Finding Hope Through Financial Clarity with Liz Szporn

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. And I am so excited today because I am joined by my Liz Score. Liz, welcome to Profit first beyond the Book.

Thanks, Tim. I'm so happy to be here. As I said earlier, I just, I miss seeing you, I miss talking to you. I'm so happy. Thank you for inviting me.

I'm really excited that you've joined me and yes, we need to talk more. We need to get on course more and that's my, my bad. Busy.

Really do we really do. I miss all of you guys. I, I love Jason. We were talking about Jason. I just saw Carrie Postal in there. I mean I just. When, when you all started Profit first uk, I lost some buddies and I was a little bummed.

Members from you, didn't we?

Including myself in the best way. But it was more of like, wait, I love talking to those people. I need, I need more British accents in my life is what I really think it was. And so you took all the fun accents and left me with Jersey in Boston. So not as fun.

I know fun from over here. See. So you know everyone tries to impersonate everyone else's accents, don't you?

I love it. That's great.

So, Liz, you know, anyone who's listened to this would have heard me mentioning your name in the past, especially when I share about. When you join Profit First Professionals, you go through certification and the first thing is to implement Profit first first in your own business. And, and when you look at that profit assessment for the very first time, it can be quite overwhelming. And I always say how you kind of virtually held my hand through the process, told me everything was going to be okay, reassured me that we now have a way forward and that's exactly what happened. And, and so I wanted to introduce you in that way to everyone so they understand when I, when I share that story. It's you that helped me. And, and, and you've been a Profit first guide now for some years.

Yes.

And can you share with us perhaps life before Profit first what did. Just so everyone could get an understanding of, of you, your journey and how you came to Profit First. Sure.

Yes. And it's actually, I just had my sixth year anniversary yesterday. I've been here six years, which is, it's so crazy because I was like, I'm just going to be here for a minute. I'm going to learn some things that I'M out. Nope, I can't get out. I can't get out. I like it too much. So before I got to profit first, I had a very. I'd done a lot of things, as most of us have, but I didn't know, like many of you all in your audience, I didn't know sort of where I wanted to land. I know I knew what I liked. I didn't know what I liked, but. Or I knew what I didn't like. But I spent the whole, the longest stretch was at a very large education company and we did intensive remediation for students that had learning disabilities. And I actually spent a lot of time in the uk. I spent. We had an office in London and so I spent time in London, which was really fun. So I was there for about 17 years where I learned so much about sales and leadership and team and curriculum and I built a lot of things. And then I started my own business with two business partners and we did professional development for educators. So we were helping. Here in the United States, we have, I'll call it a crisis in the education universe where the pipeline for teachers is shrinking and it's either two sort of two buckets. People will either stay in a classroom for 30 years or they will run screaming after about three. And so we were watching teachers, classroom teachers with certifications and master's degrees jump ship to work for us. And we sat there going, what is happening? So I was at the education place. So we started a professional development business to see if we could be a part of stabilizing that problem and helping educators feel successful and grow their leadership skills and things like that. And then Covid, Covid was, was, was what actually caused us to have to sort of pivot, as we do when we're entrepreneurs. Lots of pivots. And I found profit first because of COVID So we were, we were humming along. Covid happened. I had been looking for a part time job anyway just to sort of see what else was going on. I found profit first and then the world shut down. And I said, okay, so, so this is a sign. And I have to say, being in my seat during a global pandemic was one of the bigger gifts that I've ever been given. You know, I had my friends like you in the United Kingdom. I had, I had, I had a front row seat to small business globally and it was stunning. It was so fun. I have members in Spain, all over Europe, and I had members in Africa. I had members in Central and South America. I have members all over the United States. And so being able to watch it was stunning. So I, once that happened, I was like, I can't get out of here. I love it too much. I love being here. And I realized quickly all the mistakes we made with our first business. And I said, I don't a. You know, if I could do it again, I know my business would have stayed. But I just was like, I love it here too much. I can't leave. It's too fun.

Yeah. Oh, totally with you on that one. I mean, look what we've done.

I know.

Right?

I mean, once you know it, you can't, you can't unsee it. And it's. It, it is so. I mean, you've said this a couple times before. It's. It doesn't matter where, which country you were in this process. These concepts are universal and so, so impactful and allow us to. I love hope. I believe in hope. I'm a very hopeful person and it gives people hope on a scale that I don't think most people can imagine. It's cool. Yeah.

And it's, it's really important point to make that Proper First Professionals is a global organization and it is worldwide, everywhere. And there's so many different countries where people are practicing Profit first. They're offering out to their clients and they're, they're making a positive impact on the world of business through Profit First. It's amazing.

Yeah, it is amazing. I mean, I've watched, you know, I, I will get into this a little bit more, I'm sure, but I love watching. Aside from being a hopeful person, I love watching people win. And there is something so satisfying about working with you all as Profit First Professionals and then watching it spread, watching you all say, listen to what I just helped a client do. Listen to how I just help them pay off a massive debt that was soul crushing to them. And so, you know, Mike's mission from the very beginning was to eradicate entrepreneurial poverty. And he knew that he and Ron wouldn't be able to do it just the two of them. And it had to be through you all. It had to be through you financial, financial folks, the accountants and the bookkeeping firm owners. You are in the business of transformation. Truly. I heard Ron Baker say this a couple years ago, and I just stuck with me. That is your business. Transformation is your business in that you are taking people from chaos to clarity or from despair to hope or showing them there's a path. We can do this. It can't do it in one day. But we can do this. You can pay yourself, you can hire a team, you can pay off your debt and get a second whatever they want. So it's, it's fun. Super fun. Lucky us, Tim. Lucky us.

We are, we are. People have said to me, you know, we, it's, it's before years next March, so, so three and three quarter years, however you want to compute it, since we took the license on for the UK and Ireland and, and I've been asked by many people over throughout this time, what's it like? What do you do? And I'm like, I have fun. It's, it's like the best. I don't even call it a job. It's the best role I've ever had in my life. Because, like you, Liz, I'm, I'm helping our members be successful, transform their own business. But then we're seeing that ripple effect when they help their clients and they come back to us and tell us, my client's done this, my client's done that, this client's done that. You know, there's. There's been people that have bought their dream house, there's been people that have, that, they've got their dream holidays, they've gone the other side of the world for periods of time because they've been able to. They've. They've sent their children to private school and covered the fees because one of our members helped them strategically through that process. There's, there's lots and lots of smaller stuff as well, like purchasing vans and stuff like that they need. But it's so rewarding when you hear the ripple effect of these success stories that come filter down from Mike's book to Profit First, Professional membership to our members, to the clients, to real people out there that are making a difference in the world and are achieving success because of it as well.

Yeah, it's, again, lucky us. This is amazing. And there are so many times as you were talking about even those little things, what I love is that the little things that we get excited about are actually such massive things to other people. So that van that somebody was able to purchase, that's a game changer for their whole business. We can say, oh, it's just a van. No, it's not just a van. It is a vehicle for success, for the future, for whatever. It's just fun. It's. Yeah, it is. And who would have thought? So not being a financial person, I'm always like, people are like, you hang out with accountants all the time. I was like, yeah, fun Fact, they're actually really fun. Like, who knew? Y' all keep this secret from the universe and pretend that you're serious and not fun, but I know. I know better.

I think, as well, the. The accountants and bookkeepers that become Profit first professionals are a slightly different breed. I think there's something different and unique about us that is why we're attracted to Profit first in the first place, because we can see it's something different. Yeah, there's something here that challenges the norm. And actually, it makes sense. It's logical. So you don't have to be a financial person to understand it. It just makes sense. Everybody. Everybody has bank accounts, so. So everybody can understand Profit First.

Yes.

But. But having the knowledge to be able to guide someone through the process, I think is the key to. To the success with Profit First.

Yeah, I agree. And I love that you say that. I say that with all love, all the time. I said, y' all are not normal. You're not normal humans in general. But it's true in the most loving way, because you're right. The people who join, and we have the rule, right? No jerks allowed. You know this. So there's a. We. We're not. We don't let everybody in. And I. I am on the sales piece of this, too. So I love that I can say, oh, it was nice to meet you. No, thank you. If I can, I can tell that they're not going to play nicely in the sandbox, but we mean it. And the culture here, the. The people who are attracted to this organization, to your organization, to any of these, they have a heart of service. Truly. You say, I know and am good at and love financial things. I also know that most small business owners don't love it. They have preconceived notions about, I'm not good at math or I make pies. What do I know about numbers? Or it's too complicated. I'm gonna just put my head in the sand and say, no, thank you. And you all say, I can help you. You do what you do, let me do what I love, and we're going to both win. And it's. It's a. It's. And most of you are. It's. This is, I think, the most surprising part of how much the vast majority of you all are educators. Like, you truly like to teach and educate your clients in a way that I don't think people expect accounting people to be. And I. And I. I love. I love that aspect, too. Like, you want to serve and teach and make lives better. So thank you. Thank you for your service, Tim.

You're.

You're welcome.

Thank you for yours.

That's great.

You know, I. So. So, Liz, you're. You've been doing this just over six years now, as you said. So I've just realized I must have been one of your first.

You were early. Yeah, you were early days. Yes.

So struck me then when you said it. Yeah, no.

Isn't it funny? I think back there were, There were. I. I think I still work with five or six members who were my very first members. Meaning like y' all had no idea that I knew nothing and you stuck with me or you did know. You did know. I knew nothing and you still stuck with me. So that's even.

Do you know what I remember you're very good at allowing me to answer my own question. So I, I would come to you with a problem and you would, you would ask a few questions around it and then I would come to the conclusion that. And I would solve the problem that I had and go away and do the work and come back and say, yeah, I did it. And I think that that's the clever part, isn't it? Being a guide or being a mentor to someone is allowing them to self solve things, but being that conduit for that to happen.

Totally. Yeah. You all know the answers. You just need to talk yourself into it or trust yourself. It's, you know, it's either confidence or, you know, you just sort of have to. To get there. And that's what you do when you don't know the answer. Aha.

Well, sometimes we're just, we, we just need permission. Don't we need someone to say, yeah, you're right, go ahead and do it, as opposed to, you know, because we work for ourselves. It's a lonely world sometimes.

Correct.

It's one of the things we found over here with the community that we've built is how people show up to the calls that we have and how they are so collaborative, so giving, so supportive. And this is the uniqueness of what makes us different. Because like you say, when you're, when you're on a call to a prospect call that perhaps might want to join if they demonstrate those competitive things where they're thinking the other members of their competition and they're not really interested in collaboration, it's kind of a red flag actually. We want people here that are willing to collaborate, that are willing to work together, that are willing to support each other. And because there's so much work there for us to do. There's so much room for us to grow. We can grow together. And I think the community in the collaborative field is really important for me.

Yeah, yeah. I say that very early on in this call. I said people who are successful here, people who get the most out of it, realize that scarcity isn't real. There is more than enough, everything for all of us in this world, in this industry. And people who are successful are the ones who show up and share and show up and listen and show up to show up. And. Yeah, you all have a wonderful culture, a wonderful community there. As we were talking about before, several of the. The US Profit first professionals came to visit. They came back having nothing but amazing things to say about your event, about you two, about your team. And it was. I mean, it's a cool community. It's full of really bold, smart, fun people who just want to succeed, make more money, make more money for their clients. Like, it's fun. It's fun. Again, I'm just gonna keep saying it. Lucky us.

Yeah, we had a great time. We had a great time. There was about half a dozen US members that joined us at ProfitCon this year, and they came to our social event the night before. Yeah, came to the day event all day, you know, and they stayed after for some time as well. And it was great to get to know them. It was great to welcome them in, and great to demonstrate to everyone in the UK also that this is a. An international, you know, organization, and there's a lot of support from around the world for what we do. We also had two of our Irish members there as well, which we mustn't forget. We're really proud to. To be in Ireland. We've got three members in Ireland now.

Oh, that's great.

Yeah, and it's really good. And Lynn and Amelia in particular came over for this event. Ronan came the year before with his wife. So it's great that they make the effort to come over to London to meet us and to be involved in our community as well. So. So I wanted to mention that. Now, Liz, you've worked with so many members over this period of time. You must have some stories of success that you.

So many. And it's so. It's so fun. We read a book a year ago called the Gap and the Gain, which is all. Have you read it? Have you heard about it? It's a good one. And what it does is it's. It shows us how, you know, we are in the United States. We have that piece in Our Constitution that says, you know, in the pursuit of happiness or Benjamin Franklin wrote it. I'm so bad at history. I don't know. But there's a line that says it's probably Thomas Jefferson, not Benjamin Franklin. Oh my gosh. This is why people hate Americans right here. I'm doing it anyway. We are constantly in pursuit, right? And so it's that line of we're never, we're never good. It's not enough. It's not enough. And then we. The piece of this book that I love is saying what we actually need to do is look at the game. What have we done? And so I have. I know that's where creativity lives. That's where pride lives. That's where, you know, rest can live and say, look at what. Literally look at what we've done. So I have been far more conscious of how I collect stories of success a for me because it just fills my bucket. But to help you all remember, to help my members remember what they've done. So I do have. I have two stories that to share because I hear everything. I mean stories of. You mentioned some of the things. But just our members alone from being able to increase advisory in their business is what we're doing, right? If we talk about what Profit First Professionals does, it helps people to increase advisory in through this cash behaviorally based cash management system. So we have people who have paid off massive soul crushing debt. Our members and I. There's one I'm particular thinking of. She's paid. In her first four years, she was able to pay off $300,000 worth of debt which is. I remember the first calls. People cry. And you probably have this too. People get very emotional during this. It's a lot. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of vulnerability. And so I remember it being in. She was in tears. I always tend to cry as well. I'm a motor, I'm an emoter. And I remember the day she said, I need it. I have an emergency, I need to talk to you. And I was like, okay. So I got. She got her on my calendar and she said I paid off the last debt. And we both started sobbing because we're just like, I can't. How do you feel? And she's like, it's like I lost £200. Like, it's amazing. So that's one. A recent one is a member named Keisha who lives in Denver, Colorado. And she was sharing. We have office hours. I'm sure you all have office hours as well, and office hours are my favorite. I call it, you know, it's my professional recess. That's where we get to go and play and talk and share and just sort of, you know, it's our water cooler, I guess. And she was sharing how she had gone to a networking event the night before, and one of her clients was there and he was introducing her to somebody else who was a potential client for Kesha. And they were talking a little bit. And this gentleman introduced her as not just a normal bookkeeper, she is my profit guru. Which she was like, I've never heard him say that. I don't say that. And then he proceeds to say, you know, to. To share some stories. And he was, the gentleman they were talking to said, I don't know what profit first is. And he said, well, it's this blah, blah, blah. And he said, in most people, or Keisha said, most people, I'll be able to help them increase profitability by 30%. And this guy goes, not me. I increase profitability by 1200%. She has changed my life. And it like. And then all of a sudden, all these people turned around and they started looking and they're like, what is happening? So this is so not normal in this universe. And so Keisha, you know, gets to have this, you know, chest out moment going. This is. I'm really good at this. I feel really good about it. Which led to a couple more clients, which leads to more confidence. And I. And I have to say those success stories are huge for me because that's. That's why we're here, right? Another gal. So that's sort of, you know, being a heart of service. There's another gal named Erica who joined just this year. She actually won rookie of the year. And she followed the directions. She just did what we said, just did. You know, we have these courses. They go through the courses. She meets with Aaron, her guide, and they just. She blew it out of the water. She, within two months, signed two clients for about $50,000 each. She had never charged anyone even remotely close to that. And she's like, I got nothing to lose. And now I. I know the secret, so I'm gonna do it. And it's. It.

She.

It's changed her business. She was able to quit her part time job, I believe. And she's like, it's like amazing. So those are some of my favorites. Debt, confidence, doing things you don't think you can do. I mean, I just, I see that every day. It's really all this just from a Little cash, a cash management system. Who knew?

Yeah, but, but it's so much more, isn't it? And that's the thing. It is transformative. It's life changing. It's, you know, our members over here have said the game changer is the word that gets used a lot. And life changing, those are the two phrases that are our members make over here. But, but I love those stories. Thanks for sharing those.

Oh, yeah, you're welcome. It's my favorite.

Yeah, yeah. And that. It's real. That's real. You know, it's a real issue for anybody. And accountants and bookkeepers are not immune from being in debt, you know, because we still sometimes have to use loan facilities, credit facilities to pay our tax bills. Because. Just because that's the way it is. Profit first could solve those problems. And some people believe that they can't do profit first because they're in debt or they can't do profit first because they don't make a profit. And actually that's your route to paying off your debt and your route to making a profit, you know, agreed.

I. 100%. I see that a lot. I actually, for new members, they'll come in and say, well, I can't do profit first with this person because their books are a mess. I can't do profit first because they don't have any money. And I said, well, that's a different problem. But you can do profit first with anything. All profit first. And tell me if, if what your one liner is, but the way that I describe what profit first actually is, it is financial clarity to make better, intentional decisions. That's all it is. It is a system to get more clarity to make better decisions about your business.

Yeah.

And. And it's not bookkeeping, it's not accounting. Right. It is a system to see where your money is and tell it where you want to go. And anybody can do that. Just start, just starting. How do you describe it? What do you. What do you say it is, Tim?

What it provides every time with a purpose? Straight into my head. I may have stolen that from Jason, I'm not sure.

But.

But it just came into my head straight away. Because that's what we're doing, isn't it? Because the money with one bank account, the money gets lost.

Yes.

It just gets lost and it gets consumed and it disappears before we know it. With profit first, when you're moving money into your different parts, you're moving it with purpose. You're moving in, you're moving into the profit pot. So you can reward yourself.

Yes.

It goes into owners pay to pay yourself. You know, it's, it's kind of that simple, isn't it? It goes into tax account to protect yourself. Life is so much easier when you've got a purpose for your money and the clarity is the word that you use. And I think that is, you know, absolutely spot on because that's what it provides to, to our business owners, but also our members. Because with Profit First Professionals, as we've spoke about before, the first place to start is your own business. Yes. So your, for your member who paid off the $300,000 of debt, you know, her business problems have, are being solved, have been solved and she's on a upward trajectory to whatever that next level of success looks like. And in the meantime, because she's found success, she can share that story with clients. She can use that knowledge to really benefit her clients and take them to the next level.

Exactly.

Which is why living and breathing Profit First I think is so key.

Yeah, I agree. And it's, it's, it's that story a allows success for and confidence and all the things that I need, I want everybody to feel. But then just as a business owner, your head is so much more available. Your heart and your spirit and your energy is available to build your actual business as opposed to be, you know, living in a stress filled fear space. When you have that much debt, it is, it. I use the word soul crushing a couple times, but it really is. And it's. You can't think clearly. You're living in this, you know, fight or flight sort of mentality. And once you've taken care of your own house and you're able to say, I get it, I'm doing this, I see the path that hope translates to. Everybody else, your team feels it, your, your marketing is different, your cert, your sales calls are no longer as desperate as they felt before. Right. Because you're in you. So you're able to do things like take on more ideal clients, declare what kind of services you actually want to provide as opposed to because of whatever financial strain you have or the lack of clarity, you couldn't see anything. So, so now you're like, okay, hold on. I have a docket full of people that aren't my, they're not my people. I'm fighting them, I'm chasing them for payments. So stressful. I have the space now. I, you know, because my financial house is in order, I can do better things. But to your point, then we get to share this with clients. And we say, hey, do you want to know what I do in my business? And they're like, yeah, what said, okay, this is actually how I run my business. Well, I don't. I'm not just telling you to do this. This is what I do. And because I do this, I actually have figured out the ways to make it the most efficient, the most effective, the most consistent so that you don't have to have the pitfalls or, you know, trip over things that I, I tripped over.

Yeah.

What a great way to start a conversation. You're not selling, you're teaching, you're educating. And that's, you know, you can't do it if you don't live. It doesn't sound the same.

So, you know, when, when you were explaining that and, and explaining how you can be in control of your own business and, and again, going back to accountants and bookkeepers, you can serve the services you want to serve, not just because you feel you have to do everything. I don't know if you can remember this, but I gave up all my payroll clients at one point.

Why?

I remember because. Because I said to you, I hate doing payroll. Yep. And because I'd started to bring some profit first clients in and doing the higher level advisory and being able to charge some more money, I was able to offload the payroll clients and no more payroll, no more commitment on a weekly basis or the end of the month when you had to be in those days because these things needed doing.

Yep.

And it took that pressure off of me straight away by releasing.

Yeah, I mean it really, it's, it's. Again, you've said this before. It's. It's so much more than a cash management system. It really is. It's a. For, for, for everybody. You're able to say, I love, I love that example. I don't want to do this anymore. And I have something else that fills the financial hole. So I don't have to. And I. Why do I. I don't have to. It's my house. I could do what I want. I love it. Ah, it's so fun. So good.

So, Liz, we were, we were, I was telling you before we went live that we've just had the budget over in the uk. So in the UK we have a budget used to be every year and was a big thing. The Chancellor of the Exchange Checker who's in charge of the money in, in the UK has his red briefcase and he marches out of number 11 Downing street next door to the Prime Minister.

With it and Love the pomp and circumstance of the uk. It's so good.

It's craziness, isn't it? Anyway, twice a year. So, you know, these things now hit us twice a year. But know it's kind of interim. But not interim, if you know what I mean.

Yes.

So we've had quite a lot of discussions within our membership recently about the, the changes that come in, the changes that happened last spring time. The changes that have happened this autumn. You know, there's, there's tax on dividends, there's electric vehicle rates of. Mileage rates have been increased or they're now having to pay for them when they're. Before they were free. You know, National Insurance has affected how we employ people, whether we want to employ people. Minimum pay rates are increasing. You know, all these things are then whipped up into a frenzy, as we know by the media.

Yeah.

Made a sign 10 times worse. Whatever your. Your thoughts are on political views, I personally don't care. Not. Not you, but in general.

Yeah, I know.

Not worried about the political aspect of this. I'm talking about this has an effect to the business owner. Yeah. They're going to hear these things being whipped up in the media and it's frightening. It can be quite scary. So what, what can, what can business owners do to overcome these things that are coming to hit us?

That's a great question. And you know, you, you hit it on the head. No matter what you believe politically, whether you're in the UK or the United States, people are scared. It's scary. It feels like it's always changing. It doesn't like, feels that the ground beneath us is shifting and you don't, you're like, I don't know who to listen to. I don't know what's real. And I just know that I'm scared and I don't know if I can trust my numbers. I don't know if I can trust. I don't know what to do. One of the. Another reason I love Profit first and I love Profit First Professionals is we have an idea, a concept, actually Aaron Moger created it, which is this concept of when in doubt, open an account. And what that means is whenever there's something new, let's say it's a new tax, it's a new something that you have to pay that you didn't have to pay before, something that's larger, something that's sort of unexpected, we can say, let's take a look at where things are and let's find. Right. And because we have all these accounts, we have the clarity to say, okay, actually doing really well in the operating expenses. I believe we can pull a little out there and put it towards this new tax on employees or this new tax on healthcare, whatever, and be able to anticipate that that money is just going to go there. It's, it's. They're going to take it no matter what. And I, you know, I can say all the swear words I want, but I'm still going to have to pay it. So. Right. I can, I will be angry about it, but I will be able to figure this out and I can start to anticipate it. I don't know when they're going to pay it. They may close it off and, you know, take it away in six months from now. Like you said, it's interim. So they may come back and say, just kidding, you can have it now. And then you set that money aside to say, this is, you know, explicitly for this one thing. And we talk about that a lot because so many things happen all the time. And there's something you may want to do, doesn't even have to be bad. You may say, next year, you know, we're at the end of 2025 next year, I want to do more professional development for myself. And so we would say, you would say, probably say the same thing. Let's open a professional development account and let's put 1 or 2% in there. And so every time you do your allocations, you're putting money in there, and that money is just dedicated to that one thing. So when a conference pops up, when a course pops up, you have all of these pounds sitting in there and you don't have to sweat it. You don't have to take away from something else. You don't have to sacrifice your owner's pay to do this thing. The business can cover it. So. So why, you know, I. I love. No matter what's coming, if you just say, this is a new thing, let's allocate, let's, you know, create a new account to be able to at least put 1% in. This goes for hiring, too. Mike and Ron have 22 bank accounts. I don't know how many you have, Tim, but they have 22. And they are very, very. It's a lot. Right. They're very specific with where. What. What they hold important and as important. And it's things like a member Sunshine Fund. So from people get married or have babies or do things. We want to do nice things for people and just celebrate or My Ron loves being able to pay for back to school items for our kids, the his employees children, which is really nice. So he's like bring your receipts and we'll reimburse you. Which is a delightful benefit. Right, so nice. But so what we can do is because we know sort of what's coming, we can anticipate and create new accounts to allocate intentionally and deliberately and then if things change, you just sort of pull it back. But it's because it's percentage based, you can play with it in a different way. So that, that would be, you know, things are always going to be scary and new and changing and I feel like if you have this flexibility to say okay, I'm just going to anticipate it and I'm going to put my money towards it and put 2% a new employee, I'm going to start to see if I can manage to pay this employee before I hire the employee. Do you do that, Tim?

That one, yeah, without doubt. Yeah. Without that we, we do this, we also recommend it to our members and also to their, you know, for them to recommend to their clients if you can get 3 months salary built up, what an amazing place to be to then be able to hire someone knowing that you've got that period of time to get them up and running, to get them fully trained and, and you know, hopefully then they'll be giving you that return on the investment you're making in them. Which is, which is the objective with any cost, isn't it?

Is to get right. Correct. I mean because I feel like that's hiring in employees in general. It even before now you're taxed on it and you have health care issues and things like that over there. I mean that's one of the, the biggest, scariest things that people that we talk about, I'm sure you too is I don't know if I can hire, I don't know how I can do this. And so creating time and space, putting money in an account specifically for future hires, it takes that fear away so that you can again focus on what's important, which is finding an ideal client, making sure your job description is, is, is a good one. You know, spending time interviewing instead of spending time taking on new clients who may not be ideal to try to, you know, sell your way out of the problem. So it's great.

And I think, I think as well you get this from working with a profit first professional. So, so we, I often tell our members that we are your profit first professional. So myself, Duncan Jason, Carrie, you know, we are your Profit first professional. You, we are the people you come to. We, we deliver value to you, we help you, support you through these areas and help you navigate towards success. But then what you then find works in your business, you then share with your clients, which I know we've already touched on, but it's just important to kind of remind the viewers of that because that's where the success comes collectively. But Liz, you, you've kind of, I would say that you have just shared your, your Profit first beyond the book tip for the podcast. I'm happy for you to share more if you've got any, but that, that is exactly what this podcast is all about, is sharing things that perhaps you don't pick up from the book when you read it necessarily. But, but all these extra multi purpose accounts and you know, if, and open account. Zarin says, I love saying it's, it's, I think it's just caught on all the way around the profit for us world to be fair.

I know, I wish Aaron would have trademarked it so she could get some royalties every time we say it.

She should get a kickback every time she did. Yeah.

And I, and I love that you have that because the book is great. But I say as I, as I describe it, it is the tip of the iceberg. You know, working with a Profit first professional, becoming a Profit first professional, you get to go below the waterline and you have a community of people who want to noodle that, who want to sit there and think about whatever problem, challenge, unique situation you have and to have this community that says, oh, here's what I did. I remember this and I did this thing and now it becomes something that lives in Profit First University. And again, because we don't have scarcity, we're sharing all of this stuff, which means all of us globally benefit. But then all of the hundreds of thousands of businesses that we collectively touch benefit. It's. Yeah, this is so much bigger than the book.

It's cool. And, and I often say what I've said before in the past is if you are, if you've read Profit first, fantastic. If you were to talk to your accountant, ask them to read Profit first, they've got the same knowledge as you because they've read the book, you've read the book. If you work with a Profit first professional who's not only read the book, but has gone through certification, training, has gone through implementing in their own business, is successfully hitting targets with their allocations of Profit first on a monthly and regular basis, having updates with us that are guiding them through the process. You're, you're in the right place to make a success in your business. And they, they're, they're kind of in. Therein is the benefit of being a Profit first professional because a book is a book, fantastic as it is. And we love the stories that Mike puts in there as well, that he shares with us of people that he's worked with himself. But, but it's a book and the, the context of actually doing the doing and walking the walk is, is so much more important, I find. We've definitely found that with people that we've worked with over here.

Amen. Amen.

Liz, this has been fantastic. So if anybody is listening to this, it is out in the outer world because believe it or not, we do get listeners all around the world listening to this podcast. Podcast and tuning in.

I believe it.

So this is true. So if you're not in the UK or Ireland and you're interested in finding out more about Profit first, maybe you're a business owner who wants to work with a Profit first professional. Maybe you're an accountant, bookkeeper or financial coach that wants to learn about how to be a Profit first professional. You can go on to the main global website which isprofitfirst professionals.com and you can apply to join and you will end up on a call with either Ron or maybe Liz yourself and find out more about what being a Profit first professional involves. If you're in the uk, then you do something different. So the UK and Ireland is covered by myself and Duncan Lloyd and you would just need to go to profitfirstuk.co.uk and you just fill out the wait list that'll come into my inbox. I'll reach out to you with a link and you can book a call with me and we can have a chat chat and see where you're at with your business and you can learn more about Profit first and we can see if you're ready and a good fit to join us. If you are just interested in Profit first but you're not ready to join and you're not ready to commit, we have a free option for you. So you can go onto Facebook and you can just type in to the search bar the Profit first pathway. You'll see my smiling face along with Jason and Deb and you'll see the green and blue brand in there and you'll be able to answer three very short questions. Agree to the rules and we will accept you into the Profit first pathway where you'll be able to join us on some online sessions. Get to know us and we'll help you a little bit with Profit first in your own business before you are ready to join us in full. So there's, there's what you can do to take action from this podcast. I hope you've enjoyed listening Liz. It's been an absolute pleasure as always to talk to you. Thank you for joining me. I'm pretty certain that we should revisit having you on the podcast again in a few months time. I'd love to have you back.

Thank you. It was a pleasure. I always love talking with you and thank you so much for having me. It was great.

Thanks Liz. See you soon. 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.