In this episode, Tim Seymour chats with Steph Jones, Certified Profit First Professional and bookkeeper, about how Profit First completely changed the way she runs her business and her life.

Steph opens up about the early mistakes she made around cash flow and pricing, and how discovering Profit First helped her finally make her business truly profitable. Together, Tim and Steph explore:

• Why starting small with Profit First creates lasting results
• The mindset shifts that come when you finally take control of your money
• How using multiple bank accounts can simplify cash flow and build confidence
• The difference between chasing revenue and creating real profit

If you’ve ever felt like your business is running you - not the other way around - this conversation will show you how Profit First can help you take back control and build a business that truly serves you.

Foreign welcome to Profit first beyond the Book, a podcast that takes you beyond the book with Profit first brought to you by Tim Duncan and the rest of the Profit first professionals, UK and Ireland.

Foreign and today I am very pleased to be joined with Steph Jones of Simple Efficient, one of our certified Profit first professionals.

Welcome along, Steph.

Hi, thanks for having me.

It's great to be here.

You're welcome.

So Steph, we're going to talk about lots of things to do with Profit first today, but we're going to, we're going to start off.

What I always like to do is understand a little bit about your journey before you discovered Profit First.

So if you'd like to share your story, as it were, up until you find Profit first, that would be amazing.

I've been bookkeeping since, since I pretty much left school.

I'm self taught so I learned working in various jobs, doing lots of courses and workshops and working with the accountant.

So a lot of my knowledge is very practical on the go learning.

We only have a few taxes in South Africa, that's about it.

So I did that and worked for a few businesses before I finally braved it up to start my own about seven years ago.

And actually I started as a printing business.

So I was doing business cards, branded clothing, bags, realized that actually I think I'm ready to go back into bookkeeping.

And so I switched from the printing and the creative side to back into bookkeeping.

So I've been doing it for about seven years and it is literally just bookkeeping.

So for the past six, seven years I've just been doing bookkeeping.

And then I came across, it was about four years ago, I think I read or listened to the Prophet first book and I just thought it was the best thing ever.

Naturally I'd listened to the book, I hadn't read the book and so I climbed all in, straight at the targets, realized, hang on, this isn't working and kind of left it for a bit and then bought the book it was last year I think, and read it and that's when I realized, aha, you don't use the targets first, you've got to start with something smaller.

And that's when I reached out to the UK team and thought this, this is just going to be such a game changer.

This is what every business really needs to have from day one.

And if they haven't added from day one, they need to have it from now.

And so that's when I certified.

And yeah, honestly, when you talk about some of your members saying they felt like a Fraud or Mike McCallowicz talks about it, I, I really know what he, I really know what he means.

I sit here and I think, wow, I really, I mean, I, you know, I've been doing it wrong all along.

You know, compliance is just compliance.

But to add this value into businesses, it's lifechanging.

Absolutely lifechanging.

Yeah.

You, you, you're right.

With, there was a, there was a member who, who actually said to us previously, she, she left due to ill health, unfortunately, but she was really starting to develop her Profit first advisory in her accountancy business.

And she said that she felt like she'd been a fraud for 12 years while she was delivering to her clients, but she didn't have this knowledge.

But we only know what we know, and that's why it's our job here is the license holders, me and Duncan, to, to spread the message of Profit first and to share it with everybody so that people can learn, you know, read the book and learn about what Profit first is and how it can actually help your business become profitable.

Have cash, pay yourself properly, you know, save your tax properly, you know, with, with the right forecasting ahead of you.

So it's, it's, it's a really good point that you make there.

But don't beat yourself up.

Like I said, you only know what you know.

But now you do know about Profit first.

Now the world's opening up for you.

I just, I just want to mention as well you mentioned that you had a printing company.

You're actually wearing one of the shirts you printed for our recent ProfitCon event for some of our members, aren't you, Profitologist?

So where did that come, Steph?

How did that come into your mind, Profitologist?

While I was playing around on Google.

Actually, funny enough, just before ProfitCon, when we decided we were going to make some T shirts and it was chat GBT that just came up with a whole whack of different phrases and words.

And prophetologist was there and it just thought, that's genius.

So I thought, yeah, that's what we are.

We're prophetologists and we, we service prophetology.

So, yeah, it's, I think it goes quite nicely and it's not as much as a tongue twister.

As simple, efficient as.

So.

Yeah, I like it.

It was great, great to see some of our members at our ProfitCon event wearing your T shirts that you've created.

So fantastic.

Still keeping in touch with the creative side, which is really important.

But you, you touched on a really, really big point about trying to go all in with Profit first initially and going for the target allocation percentages straight away.

Can we talk about how that worked for you or did it not work for you?

Probably is the question, because this is before you became a Profit first professional.

Of course, yes.

So this was about five years ago when I had listened to the audiobook and honestly, listening, it's better to read because then you're engaging both sides.

You're engaging your brain as well as your ears and not just your ears.

Yeah, so I went in very briefly.

I, I really did do a half attempt.

It wasn't, you know, I didn't go full out and dedicate.

I just kind of went in with those percentages and then realized, oh, hang on, this is, no, this can't work for me right now.

I'm just far too small.

And, and so I parked it because it was just one epic fail.

I mean, I was just pulling money out of different pots again to feed whatever needed feeding.

And so, yeah, it was only when I actually bought the book and physically read through it that I realized, oh, actually you don't start at the targets.

You've got to start at where you're at.

And you find that out by obviously doing the assessment.

I have another client that I'm currently working Profit first with and she's got percentages and they say it's, it's, they just, it's not working.

They can't seem to get ahead.

They put the money in and, and then they're having to take it out again.

And so they sent me over the percentages and I was, I thought, yeah, this is why it's, it's not working.

You haven't got the right percentages.

So we're starting from the scratch and getting them to open up the bank accounts.

The bank accounts is the hardest one to get through because a lot of businesses just don't want to open more bank accounts.

So, yeah, we've been working through that and which bank accounts to open and going through all the different banks to see which will best suit them.

But yeah, don't start off the targets.

This do, you know, is one of the most common reasons that Profit first fails is people, because like you say, listening or reading, whichever you do is very difficult to maintain focus.

And Profit first is not a textbook or a manual.

So it's not something you can necessarily follow is if you're trying to, you know, you know, pass a test.

In effect, it's.

It's kind of like.

It's an ideology, it's a methodology, but it takes people that are skilled, that have gone through certification, that are able to support business owners, you know, with their journey with Profit First.

And like you said, that starts with running the profit assessment, seeing what percentages you're at right now.

Because if you, if you try and pay yourself 50 straight away of the revenue, you may right now only be paying yourself 10%.

That's a big gap.

And then where do you.

Where does the rest of that money know?

Where are you saving that money from?

Because it could be, then you can't pay your bills and then it all falls over and they, they go, profit first doesn't work.

And they throw the book in the bin, which maybe not throw the book in the bin.

That wouldn't be nice for Mike, but you know what I'm saying?

So it's one of the most common reasons.

So it's really interesting that you highlighted that, you know.

So, Steph, what you've kind of mentioned about bank accounts.

Are there any bank accounts you found that work really well with Profit first, or is there, you know, particular banks?

Or what was your experience with that with yourself and with the client that you've been working with recently?

I've opened up a lot of banks.

I went through the motions of going through most of the new banks because I wanted the experience of seeing how the application goes, what they like to work with.

I've subsequently closed most of them since opening them all.

But I love Starling and I'm fast becoming a big fan of Monzo.

I think Monzo does a bit more than what Starlink can do.

Monzo, for me is.

Is becoming the.

The most versatile.

You can lock the pots, you can actually pay directly from the pots.

You can create virtual cards, so.

And you can hide them so you don't see them.

So it's almost like having a completely separate bank account.

They do have a fee, but I feel like the fee is valid because it's not just on bank charges.

It's a subscription overall base.

And they have a great referral system.

So, you know, you can refer them on to other businesses, you know, or work with.

It's really great.

And yeah, it's just really easy.

Really easy.

I opened mine in less than 10 minutes.

So, yeah, so the banks are really, really good.

Alica is becoming a good one for bigger, more Established businesses.

I've been working with them for a little bit as well, and I like their concept and their ethics around how they.

They do banking.

And I know that they're busy developing some pots as well, so it'll be exciting.

Excellent.

That's what makes life so easy.

If you've got a bank that has pots or spaces where you can easily move money into, it makes life a lot easier.

But also it's really important to keep that app on your phone out of sight so that you're not tempted to pop on there and move things around.

What does the future hold?

What does the future hold for you with your clients moving forward?

Well, definitely profit first.

It almost feels like that just needs to be ingrained as part of bookkeeping, as part of a knowledge base that every business should know about.

And, yeah, mindset.

Working around mindset.

I've done a lot of energetic courses.

I'm certified energetically, quite high at quite high level in certain programs.

And that's the one thing I noticed about profit first is it doesn't just help your profit.

It shifts your mindset.

It shifts the way you think of things.

I mean, every time I look at a business that has one bank account now, it just feels so overwhelming looking at it where everything is all just coming out of one account.

It feels so cluttered and claustrophobic.

And you just look at it and you think, oh, it's like that junk drawer cupboard everybody has in their house, most likely in the kitchen, where just random stuff goes into it.

And every time you open it, you think, how do I even start to look in the straw for whatever you're looking for?

And then you kind of just close it again.

And that's what it feels like, having just one bank account where money is coming in and flying out left, right, and center, really.

And so it shifts a whole lot more.

It starts to.

You start to think about how more efficient you can be with your business without spending more.

It really is a huge.

A huge change.

And it isn't just about the money.

It's about a lot of other areas of your business that you just start to think about.

And honestly, it just changes the way you think.

I mean, you start to look at small things like your toothpaste tube and go, wow, I'm really wasting a lot there.

Or your cream when you're putting it on and you're just blobbing a huge lot that you think, well, actually you didn't need that much.

And it really just starts to impact other areas of your life.

That isn't really necessarily always related to money, but the smaller things of how to waste less and how to use less and know that whether you're.

You don't need as much as you always need take.

So it's, it's really powerful from that aspect and that it doesn't just, you know, shift your bank balance.

It actually shifts.

Starts to shift a whole lot of other things in your life.

That's incredibly powerful.

Yeah, that was.

Yeah, thank you.

That was really amazing how you shared that.

Actually.

You put that into such great context that anybody trying to understand how profit first can help you.

They just need to listen to what you just said, because that was amazing how you put that.

So thank you for that.

And the mindset aspect of it is really key, isn't it?

Because changing your behavior and creating the new habits, it's.

It does make you feel good, doesn't it?

You know, when you transfer that money into your profit pot, you know, it makes you feel good to see that money gradually building.

And then after three months, you better reward yourself some of it, you know, and for some people, that's, that's might just be going out for a meal initially.

For other people, it might be the hairdressers, it might be the barbers, it might be a coffee and a cake and, you know, in a magazine, I think, which is what he shared with us before.

But then in the future, people are then booking holidays and booking weekends away and everything grows over time.

And I think that behavior shift helps as you reward yourself each quarter.

So, you know, and for some people, it's not always about rewarding yourself.

Sometimes it's giving back as well.

You know, there's other things we can do with money because you know what, profit can be a.

Can be designated as a bad word.

But actually if you are making profit and you're able to reward from that profit, you might choose to give some of that to charities.

You might choose to do.

So you can actually do good with profit, can't you?

And I think sometimes when people talk about that, it's a little bit unfair.

Yeah.

Profit can impact you in multiple ways and not just with money.

Profit of your time, profit of your energy, it all stems.

And I think the most powerful thing is the micro habits and the micro shifts that you, you take.

And I've noticed that since I've been doing it, and I haven't been doing profit first very well, but I have a spending addiction.

And so that's been part of the journey is learning how to overcome the Spending addiction and actually putting money away.

A lot of people have never saved in their life.

I was one of them.

And profit first because I'd implemented it.

I saw the power of saving and how just putting a small amount away every month.

And because it's in a bank account that you just never look at, a few months down the line, you go into just randomly check it and you're like, wow, where did all this money come from?

That's so huge.

And it kind of shifts it from a.

If you have a not so great mindset around saving, it really makes a massive shift and impact from your mindset point where it almost becomes exciting.

I've had credit card debt for years, and it's always just been one of those, it'll work itself out.

It'll work itself out some somewhere down the line.

And then the other part of my brain going, you better be careful.

You're going to get yourself stuck in a situation that you won't be able to get out as easy as you've.

Done in the past.

Watch out, watch out.

And it was like, oh, I'll work it out later.

And it was only until I sat down and actually mapped it out how long it would take me to pay off if I stopped spending on them and actually set the minimum aside.

And I worked three different repayment options to see which one would be the quickest, would save me the most interest.

And it was only then when I sat down and I actually started to do that, I paid off a credit card for the very first time in, let's say, 30 years of living.

And that was hugely powerful for me, is being able to pay off a credit card completely cut it up and close it.

And so that was another huge shift where I actually got excited to the point of where how much else can I.

How much more else can I put in?

Where can I find extra money?

What can I sell around the house that I'm not using that I could put in to pay these off quicker?

And so I think with the spending addiction, these small little micro changes start to build an ad and help reshift and rewire that spending.

And if anyone is in a huge amount of debt, laying out the debt repayment plan really, really is a powerful thing to do.

It will show you at your current stage when you're going to be paid off by.

But something shifts and you almost start to think, well, what if I took some money from here and put it into there?

And if I took some money from there and put it into there, or actually I've got a lot of stuff lying around the house that I don't use.

What if I sold those things and used.

That really helps you start to think in different ways.

And I think it's, it's a powerful thing because it's, it's one way that you're going to get out of it.

And yes, you can do profit first when you have a lot of debt.

It's actually really helpful and it will help the whole plan from start to finish, will help you to achieve clearing off that debt as well as putting some money aside.

So, yeah, you can do it if you have debt and you can also do it if you think you're not making a profit.

So.

There is your profit first beyond the book tip from Stephanie.

Right, you can do profit first if you haven't got a profit right now, because the only way you're going to get a profit is by doing profit first.

And you can also do profit first if you've got debt to clear, because again, the only way you can clear that debt quickly is with a debt management plan and that's from using profit first as well.

So, Steph, thank you for sharing that.

I also, I, I've got to say now, now that you've shared that We've got a WhatsApp, obviously with our membership and our properties professionals, We've got a WhatsApp community and Steph is very, very.

Well, you're brilliant at holding yourself accountable.

But also you actually put into the group sometimes, don't you, that you have or haven't done things and, and you, you mentioned, I think you put in there a couple of months ago or maybe three months ago when you, you'd cleared off one of your debts that you had.

And I think I've got that right.

It seems to, it seems to ring about in my, in my mind somewhere and everybody was congratulating you and it, and it just goes to show that little steps and these, these step changes and habits, they will create success and everybody's success is different to everybody else's.

But for you it was a, it was a major step forward.

I think when you put that in the group and everybody was so pleased for you and it was a way of you holding yourself accountable and asking for some accountability back from the community, which is so powerful.

Absolutely.

And these little micro steps, just from starting and implementing profit first in my own business, and I've done it on my personal finances, it has shifted other areas of my life as well with microhabits and micro starts that it's so powerful that when you do one tiny little micro habit or one micro step, the impact and the transformation that you receive from that is so huge that, and so empowering that you're like, oh, if I can do that tiny thing here, I can do just one tiny thing in exercise, in holding space for myself in just so many other areas of your life.

And I've found that over the last year I've, I've been doing that these tiny little things that I've always wanted to do and just, it's just felt far too huge.

I've broken them down into the tiny steps of, well, what if I just did a couple of stretches every night?

It doesn't have to be a whole full blown half an hour exercise routine.

I hate exercise.

Just so everybody knows, but I know I need to do more of it.

And so it's that, that initial starting point, building a habit, it's the hardest, is always starting.

So if you can just start with one small thing that you can do every day, even if it's two minutes, and build on that, you're more likely to succeed that way.

And this is what Profit first has also helped me to see, is that you don't need to go all out in one go to start a habit or create a healthy routine of some sort.

You just need to start with one tiny thing, even if it is just three stretches a night.

So, yeah, Profit first isn't just about money, it's about changing your life.

Really.

Fantastic.

Thank you, Steph.

And, and Steph, who, who if somebody wants to contact you or reach out to you for help with their business.

And obviously, as you've explained, it's not just about their business, it's also about their personal finances, their mindset, the psychology of everything and, and creating those new habits through small steps.

What's the best way for them to get a hold of you?

Best way is either my.

Through my website, simplificient.uk or you can email stephimplefficient.uk or find me on Facebook, Instagram.

What's the other one?

LinkedIn.

Yeah, LinkedIn.

I know you're on LinkedIn.

I'm most active on Facebook on.

But yeah, email.

I will get it and I will respond.

So, yeah, fantastic.

Thank you, Steph.

I've really enjoyed chatting to you and hopefully you'll come on again soon and we'll have another chat.

Thank you for sharing all of your knowledge around the psychology of everything.

I think that's massive.

And yeah, and I'm looking forward to to hearing more stories from you with your future clients as they, as they come on board with Profit first and all the things that you can do to help them.

So thanks for joining me today.

And yeah, any last things you want.

To say, just do it.

Don't overthink it.

Start small.

Even if it's, if you can't put one pound away, put 50 pence away.

Start with something small like that.

It's the smaller habits and the smaller steps that will build the biggest, longest lasting momentum and will create the biggest change.

Profit first is a journey.

It's not something you just do, set and forget.

It's about changing beliefs, it's about changing old habits.

It's about rewiring how you think and how you allocate money.

It's about putting a strategy in place for money.

Because money is going to fuel your life, money is going to fuel your business, it's going to fuel the impact and transformation you want to create in the world.

And at the end of the day, everything ties back to money.

So if you haven't got a strategy and a plan in place for your money and you are consciously directing your money so that it is working for you, then business is going to be hard and it's not going to be, it's not going to serve the purpose which is what every business owner wants when they start a business is for the business to work around and fit around their life and to fulfill those life dreams and goals.

And as much as business needs structure and plan and in marketing and sales, it also needs it for money.

And it shows your appreciation for the money that you have received in exchange for the work that you've given, it shows that appreciation.

And by showing that appreciation, giving it direction and giving it a plan and giving every penny a purpose is showing that appreciation.

And when you start doing that, I guarantee you more, more money will flow to you.

Currency likes flow, it likes movement.

And so if, and it loves appreciation.

So if you're flowing it and moving it in, in purposeful directions, more will come your way with ease.

Amazing.

You heard it.

Thank you, Steph, Wonderful.

Thanks very much for joining me today.

Thank you for joining us on our podcast today, Profit First Beyond.

The book was brought to you by the Profit First Professionals UK and Ireland team.

If you'd like to find out more about Profit first or becoming a Profit first professional, head to our website profitfirstuk.co.uk.