at a glance: $250,000 in new profit and business growth of 20 percent.

Paul Finney: “Once you have cash, opportunities start to appear like never before.” Bottom Line: 500 percent growth in weekly sales; costs cut by 20 percent.

Helen and Rob Faulkner: “After 18 years of being in business, we finally feel we’re a success.” Bottom Line: Helen and Rob turned around their business and posted a first-ever profit distribution within four weeks of starting Profit First.

Notes and Quotes from Profit First:

Money problems occur when one of two things happen:

1. Sales slow down. The problem here is obvious when you operate check-to-check and sales slow down: you won’t have enough to cover expenses.
2. Sales speed up. This problem is not obvious, but it is insidious. As your income climbs, expenses quickly follow. Exchanging the newly leased car for a rust-bucket, laying off employees because we’re overstaffed, saying “No” to our partners—all of this is very hard to do because of the agreements and promises we made. We don’t want to admit we’ve been wrong in how we’ve been growing our business. So rather than reduce our costs in any meaningful way, we scramble to cover ridiculously high expenses. We steal from Peter to pay Paul, hoping for another big payout.

Most business owners try to grow their way out of their problems, hinging salvation on the next big sale, customer, or investor, but the result is simply a bigger monster. (And the bigger your company gets, the more anxiety you deal with. A $300,000 cash-eating monster is much easier to manage than a $3,000,000 one. I know; I have survived operating both.)

“Profit must be baked into your business. Every day, every transaction, every moment. Profit is not an event. Profit is a habit.”

THE FOUR CORE PRINCIPLES OF PROFIT FIRST

Old “Profit Last” Formula: Sales – Expenses = Profit

New “Profit First” Formula: Sales – Profit = Expenses

Here’s how you apply the four principles:  

1. Use Small Plates—When money comes into your main INCOME account, it simply acts as a serving tray for the other accounts. You then periodically disperse all the money from the INCOME account into different accounts in predetermined percentages. Each of these accounts has a different objective: one is for profit, one for owner compensation, another for taxes, and another for operating expenses. Collectively, these are the five foundational accounts (Income, Profit, Owner’s Comp, Tax, and Operating Expenses). Those five accounts are where you should get started, but advanced users will use additional accounts (outlined in Chapter 10).
2. Serve Sequentially—Always, always allocate money based upon the percentages to the accounts first. Never, ever, ever pay bills first. The money moves from the INCOME account to your PROFIT account, OWNER’S COMP, TAX, and OPEX (OPERATING EXPENSES). Then you pay bills only with what is available in the OPEX account. No exceptions. And if there isn’t enough money left for expenses? This does not mean you need to pull from the other accounts. What it does mean is that your business is telling you that you can’t afford those expenses and need to get rid of them. Eliminating unnecessary expenses will bring more health to your business than you can ever imagine.
3. Remove Temptation—Move your PROFIT account and other “tempting” accounts out of arm’s reach. Make it really hard and painful to get to that money, thereby removing the temptation to “borrow” (i.e., steal) from yourself. Use an accountability mechanism to prevent access, except for the right reason.
4. Enforce a Rhythm—Do your allocations and payables twice a month (specifically, on the tenth and twenty-fifth). Don’t pay only when there is money piled up in the account. Get into a rhythm of allocating your income, and paying bills twice a month so that you can see how cash accumulates and where the money really goes. This is controlled, recurring and frequent cash-flow-management, not by-the-seat-of-your-pants cash-management.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Profit First book
• Profit First podcast
• Profit First Info Graphic (Ray’s Notes – Coming Soon!)

How To Help

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We all have fears and beliefs that hold us back, but what we don’t usually have is a proven process that can destroy, once and for all, the limits those fears and beliefs place on us.

This week I sit down with my friend Cliff Ravenscraft for an in-depth discussion on this very subject. We’re going to introduce you to tools and strategies that will unleash your potential and allow you to take the big leap from your Zone of Excellence to your Zone of Genius!

Feature Presentation: “Breaking Through Your Upper Limits: A Conversation with Cliff Ravenscraft”

We all have a thermostat in our lives that regulates how we feel with the amount of financial success, relationship success, and also business success that we have in our lives. In a very real sense, that thermostat has put a ceiling on how much greatness you allow in your life.

Imagine for a moment that there was no ceiling…what would that make possible in your life?

That’s exactly what we’re going to discuss in this episode. But first, as some of you may know, Sean and I recently bought a local artisan coffeehouse here in Spokane, and we thought you might enjoy a little insight as to why we did that. Enjoy!

Here are some snippets from our conversation:

Part One: The Coffeehouse Chronicles

• Sad news & an idea – How to spot opportunity in the most common areas of your life (3:22)
• Coffee and Community – Why a successful business is more than just a business (4:04)
• The strategic growth plan – How your unique skill set as an online entrepreneur can create new growth opportunities in the brick and mortar world (5:10)
• No more excuses – Why we believe coffee can open the door for all the brick and mortar businesses that are unsure online strategies will work for them (5:30)
• “I just don’t want it to close” – Why it’s okay, and even encouraged, to get emotional about business (7:38)
• King Solomon was right – Why it’s always a good idea to have multiple streams of income (8:37)
• Keep your eye on the prize – How to make your money go to work for you (8:48)
• A gathering place for friends – How to create a business model that turns customers into friends (9:06)

Part 2: Breaking Through Your Upper Limits

• What’s the big deal? – How a cryptic message from Cliff changed my life (12:32)
• Control your temperature – How your inner thermostat dictates how much success you’re allowed to have in your life (14:10)
• Introverts and the post-vacation blues – How your mindset controls how much joy and excitement you are willing to allow in your life (18:51)
• The $25,000 check – Why most people refuse to accept random acts of kindness and how to fix that forever (22:55)
• The Upper Limit Injury – The never before released reason why your unconscious mind is fighting against your success, and what to do about it (25:31)
• The new high-water mark: How to identify your underlying positive message so you can blow the roof off your potential (27:01)
• Let’s get real – An intimate look at Ray’s experience with the Upper Limit Challenge, and the “miraculous” victory that came from that (27:33)
• The unintentional criminal – Why continuing to do something you’re awful at is robbing someone of the blessing of using their gift (31:37)
• Is this the best use of your time? – Why doing things others can do better is costing you money and draining your most valuable resource (35:04)
• The Land of Milk and Honey – Why your business should be based on something you do that comes easy to you but is difficult for others (36:59)
• The Zone of Genius – Why your unique gift is the key to enjoying all the love, financial abundance and creativity that’s rightfully yours (39:50)
• Watching Television Professionally – What can you do for long stretches of time without getting bored or tired? (45:01)
• Live long and prosper – What Spock can teach us about living with an abundance mindset (45:29)
• Working hard or hardly working? – Discovering the work you do that doesn’t feel like work (52:23)
• The Russian Doll Experiment – The magic of uncovering your unique ability by asking the right questions in the right order (53:03)
• I’m looking at you – Everyone has a Zone of Genius and it’s your personal mission to discover and share it (55:04)
• Feel the fear and do it anyway – How to defeat fear and use The Resistance as a compass (57:35)
• Now hear this! – The important information about the first Ray Edwards Live Meet-Up at Revel 77 (58:57)

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Revel 77 Coffee
• The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level

How To Help

Subscribe to the show through Apple Podcasts and give us a rating and review. Make sure you put your real name and website in the text of the review itself. We will mention you on this show.

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If you ask a room full of people with jobs why they go to work, what do you think their answer would be?  Probably something like, “To pay the bills… because I have to… because I have an addiction to living indoors with plumbing…”

If you ask entrepreneurs why they work, what will THEY say? Probably something like, “Because I love my business… I’m doing what I love… I’m on a mission…”

But pose the question differently and see what happens. Ask those same entrepreneurs privately, if they won the Powerball and a got a $25M windfall, what are the first 5 things they would do… and one of the top items on that list is ALWAYS “get rid of this business.”

In this episode, we’re going to get to the root of this problem and help you live a more authentic life starting right now.

Spiritual Foundations

Recently I’ve been re-reading the classic book Psycho-Cybernetics by Dr. Maxwell Maltz. Dr. Maltz popularized the idea of self-image and its effect on performance. There's a difference between self-esteem and self-image. Your self-esteem is how you appraise your value, your self-image is simply the picture you have of yourself.

Who do you think you are?

There's an ancient proverb that says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” I believe what He was saying is, what you say reveals who you think you are.

Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” I believe what He was saying is, what you say reveals who you think you are.

If you consistently find yourself behaving in a way that you don’t want to behave… you must look closely at your “secret identity.” You’ll find that somewhere you hold conflicting views that cannot exist in the same person. You are at war with yourself, and you are at war with reality.

The masses lead lives of quiet contradictions. That is the pattern of the ordinary behavior of the world. It’s why the Apostle Paul wrote “Don’t be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be TRANSFORMED by the renewing of your mind…”

We renew our minds by thinking different thoughts. How do you do this?

1. Notice the feelings that alert you to internal conflicts.
2. Trace your thought backwards and find the place where you find two conflicting ideas.
3. Resolve the conflict.
4. Establish a new thought that is not in conflict.
5. Reinforce the “trigger” and the “thought pattern.”

In this episode, we do a deep dive on all of this…trust me when I say that you don’t want to miss this.

Tip of the Week

In keeping with the theme of today's episode, How to Reinvent Your Business, Your Income, and Your Life, Jeff Walker opens his store today for you to enroll in his Product Launch Formula (PLF).

We're big believers in PLF as an approach, and the tip of the week is about how you can get $20,000 in coaching and training from me and our company for free when you sign up for PLF through the link rayedwards.com/plf.

These bonuses are only available for a limited time…until Thursday, September 14, 2017. So, if you want the $20,000 worth of free goodies from us, go to rayedwards.com/plf.

While you’re there, be sure to watch all the videos because you would be surprised at how much you can learn from that content, and by observing the PLF launch process. Now go forth and prosper!

Feature Presentation: “How To Reinvent Your Business, Your Income and Your Life”

Let's pretend you won the New Life lottery…what would be the first things you would do? Most entrepreneurs, if they told the truth, would just get rid of their business.

Why? Because they feel trapped by their business and they go to work in their business for the same reason that people go to work at a job, to pay the bills.

So, if money were no longer a concern…

1. How would you redesign your life?
2. How would you redesign your income?
3. How would you redesign your business?

Here are some ideas and some snippets from our conversation:

• You are here – Answering this question honestly is the very first place to start when redesigning your life (30:05)
• Check your B.S. at the door – How redefining your belief system is the fastest way to make a life U-Turn (32:54)
• Opportunity comes dressed as work – How to give yourself permission to want what you want (34:50)
• How to eliminate the belief that there is a moral connection between hours worked and income earned.(35:54)
• The tug at your soul – You are a creative, productive person…and if you aren't creatively productive, your soul begins to die (38:05)
• Be fruitful and multiply – Why creating value is a Divine calling and simply the smartest thing you could possibly do in business (40:10)
• Reinvention simplified – How to do a wholesale redesign of your life with a minimum amount of disruption (43:38)
• The seven-figure solution – Why a product launch is the fastest and most strategic way to reinvent your business (47:53)
• The clock is ticking – Why setting a deadline for yourself puts you on the fast-track to success (49:24)

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Psycho-Cybernetics
• Get Product Launch Formula + $20,000 in free training from Ray!

How To Help

Subscribe to the show through Apple Podcasts and give us a rating and review. Make sure you put your real name and website in the text of the review itself. We will mention you on this show.

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Where did you get your beliefs about money? Chances are they were not consciously chosen, and that they aren’t a well thought-out integrated “philosophy of money.”

The most commonly held misconceptions about money are actually dangerous deceptions… contradictory beliefs in a reality that punishes those who try to navigate life based on contradictory tactics. In this episode we’ll bust the 21 most common – and most dangerous – money myths…and we’ll expose the liberating truths that will set you free of your self-imposed limitations.

Click here to download or listen to this episode now.

Spiritual Foundations

One of the things we love most about our listeners is that you’re a smart group of people. We’re honored that you listen to this show for guidance, but when presented with the truth you’re able to figure things out on your own.

In that spirit, this week we’re simply going to present you with a series of quotes from the Bible and let you come to your own conclusions. Let’s begin…

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” – John 10:10

“The blessing of the LORD makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.” – Proverbs 10:22

“But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” – Matthew 6:30 -33

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might be rich.” – 2 Corinthians 8:9

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. – Ephesians 3:20-21

Tip of the Week

Before I can serve my business, I have to serve you…my audience. I have to produce valuable content that you find interesting and valuable, and that’s exactly what I’m doing on my YouTube channel.

There's a ton of great content there and more to come. What would be awesome is if you subscribe to the channel. When you subscribe, you'll see a little bell icon. You want to click on that. That way you'll get a notification when I put out a new video. I welcome you to leave comments there and let me know what other stuff you'd like to hear about or see on that channel.

Psst…here’s a little secret, like the secret menu at In-n-Out Burger. We actually offer several tips in this episode, but you have to listen to hear the others. Aren’t we sneaky?

Feature Presentation: “21 Money Myths That Keep You Broke…and the 21 Liberating Truths That Will Set You Free”

1. Myth: You can no longer start a business in today's economy.
2. Myth: I don't have a product to sell.
3. Myth: I don't have any experience in anything.
4. Myth: Another breed of people are the only ones who can do big things.
5. Myth: I must be shown how to do things by experts from institutions.
6. Myth: Money isn't important.
7. Myth: You can sell anything online.
8. Myth: A businessman is in the low order of talent and importance in society.
9. Myth: Selling is easy and not that important.
10. Myth: People who just put up the money for an enterprise don't deserve much of a cut of the profit.
11. Myth: Artistic or technical alent is rare and super expensive.
12. Myth: Money must be made slowly.
13. Myth: If you aren't born rich, you'll never be rich.
14. Myth: I will be successful because I'm going to school. working for a big established organization, having talent, and working hard.
15. Myth: People are basically bad, or people are basically good.
16. Myth: Making a profit is sinful.
17. Myth: Entrepreneurs are bad.
18. Myth: I am not smart enough to do anything big because I didn't get good grades in school.
19. Myth: Watch the pennies, and the dollars will take care of themselves.
20. Myth: I must be certified by some recognized authority before I can do big things.
21. Myth: To become rich another must become poor.

Here are some snippets from our conversation:

• Same as it ever was – The truth about why it’s easier than ever to start a business today (19:44)
• You need a Wesley – What Star Trek can teach you about building a business (22:08)
• It’s right under your nose – The simplest way to create a product or service that people will happily pay you for (23:52)
• Get out of your own way – Somewhere someone is looking to pay money for knowledge you take for granted (24:55)
• All humans can generate wealth – Why your self-limiting beliefs are the only thing standing between you and a fortune (25:44)
• Climb your own ladder – How to kick the “Education Crutch” to the curb and go with what you know (29:59)
• Certificates of Appreciation: Why your messed up definition of money will keep you broke forever (31:42)
• The brick and mortar conundrum – Why digital marketing is the most important arrow in your quiver (34:01)
• The Matrix Principle – Why the people who designed the current system didn’t have your best interests in mind…and what to do about it (35:55)
• The salesperson’s vacation – The real reason sales is the highest paid profession in the world and why you should take it seriously (38:51)
• Risk and Reward – Why the first money in should be the first money out (39:57)
• You aren’t charging enough – Why the craftsman is worth their weight in gold (40:44)
• The Gospel of Speed – Why finding a high leverage tactic and putting 100% behind it is the fastest way to create wealth (41:27)
• Spit out the silver spoon – How to overcome the fallacy of having to be born rich (42:03)
• They lied to me – How Old World thinking sets you up for failure in the New Economy (45:05)
• You hold the pen – Why only you get to decide what you write on the blank page of a new day (46:10)
• Value for value – Why profit is the proof of a service well-performed (49:01)
• Your vision may be blurry – How to have clarity when determining whether something is good or evil (50:19)
• You’re good enough, smart enough, and people like you – The danger of allowing academic performance determine your true worth (51:07)
• You get what you focus on – Why paying attention to the wrong thing can cost you millions (52:34)
• Stop being so needy – How to stop relying on else’s approval to become successful (53:25)
• Make infinite pies – The real reason why there is always enough for everyone (54:22)

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Panasonic GH5
• Smart Passive Income
• Final Cut Pro
• Seven Steps to Freedom: How to Escape the American Rat Race
• The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
• Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth
• Zig Ziglar On Selling
• The Millionaire Next Door
• The Two-Word Therapy Session
• The Fountainhead

How To Help

Subscribe to the show through Apple Podcasts and give us a rating and review. Make sure you put your real name and website in the text of the review itself. We will mention you on this show.

Get The Transcript

Right-Click and “Save As” to Get the PDF Transcript.