Profit First: Building a Business That Unlocks Freedom
🏆 Welcome to This Week’s Profit First Accountant Newsletter!
🕐 Estimated Read Time: 6 MinutesHi Everyone,
It’s Stephen Edwards from Gro Profit First Accountants, and welcome to this week’s Profit First Accountant Newsletter.
This week I want to talk about something that rarely gets discussed properly in business — time away, boundaries, and rewarding yourself without guilt.
I’ve just come back from a short break, and it really brought something into sharp focus for me. I speak to _a lot_ of business owners, across all industries, and one pattern comes up again and again:
They are exhausted.
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They feel trapped.
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And they haven’t taken proper time out for years.
So let me ask you something upfront:
When was the last time you genuinely stepped away from your business and switched off?
Not a weekend where you checked emails.
Not a “holiday” where you were still thinking about work.
But real time away.
*Why Business Owners Struggle to Take Time Off
Most business owners tell me the same things:
- “I’ll take time off when things calm down.”
- “The business needs me.”
- “I can’t afford to step away.”
- “If I stop, everything stops.”
And on the surface, those reasons feel logical. But dig a little deeper and what’s really happening is this:
👉 The business is running you — not the other way around.
That’s not a failure. It’s incredibly common. But it _is_ a warning sign.
Because if your business can’t survive without you for a few days, then it certainly can’t support the lifestyle you started it for in the first place.
*It Doesn’t Start With a Big Holiday
Let’s get one thing straight.
This is not about luxury holidays or weeks off at a time. That comes later.
It starts with small pockets of protected time.
For me, Mondays are sacred. I’ve talked about this before, but it’s worth repeating.
Monday is not a delivery day.
It’s not a firefighting day.
It’s a thinking, planning, and strategy day.
That space allows me to:
- Zoom out
- Make better decisions
- Plan properly for the week ahead
- Work _on_ the business, not just _in_ it
During the week, I also deliberately create space by doing things like:
- Going to the gym
- Using the sauna
- Going for long walks
This isn’t time wasting. This is where your subconscious works through challenges, opportunities, and ideas in the background. Some of the best decisions you’ll ever make won’t happen at your desk.
_So ask yourself:_
Where are you creating space in your week — if at all? *The First Big Milestone: Free Up Your Weekends
If you’re currently working six or seven days a week, this is the first real milestone:
👉 Free up your weekends completely.
A weekend that’s “a bit of work and a bit of rest” is not rest.
Checking emails.
Doing admin.
“Just doing a bit of learning.”
Listening to work podcasts all weekend.
It all keeps your brain switched on.
If this is you, give yourself permission to:
- Move learning into the week
- Create boundaries around your free time
- Stop pretending that half-working weekends count as rest
Yes, I know this is hard. Especially if you’re a learner with a growth mindset. I’m exactly the same.
But the problem is — learning has no natural limit. It will consume _all_ your available time unless you create boundaries.
*What This Has to Do With Profit First
This is where Profit First really comes into its own.
Profit First is not just about numbers.
It’s not just about bank accounts and percentages.
It’s a permission system.
It gives you:
- Visibility
- Control
- And most importantly, confidence
Confidence that the business can afford to reward you.
When I took my recent break, it was paid for entirely from our Profit Distribution pot. Completely guilt-free. That money had already been set aside.
This is exactly how it’s meant to work.
Think about shareholders in a large company:
- Their salary is their salary
- Dividends are a bonus on top
Profit First allows you to treat yourself the same way.
*Start Small: The 1% Action
If all of this feels overwhelming, here’s the simplest possible place to start.
👉 Set aside 1% of your real revenue.
Real revenue means:
- Revenue after direct costs (like stock, materials, or cost of goods sold)
- Not overheads
- Not wages
Put that 1% into a separate account.
Ideally one you don’t log into regularly.
Then forget about it.
Check it again in three months.
If you can run your business on 100% of your revenue, you can run it on 99%.
And those small weekly amounts add up far quicker than you expect.
That money is there to be _enjoyed_.
Not hoarded.
Not reinvested.
Not justified.
Enjoyed.
*If You’re Already Using Profit First
Let me challenge you.
When was the last time you reviewed your percentages?
Comfort leads to stagnation.
Progress creates momentum.
Businesses don’t usually fail because of one big mistake — they drift because nothing changes.
Ask yourself:
- Could my profit percentage be higher?
- What would doubling it over the next few years look like?
- What needs to change to make that possible?
This is exactly why we create custom Profit Plans for our clients.
We don’t benchmark you against “average”.
We benchmark you against best-in-class businesses in your industry.
Then we create a realistic, achievable roadmap — not overnight transformation, but consistent progress.
*The Bigger Picture
Your business should not trap you.
It should not exhaust you.
And it should not rely on sacrifice forever.
Your business should:
- Fund your life
- Reward your effort
- Give you choices
- Give you time
Profit First is the mechanism that makes that possible.
So here’s your final question for this week:
If you truly gave yourself permission, what would you use your profit distributions for?Write it down.
Talk about it with your partner.
Get excited about it.
That’s how real change starts.
If you’d like help putting this into practice, just reach out.
All the best,
Stephen EdwardsProfit First Accountant and Business Coach
_Gro Profit First Accountants_
*Haven’t read my book yet? Get your copy of _How to Build a Business That Runs Without You_ on Amazon now.
Want some help?
3 Ways I can help you.- Get some tax tips from my TikTok HERE
- Book a Tax Diagnostic Discovery Call To See if we think we can save you money? If you are not a client, then you can book a call HERE so we can learn more about your business.
- If you are a client and we don’t already help you with Profit First or you taxes, email me via hello@wearegro.co.uk to arrange a chat about the Profit First System and how it can increase your cash balance and profits (guaranteed)