Jeremy trained his cat to use a toilet by gradually raising the litter box and removing it, which revealed the cat had a kidney infection. Mike tells a new cleaning-service owner with $150K expected revenue to start Profit First immediately, not wait until $100K, because the habit matters more than the amount.
Questions this video answers
No. Start the Profit First process immediately, even with a tiny profit allocation (e.g., 1%). Use a no‑fee bank or credit union to avoid fees, and build the habit early so it scales as revenue grows.
Chapters
Welcome to a brand new segment we call Ask Mike. Jeremy, I know you get emails every so often, not just about your cats, but, uh, yes. No, before we do the Ask Mike, you, you do have to say this. So off air, I said, uh, some people train their cats to use a toilet, and you're like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. You actually did.
I previously trained my cat to use the toilet, and the reason why it saved his life was because because, uh, he had a bladder infection. I didn't know it. Okay, sorry, a kidney. They have issues with urination.
Yes.
And male cats can get blocked up. Well, it kills them really quickly because it builds up the toxins if they can't get it out. Long story short, uh, he went to use the bathroom and he would just sit there and cry, and I looked in the toilet and I saw blood. If it was a litter box, he may have scratched over it or whatever. Yeah, I wouldn't have seen it. So I took him to the vet and they said I got there just in time.
Thank God. How do you teach a vet to use your actual toilet. Did you share a toilet with your cat?
Do you want to call this segment How to Teach Your Cat How to Use the Toilet?
I just don't even know how you teach your cat.
So, all right, so here's how you do it. So you move the litter box close to the toilet.
You're like, watch, then you go, watch me.
Yeah, then they get used to it being close to the toilet. Then you raise it up, and then you raise it up, you raise up, use books or whatever. Okay. And then they have to jump up to get in. Then eventually you put, put it on the top of the toilet seat.
Okay.
Then you take lift the toilet seat up, put a colander with cat litter in there, and then they start using that. And then you slowly take out more cat litter, more cat litter, till eventually it's just the colander. And then once they start— once they can go with the colander without the cat litter, you take that out. And then they just—
and they balance on the seat itself.
Yeah. The only issue I had was I had to buy— I had to buy a separate toilet seat. This sounds ridiculous— with skateboard grip tape because his paws would slip off. So yeah, that kind of kept him.
But then how would you use the toilet seat? Or did you have to swap it out? Did it have its own bathroom?
Yeah. Yeah, he had his own bathroom.
Okay, of course. Yeah, at least you're not like, you know, obsessed with cats. So let's go into—
so this is really— are we really going into this?
Yeah, let's go into Ask Mike.
Okay. All right, so this question is from Kizzy Belkermi. I think I'm pronouncing that correctly. She really enjoyed your book so far. She's super excited and eager to get started with the system in her business. She moved to a new state 3 weeks ago and she's landed her first client from her cleaning services company. Based on how she has things set up for the month, uh, her total income will be $150,000, I think.
$150,000, I assume, right?
No, no, no. I think it's just $150,000. I'm not sure.
$150,000 period. Okay.
Yeah. Uh, I asked my new potential tax prep if she heard about the Profit First system and she said that I should not start that system until I make over $100K. I was a little baffled when she said that, so I wanted to get confirmation from you.
Okay. So that's, I would say, poor direction from the accountant. You should start this process immediately. Now the key is make sure you use a bank that doesn't charge any fees because it sounds like if it's really $150 as this first project and that's what you're gonna get, um, some banks have a minimum, they're gonna charge you a fee. But if, uh, there's other banks like the one we use is a credit union down the road, there's no fees. You can have a minimum balance. And so start up immediately because you want to get in the habit. And say you make a dollar, 1% if that's what you start with for profit, is a penny. But you still wanna get in the process of allocating that penny, 'cause then once it becomes $10, now it's a dollar or 10 cents, and as it gets bigger, you've had this habit established. I think the biggest mistake people make is they think they should wait for a certain trigger point, and they now have established a bad habit.
Yeah.
What do you think, Kelsey? Yeah, it's excellent. Is that it?
Is it? That's, yeah, that's Kizzy.
All right, my friends, well, there you have it. There's your first Ask Mike on the podcast. If you have one, email us at— what should they email us at? AskMike@mikemakalewicz.com. Ask Mike at mikemakalewicz.com.
