Welcome to this week’s instalment of The Profit Project interview series where we’re talking all about profitability and Profit First implementation. With the guest being one of Mints CD Consulting’s earliest Profit First clients, Sharlene Cohen from Surety Property.
In our chat we cover:
How Sharlene got started with Profit First
From hearing Mike Michalowicz talk about his latest book at the time, the ideas shared around Profit First resonated quite a lot. At the time they were spending beyond their means and while the business was going well, they’d accumulated ATO debts and needed to change how they were managing their finances.
Challenges Sharlene experienced
One of the initial challenges was the initial assessment. And translating details provided in the book that are based on the American structure into an Australian framework. That meant that once they set the initial percentages to work with, they were reluctant to change them as they didn’t want to have to go through doing all the calculations again.
Another challenge Sharlene shared is around the cyclical nature of their business and how to structure Profit First around that.
Benefits and outcomes of implementing the methodology
Sharlene identifies 3 key benefits she saw, and each of these happened quite quickly
- That she can sleep at night!
- Knowing she can pay her staff
- Can see the profit clearly and the excitement it brings seeing it in the separate account
Tips for implementing and ideas around profitability and cashflow
Along with sharing that people should just start, and get Profit First implemented whether starting out or were like Surety, 15 years along the business ownership journey. Sharlene also shared “don’t be embarrassed. It’s probably one of the hardest things for businesses to actually admit they have a problem.”
But it’s also for businesses doing well. Why not make more money by optimising what you do.
Check out the full interview here for more great insights on implementing Profit First:
Show links:
Website – https://www.suretyproperty.com.au/
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/SuretyPropertyReports/
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharlene-cohen-a7a36849/
To see other Profit First implementation stories, check out more interviews here.
