There are a lot of reasons that profit first fails, but the have one root cause, YOU have not committed to having a profitable business.  It is not your service or product offerings, it isn’t the market, or your customers.  It is not your vendors or your employees.  It is YOU.

Now you may say “That’s not fair.  You don’t understand my business and situation.”  Well you are right on one count, it isn’t fair.  Nothing about entrepreneurship is.  There is NO guarantee that you will have a profitable business and be successful.  For one thing there are a lot of variables that you cannot control.  There are ALWAYS reasons to have an unprofitable business.

But understand, you and only you, can make the decision to keep an unprofitable business.  You, and only you, can make your unprofitable business profitable.  Until you 1) Exit your business because there is no way it can be profitable or 2) Decide you will make your business profitable you will continue to be on the struggle bus.

Profit First guarantees profit every time it is implemented correctly.  How can it boast that claim?  Because Profit isn’t an option.  You set aside your profit first, and spend only what is left.  If your business truly can function on what is left over, leave it!  The trust is most businesses can be profitable.  Unless you have a really horrible product/service, delivery of the product/service, or your pricing is way off, your business can be profitable.

The difference between a profitable and unprofitable is intention.  As I discuss in Profit Frist for Creatives, Profit First is a tool only.  If you do not have the intent to use the tool, it will just sit there on the shelf.  If you want to use the tool incorrectly, it will not deliver.

The only decision YOU have to make is, do you want to be intentional about making money in your business?  There are always going to be a million and one reasons that challenge you in your business.  You must make the decision to acknowledge those things as issues that need to be solved.  As soon as you turn them into excuses for not being profitable, you’ve lost.

So, today, make the decision to have a profitable business.  If by chance you really have a business that can’t be profitable, then exit immediately, and go start a business that can be profitable.  But be sure the problem isn’t YOU!