Scale Up Strategies: The Business Podcast for Coaches, Consultants, and Speakers
We're your hosts and Business Coaching experts Mary Fain Brandt and Laura Bashore
We’re sharing all our mistakes and insider tips from our 20+ years in business and
how we successfully scaled up our businesses without losing our minds or our husbands.
Sure you can piece it together and try to DIY your way to success
OR
you can listen to us every week and learn the shortcuts because we promise there
are some.
Scale Up Strategies: The Business Podcast for Coaches, Consultants, and Speakers
Maximize Profits and Personal Growth: Insights from Transformative Business Books to Rock Your Goals
Unlock the secrets to sustainable business growth and personal development with insights from three groundbreaking books that have transformed our professional lives. Discover how "Profit First" by Mike Michalowicz can revolutionize your financial management approach, ensuring you prioritize profit and prevent fund misuse by setting up separate bank accounts. Learn from our experiences as we highlight how this method can bring clarity, structure, and sustainability to your business finances, optimizing growth and profitability while maintaining focus on cost-cutting strategies.
Are you ready to supercharge your personal and professional achievements? We explore the art of habit formation and goal setting with James Clear's "Atomic Habits" and "The 12 Week Year" by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington. This episode promises to arm you with effective strategies for building good habits, like making them obvious and rewarding, while breaking down your annual goals into focused 12-week periods. Through actionable insights on setting specific goals, utilizing scorecards, and employing time-blocking methods, you'll learn to maintain momentum and achieve success. Grab your favorite cup of coffee and prepare to elevate your business and personal growth journey.
And we have an exciting announcement! Our Black Friday offer to help you grow is ready. With the Goal Getter Program - we'll share our goals and hold each other accountable to achieve them. Stop wishing and start acting! Want more?
Attend our webinar on November 14th to learn how we do it and how we are going to help you do it too!
Goal Getter: Kick Procrastination and Skyrocket Your Success
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/goal-getter-kick-procrastination-and-skyrocket-your-success-tickets-1044641008377
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You're listening to Scale Up Strategies, the business growth podcast for coaches, consultants and speakers. We're your hosts and business coach experts Mary Fan Grant and Laura Bay Shore.
Mary Fain Brandt:We're sharing all our insider tips from 20 plus years in business, including how we successfully scaled our businesses without losing our minds or our husbands.
Laura Bashore:Sure, you can piece it together and try to DIY your way to success, or you can listen to us every week and learn the shortcuts, because we promise they're really awesome.
Mary Fain Brandt:So grab your favorite cup of coffee, tune in and let's start the show.
Laura Bashore:All business owners read a lot of books, listen to podcasts. We're always trying to learn and grow, and I've read so many books as a business owner, but there are three that really stand out and really stand the test of time. In my opinion. They're still making impact in my life and in my business. Now what I find uh great is that Laura and I have read some of the same books and we've recommended books, so we thought why not do an episode on what our top three business books are?
Mary Fain Brandt:Yeah, I mean, it's so important for you to continue to learn, but sometimes, even if you've already read something, if it, if it's a book or information that resonates with you you do want to go back and revisit it too. So we thought we would share some books. You may know these top three, you may not, but what we want to encourage you to do is take time to review these because they are game changers. So let's just go through. We'll do one book at a time, mary. We'll kind of bounce back and forth and share what we like about it and some insights.
Laura Bashore:Yeah. So we're going to discuss three books with you today Profit First, atomic Habits and 12 Week Year and we're going to give you five key features from each book. So here we go. Let's start off with Profit First by Mike I don't know how to say the name McAuliffe.
Laura Bashore:Let's start off with Profit First by Mike McAuliffe. He offers a unique approach to managing finances for business. He kind of the system flips the traditional formula of subtracting expenses from sales to determine the profit. Get it profit first and instead ensuring that profit is prioritized. And ironically, I was telling Laura before this that I used the profit first model 30 years ago and it was in envelopes, right. So, like my budget, I'd have categories for things and savings expenses. Or, if I go on vacation, I had envelopes for excursions, food tips, all of that stuff. So here's five key points from Profit First Prioritize profit. Hello, it's in the name.
Laura Bashore:Businesses should allocate profit first from every income deposit. So that doesn't mean that you get paid and then you pay your bills. You get paid and you have an allocation for the different accounts that they suggest in this book, and your profit account is the first one that you pay. It means setting aside a percentage of all incoming revenue as a profit, before paying expenses taxes and owner's compensation. This ensures that profit is not remains after what is spent, but is a priority from the start.
Laura Bashore:Second and I love this, I've been doing this for years is set up separate bank accounts. So I have a main checking account for my business and I have four, four other accounts, five other accounts under it. So you want to set up separate bank accounts for income, profit, owner's compensation taxes and operating expenses Taxes is not an afterthought. So many business owners don't have a tax account and don't pay their quarterly taxes and then tax season comes and they're like, oh, what am I going to do? Well, implementing profit first, you won't have the problem. The physical separation of funds helps prevent the misuse of money intended for those specific purposes, because you're not going to have a big chunk of change sitting in your checking account because that's not for you to go play with and buy more apps and programs. Yeah, that note was for me.
Mary Fain Brandt:Wending to yourself. I love it, and that's so important because one of the things that we want to make sure to say about this, too, is it's not just saying oh, I'm going to put something into my profit account. When you read this book, you're going to find there's a percentage, and so you start with a percentage and then you can continue to increase that as you get better at using this system. So it's a win-win. You get really excited to see that, yes, I am profiting in my business. So Mary covered the first two points of the book. The third one that we want to share is implement a sequential billing system, so money received should be distributed in a sequence every time. So putting it in that system of okay, we pay our profit account, then we pay our owner's compensation, then we pay our taxes and finally your operating expenses. This is done intentionally to make sure that you are hitting all the areas you need to do before you look and see what's left over. Allocating them to different sections is how you make sure you know what your operating costs are, because when you sit down with your accountant or a CPA or with somebody who does your taxes, they ask you these things anyways. So it's really going over how you should already be running your system.
Mary Fain Brandt:And the fourth one is to regularly review and adjust your percentages.
Mary Fain Brandt:So what I was just mentioning in this segment is that you know you start with their percentage of your profit and then it doesn't have to stay at that as your business continues to scale and do better, put more into your profit portion, put more into your owner's compensation, put more into your tax allocations.
Mary Fain Brandt:As your business grows, so do the percentages that you have with it. And then the fifth one is focus on cutting costs. So something that's great is having these things siphoned out helps to figure out where you can cut costs, where you can do some savings in things like your operating costs or what are some things you could do better so that your tax allocations are going smoother, right, and so by doing that again, it's gonna lead back to putting your profit first. So it's a great read. It's easy too, right, mary, like I found the book easy to understand, and I by no means am a finance specialist. Oh, mary's showing the book Profit First, and I've shared this with other colleagues, even those who used to be in the financial industry, and they have said that it has made all the difference.
Laura Bashore:Next on our list is Atomic Habits by James Clear. It's a widely acclaimed book that provides practical strategies for forming good habits, breaking bad ones and mastering the tiny behaviors that can actually lead to remarkable results. Here are five of the best tips from the book. Number one focus on systems, not goals. Clear argues that the systems you follow are more important than the goals you set. Interesting take on this. While goals are good for setting the direction, systems are best for making progress. Oh my gosh. So the systems I've been using have been tripping me up all this time.
Laura Bashore:A system is the series of habits that you follow daily that are going to leave to you achieving your ultimate goal. So I love this book because it's about taking those little steps, doing little things, micro habits that will actually lead you to being more successful. Tip number two from that book is make it obvious. Design your environment to make good cues for good habits obvious and visible. This increases the likelihood that you'll stick to the new habits by triggering them to be clear reminders. So for me, not having a lot of sweets in my house is a good reminder that I don't want them. I'm not going to see them, right. So if you want to read more. Keep a book on your desk or in another place that you're going to see it. So I have a book at my nightstand so I can read more at night. Little things that will help you achieve your goals.
Mary Fain Brandt:It really does help to set you up for success, and something that also does that is number three here, which is to make it attractive. The more attractive an activity is, the more likely it's going to become habit forming. So if you make this something that seems difficult for you, you're going to be less likely to take action. You can make habits attractive by bundling them with fun activities that you already enjoy, so this technique is known as temptation bundling. I love that and, for example, you know, only listen to your favorite podcast while you're exercising. Now you're being rewarded while you're also doing the habit that you're trying to ingrain for yourself. And the fourth one kind of follows right up after this nicely, which is to make it easy. Make this easy for yourself, so decrease the number of steps between you and your good habits. The easier, simpler and more frictionless a habit is, the more likely you are to stick with it. Thus, automating habits or restructuring your environment to reduce friction can greatly enhance habit formation, as we all know it takes 30 days to make a habit.
Mary Fain Brandt:So you've got to make it something that is easy and attainable. And then the fifth part of this is make it satisfying. So we're more likely to repeat a habit when the experience is satisfying. So this tip is using reinforcement to make habits stick, rewarding yourself immediately after completing them to make habits stick, rewarding yourself immediately after completing them, and that can make it more pleasurable and therefore you're more likely to repeat it. And I want to say that this tells in wonderfully to the third book that we're going to talk about.
Mary Fain Brandt:Mary's going to give us some background on here, but the 12 week year is something I was turned on to by one of my business partners out here in San Diego and I immediately knew that Mary was going to fall in love with it. So, mary, can you tell us a little bit about this great book?
Laura Bashore:I can and thank you for sending me that book. It really did change a lot in my business and my personal life on how I look at goals and how I set goals. So the book the 12 Week Year is by Brian P Morgan and Michael Lennington and it's a guide to achieving more in 12 weeks than most people do in 12 months, by changing again how you structure your work and approach your goals. So here are five tips from that book and this is the book, and we're going to have links to all the books in the show notes.
Laura Bashore:And these are not like. These are not the size of the Bible or the dictionary. They're easy read books, you guys. So goal setting doesn't work for a lot of people and if you're like me, you write down every goal that you want to hit in a year, and it's probably 10 or 20 of them, and then you really don't achieve them because it's too many goals. So tip number one plan your 12 weeks out. The core concept of this book is a year is too long a time frame over which to set and achieve the goals.
Laura Bashore:It allows for procrastination and lacks any urgency because I've got all year to lose 50 pounds. I've got all year to create a new program, right? Instead, it says to break your goals into 12 or break your year into 12 week years. So you're going to have these quarters and with each quarter, you're going to own. Instead, break your year into 12-week years, each with its own specific, measurable and achievable goals. So every quarter, you're going to have three goals. Set specific and measurable goals Rather than these vague aspirations. I'm going to make another 20,000 in my business. I'm going to lose 50 pounds. I'm going to declutter my life right, those are very vague. You need actionable goals for your 12-week period and these goals need to be tied to your larger vision, but broken down into objectives that you can realistically and that's the key word, you guys realistically be achieved within 12 weeks.
Mary Fain Brandt:Exactly. It will help you to figure out where those gaps are, also in your process. So, yeah, and that, I guess, was number one, right, and that was two, yeah one and two, okay, great.
Mary Fain Brandt:Number three on here, then, is it helps you keep a weekly scorecard. So the book also comes with this right, which I think is amazing. So it helps you track off how you're going through your year, and so one week will equal one month. Right, and the way that you calculate this. That's really cool, the way that they put it together, and it helps to maintain not getting stuck in procrastination. Keep yourself moving forward and don't wait until the very end to see how it's going to turn out.
Mary Fain Brandt:Number four, which I love and has been a big game changer for me. Number four which I love and has been a big game changer for me is time blocking, so dedicate specific blocks of time each day to work on your goals. This method is going to ensure that you are tracking your progress. It prevents you from falling behind, and, for those of you who are watching this on video, mary is showing us some of the forms that are in the book and then the corresponding workbook too, so it's a really great program to follow. And then number five is weekly reviews and planning. So you need to review how your week went and see if you need to be adjusting your planning, because you are going to have that goal, because at the end of this just like how we were talking about anatomic habits, where, okay, you want to have a reward with it.
Mary Fain Brandt:Well, you get to celebrate the end of each year and so you get to celebrate the accomplishments that you've had, and it's just a great way to also be like I don't have to wait a full 12 months to celebrate the accomplishments I've had throughout the year. So break it down into quarters. These books are amazing and, as we're moving into kind of holiday season, just kind of throw it out there that these could be a great gift to the business owner in your life is going to want these, or a gift for yourself.
Laura Bashore:And start implementing these habits as you move forward, utilizing these three books which are going to help you focus on profit, attaining goals and seeing yourself as somebody who's in control of how you navigate your business and life, and you alluded to the holidays and I think we're going to go ahead and share this right now that we are working on a new program, laura and I, that we are going to a new pro program, laura and I, that we are going to be launching on black Friday. So if you want to be the first to be in this new program, you know, drop us a note right now, connect with us on one of the platforms. You can connect with us on LinkedIn. But this new program is going to help you have more success in 2025, with less chaos and stress, and we are going to be using these books in part of that. I can't tell you all about the program yet, but if you're looking for a better, systemized, focused way to manage your business, let us know.
Mary Fain Brandt:Absolutely so. That's all we're going to have for you today. We are happy that we were able to share this with you guys. As always, please rate and review this podcast, share it out there, grab these books again. It'll be in the notes for you, and until our next episode here is to great conversations, great coffee and even greater success. Ciao, ciao.
Laura Bashore:If you enjoyed the podcast, show us some love. Please rate, review and subscribe to our podcast, and if you have any feedback, go ahead and share that with us too, because we want to hear from you. Until then, stay focused, stay motivated and stay caffeinated.
