Episode 96: AI for business - the why & how
22nd July, 2024
In this episode, Sarah Eifermann interviews Courtney Smith, the founder of Connection and Firefly, about the use of AI in business. Courtney shares his background and journey as an entrepreneur and discusses how AI is transforming various industries. He explains that AI is not just about sequencing technology but has evolved to create intelligent systems that can understand and interpret information. Courtney also talks about the practical applications of AI in his own business, including transcription and language models. The conversation highlights the importance of embracing AI and adapting to the changing technological landscape. The conversation explores the benefits and concerns surrounding AI and automation. It emphasizes the need to embrace AI as an augmentation of human capabilities rather than fearing it. The discussion also touches on the impact of automation on job opportunities and the importance of adapting to technological advancements. The hosts discuss the potential risks of AI, such as the loss of human connection and the dangers of being controlled by algorithms. They highlight the need for discernment and critical thinking in the digital age. The conversation concludes with practical advice on leveraging AI tools to enhance business operations and improve efficiency.
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Just two industry experts (and guests) having a friendly chat and sharing our knowledge. We aim to raise your knowledge base and dis-spell any myths surrounding finance. tax and a range of other financial topics.
This is a safe space to ask questions and hear useful info on financial matters.
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DISCLAIMER- The information and material in this podcast, and supplementary and associated information available, is for general information only. It should not be taken as constituting professional advice from the podcast owners, and we recommend you seek independent suitable advice that is specific to your unique circumstances.
Podcast Transcript Available Here
Trudi Cowan (00:15.278)
Hello everyone and welcome back to the Financial Fofu podcast. As always, I'm Trudy and I have Sarah joining me. And today we are talking about a topic that might be familiar to some, but completely never heard of by others. And that is the profit first methodology.
Sarah Eifermann (00:23.486)
you
Sarah Eifermann (00:35.422)
Yes, some love it, some hate it. But it comes up quite a lot in some of the groups that we're in online. And so we thought we'd unpack it for people and sort of talk about what it is, what its pros and cons are, how you can use it in business and go from there. And I'm going to put my hand up and go, I don't like it. I don't like it. Not for the reasons that you might not think, though. So mine are a little bit different and we'll unpack them a bit further on.
Trudi Cowan (00:39.15)
Yes.
Trudi Cowan (00:55.598)
Hehehehe
We will. But to start with, what is the profit -first methodology?
Sarah Eifermann (01:07.87)
Yes, so it's a method of cash flow management where you use multiple bank accounts to segregate out your revenue, usually requiring 50 % of profit. So 50 % of the income that comes in to be allocated straight into a profit account before your expenses, your wages, taxes and anything else get taken out of your income stream. So.
Trudi Cowan (01:33.582)
Yeah and look most of the recommendations around this methodology there's sort of five accounts that they would typically say that you need to have set up at the bank and that would be one for your revenue to go into, one for your expenses to come out of, a profit account, an owner's compensation account and an emergency fund. If I have that right? Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (01:40.926)
Mm -hmm.
Sarah Eifermann (01:50.59)
Mm -hmm.
Sarah Eifermann (01:56.542)
Yes, yes, because you already you did say taxes I think too didn't you?
Trudi Cowan (02:00.366)
taxes maybe taxes is the other one then and and the way the methodology works is it basically says as your income comes in it should then be reallocated to one of the other accounts based on 30 % of your income. Well what your grandma might have used to do with the bills of putting the money into the different envelopes to factor in for different expenses.
Sarah Eifermann (02:02.622)
Yeah. Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (02:11.55)
Yeah, it's like a money jar. It's like a money jar style of or envelopes. Yeah, envelopes. Yeah, it's it's really good in that sense for people that really struggle to manage their money and have a control over the different accounts. And I've used this analogy before.
It's not analogy, it's an anecdotal story. I had a friend who was a hairdresser who got paid in cash, because that's just how they got paid. Like she got paid her wages in cash. It wasn't cash money. And so she used an envelope method. And that's, so she was a great saver because she had her envelopes and because she was physically touching her cash. This went into this one, this went into her going out account. And, you know, so there's some great theory behind the money jar or the envelope method. But ultimately,
This system will fail you from the get -go if you don't know what your profit is. It's designed to increase your business profits, but if you haven't quoted for profit in the first place, how is it increasing your profit?
Trudi Cowan (03:12.334)
Yes.
Mmm.
Yeah, and actually in doing some research for this episode, one of the websites I came across basically said that at the very beginning, you know, if you don't actually know what profit margin is, well, you've actually got to go do that before first. So this methodology is not about calculating your profit or making sure that you're quoting with profit in mind. It's all about your cash allocation and your cash management. Because if you haven't done that quoting the profit piece first,
Sarah Eifermann (03:31.07)
Yeah, of course you do.
Sarah Eifermann (03:36.606)
Nope. Nope.
Sarah Eifermann (03:43.07)
It is specifically...
Trudi Cowan (03:47.369)
then this is not gonna work no matter what you do.
Sarah Eifermann (03:51.326)
This option of managing your money, even though it's touted as groundbreaking, it's not really that different to the money jar or envelope system we're talking about. The difference is all about perception and how you manage your money from the get -go and how you look after your money. The problem I have with this is that it says that if there's not enough money for profit, you should reduce your expenses.
Trudi Cowan (04:03.342)
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (04:17.646)
Not always easy to do.
Sarah Eifermann (04:20.126)
Not if you haven't quoted for profit in the first place. So there's a bit chicken or egg argument here that annoys me with the proposition for what it is. Again, if you're not disciplined with managing your money, this is a great way of creating discipline for yourself. In the same way that the barefoot investor is a great way of creating discipline. But I can tell you right now that both of those two programs are not really well received by lenders.
Trudi Cowan (04:22.51)
Mmm.
Trudi Cowan (04:39.982)
Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (04:49.182)
Because if you, when lenders check credit and behavior, they're looking for you to be able to demonstrate that you can manage your money. And if you're moving money around multiple bank accounts regularly, it's harder for them to do that, number one. But also number two, if you miss putting money into an account, so in the Profit First methodology, they have an income account, and then they have a expenses account. And if you haven't transferred the money into the expenses account and you go into continual direct,
debit dishonours that will impact your credit score with positive credit reporting. So there are some other things to take into consideration if you're going to utilise this methodology within your business around management of the methodology to make sure that it doesn't have negative impacts in other areas that, you know, unintended consequences that you weren't aware of.
Trudi Cowan (05:40.11)
And look, if this is a methodology that you did have some interest in and wanted to look in, there is a book about it. There's a whole bunch of online resources that you can unlock and I'm sure that there's work papers and calculators and all those sorts of things to help you do this method. And as you said, Sarah, you know, if you need the discipline help, then maybe this is a method that can help you start that discipline. And just because the methodology sets out a certain way doesn't mean you have to take the whole thing.
Sarah Eifermann (05:48.702)
Mike McCallewitz? Yeah.
It's 10 years old this year.
Sarah Eifermann (06:02.782)
Yes.
Trudi Cowan (06:08.718)
on board. Perhaps there's aspects of it that can be useful to you in your business. For example, we both do recommend having more than one business bank account, right? Not necessarily five, but we do recommend having more than one so that you can be putting some money aside in a separate account for saving for your taxes and superannuation and other bits and pieces, right? So there are bits of it that... Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (06:09.47)
Correct. Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (06:18.238)
grade 100%.
Sarah Eifermann (06:29.182)
Mm -hmm. Yeah, traditionally I recommend three. It's about three. I have your trading account. I then have your GST, PAYG, withholding, you know, those statutory super that account. So you can clearly see that you've got your money there to meet that obligation. And then I have your emergency fund or your fire extinguisher account or whatever you want to call it, which is where I suggest that you have three months of your operational expenses, your OPEX.
Trudi Cowan (06:48.143)
Yeah. That's all. Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (06:57.982)
saved up for the downturn of an economy. And I literally have a client at the moment that has been utilizing that whilst they've had to build new income streams because yeah, but they didn't have it previously. So, I mean, there's nothing wrong with multiple bank accounts at all. But like I said, you have to make sure, especially the one that rejects me is the expense account not having your income or your revenue in it and the impact of that on your credit score. If you miss
Trudi Cowan (07:03.854)
I mean, very happy that I had it there. Yeah. Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (07:17.166)
the expense account.
Sarah Eifermann (07:26.014)
bills coming out of the expense account with no cash in it. We're all familiar with what that looks like in OneMake account.
Trudi Cowan (07:28.333)
Yeah. And look, as I say, you know, there's probably aspects out of this system that is going to be useful for certain businesses, but also this method is sort of touted as being for all businesses, but all businesses work very differently. So while it might be really useful for one type of business, it might be really terrible for another, just depending on how you work. I actually had a client the other day, they're builders.
Sarah Eifermann (07:40.67)
Mm.
Sarah Eifermann (07:48.894)
for another. Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (07:55.566)
And they were saying, can we set up a bank account per bill job? Because we want to be able to match the money that we've got coming in to the expenses where it's cost on that particular bill. And, you know, I explained to them it could get messy because that's not the timing of the cash is not always going to match. But I said, but if it's useful for you in your business, then go for it. And that's what a lot of these types of things come down to. Is it actually useful for you in your business?
Sarah Eifermann (08:02.558)
the costs.
Sarah Eifermann (08:14.846)
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (08:21.55)
which might be completely different to what your mate next to you who runs a similar type of business is useful for them. They might want a different methodology that really works for them. So we're not saying don't ever look at this methodology. We're just saying, look at it with a questioning mark as to is it actually helpful in your business, right? And is it going to work for you in helping you manage your cashflow? One of the things I really hate about is the way that they really emphasize the word profit in the name of the methodology.
Sarah Eifermann (08:38.75)
Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (08:51.102)
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (08:51.63)
because people sort of look at it and think it's going to help me make more money. It's not about making more money, it's about managing your cash flow, which is a different concept entirely to profit.
Sarah Eifermann (08:55.102)
You're gonna make me money. I'm gonna make money using this. Nope.
Sarah Eifermann (09:04.734)
And I don't know about you, but I don't really have that many clients that have 50 % profit margin, gross profit margin off the top that can afford to take as well, right? So one, they're not making it, but two, they couldn't even afford to take. 10 % maybe they could take out, but not 50.
Trudi Cowan (09:13.038)
No.
Trudi Cowan (09:22.734)
What I thought was really interesting, one of the tables that I was looking at was actually showed the percentage that you should put to your owner's contribution account, what was it called? Your owner's compensation account. And it depended on your turnover. And it started, as you say, at 50%, but it eventually declined to zero. And I'm like, why, why are we going down to zero? I still want to be making some compensation from my very high income business. All right?
Sarah Eifermann (09:29.886)
Mm -hmm. Yeah, and his contribution. Compensation, yes.
Sarah Eifermann (09:42.526)
I should make more money.
Yeah. Look, maybe that's around, there's some discipline around most business owners don't pay themselves wages. Hence the owner's compensation account is required. But as you become a more fully fledged, larger generating revenue based business, you start paying yourself wages. Therefore the owner's compensation account is no longer required. But as I always say,
Trudi Cowan (09:53.102)
Hmm.
Trudi Cowan (10:06.414)
But isn't that your wages though? Isn't that the same thing?
Sarah Eifermann (10:10.206)
This is what I was about to say, right? Wages and profit are not the same thing. And we talk about regularly a livable wage and having an understanding of what that looks like for you. Cause what's a livable wage for me might not be the same as Trudy or Tom, Dick and Harry. You know, like what's a living wage for me? What does the business need to generate to at least pay that? And then what's the profit on top that you need to earn? Because sometimes it's not always about profit. It's about having a life that you enjoy.
Trudi Cowan (10:11.502)
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (10:35.31)
I don't, I very rarely make a very large profit. I actually try and pay all of my profit out as wages. So for me having a profit account, I'm a little bit irrelevant because I don't, I'm not looking to make a profit in my business. I'm looking to pay any profits that I make to me as wages. So at the end of the day, my profit and loss statement shows a very small.
Sarah Eifermann (10:41.598)
Yeah, same. Profit's not what generates.
Sarah Eifermann (10:52.606)
Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (10:57.278)
So you're back to business goals, right? Like we are circling the same themes that we usually circle here around how you look at your business and what planning that you've done and what is the point of it, right? Why are you in business? You're back at your why, what are you trying to achieve and how are you going to get there? And this system can be really great for people that aren't disciplined in achieving that, but you know, take it with a grain of salt that it may not work for you and it will not increase your profits.
Trudi Cowan (10:58.83)
Hmm.
Trudi Cowan (11:06.03)
Hmm.
Trudi Cowan (11:19.086)
Hmm.
Trudi Cowan (11:22.798)
Yeah.
And I also think that profit is again very business and industry specific because if you're I don't need to have profit because I don't need to have cash reserves to Build up so I can go and buy large capital assets to then invest in my business That's just not the business model I work on but you say you need to you're an excavator and you need to go and buy large pieces of equipment You might need to be retaining profit in the business so that you've got
Sarah Eifermann (11:30.398)
Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (11:41.278)
Hmm.
Trudi Cowan (11:50.766)
cashflow to buy that equipment or so that you've got good looking financials so that the bank will lend you money to go and buy that equipment. So it's a different prospect. So they're probably wanting goals. They want the big wage, but they also need that profit because they need that profit to be able to reinvest back into the business.
Sarah Eifermann (11:56.83)
Yes? Yes?
But that comes down to your goals though, right?
Mm.
You need to be able to justify and demonstrate your capacity to meet loan repayments. That's probably the only position where I could openly say and agree with you that yes, profit is important. Because if you are trying to borrow more money, you need to be able to show the bank that you've got the capacity to meet those repayments that either comes from two places, wages to directors or profit.
Trudi Cowan (12:13.646)
you
Sarah Eifermann (12:34.334)
If it's paid two wages to directors every year consistently and you've got a zero profit margin, then the bank's going to say, well, you're obviously spending that money personally because you're paying it yourself to wages. Therefore, you still don't have capacity to loan this money. Whereas if it's sitting $30 ,000 in profit, you've then paid tax, you've paid the tax on that. So cash wise, it's gone out of the account and you've got 20, what is that? 22 and something left.
K in the bank account, you can now use that money as to service repayments per year on projected income revenue basis moving forward to make repayments on lending. So yes, that is where profit in retained profit is of value.
Trudi Cowan (13:19.278)
And if you're sitting there going, hang on, isn't my cash and my profit the same thing? Then you need to go and do a little bit of education because they're actually very different concepts. And just because you have profit doesn't mean you have cash or just because you have cash doesn't mean that you have profit because there's lots of things that impact one and not the other. Right. So if that's a good topic for you.
Sarah Eifermann (13:32.414)
Correct.
Sarah Eifermann (13:39.454)
And I'm like, you know, like if we were talking to an, yeah, if we were talking to an audience, live audience right now, and we asked you to put up your hands, I can guarantee you that three quarters of the room would put up their hands and say two things. One, they really have the money they needed in the financial year to pay profit, like income tax on a company, for example, to the ATO. And two, this is the kicker. Most of you don't look at your,
accounting systems regularly enough to understand the differences of what's impacting your profit and thus your cash flow.
Trudi Cowan (14:10.062)
Yeah. Yeah. And actually, while you're mentioning accounting systems, that's another thing that I find interesting about this system is it doesn't really refer to interacting with your accounting system, not the things that I've read about it anyway. But the way that I use my accounting system, it tells me how much I need to have aside for my BAS and my taxes, and it tells me how many expenses I have coming up. So I can be doing checks on whether I've got sufficient cash.
Sarah Eifermann (14:19.934)
Doesn't. At all. No.
Sarah Eifermann (14:29.918)
Yes? Yes.
Trudi Cowan (14:38.926)
in my bank account in order to cover those things or have I got enough cash in my bank account to cover my tax and...
Sarah Eifermann (14:41.374)
And look, maybe we need to do a podcast for people on how to use my of or zero or QuickBooks to give them that information. Cause it seems to be a continual question that I get. Cause I use it. But again, I usually know in my head, like it always drives the truth pretty crazy. I can look at one general ledger code in my profit and loss and go that's wrong. And she's like, what do you mean?
Trudi Cowan (14:53.486)
Mmm.
Trudi Cowan (15:06.638)
You're not always wrong, you're not always right on that.
Sarah Eifermann (15:10.302)
Well, as it has been allocated to the wrong account or that I haven't spent that much money on advertising, for example, like I know in my head, but I'm that person. We've got one other mutual client that's very similar, but we're abnormal in the grand scheme of life. Like, so you need to be able to use your accounting systems to give you. Exactly. Yeah, if you're not using it properly, it's it's important to make sure that you're across the board of the tools that you have.
Trudi Cowan (15:21.166)
Yes.
Trudi Cowan (15:25.374)
for
Well that's what it's there for, what are you paying all this money for a system if you're not actually going to use the reports within it?
Sarah Eifermann (15:40.222)
to get the best outcomes at the same time. And a lot of people, I don't know why it's like the, it's like in your face, it's the number one, your accounting system is the one, if it's done correctly, will give you all the information you need to know about where things are at right now. It won't necessarily give you future information. It'll tell you what's due based on dates, but it won't give you earnings and, and, and cashflow forecasts. there are other systems that you can use for things like that. So.
Trudi Cowan (16:04.046)
Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (16:10.526)
I mean, one of the concerns about Profit First is that if you follow it to a T, you're either doing one of two things. You're either going to have to rob your money from your emergency fund to pay your suppliers, or you're going to really annoy your suppliers by never paying them on time. And so that's something to consider and keep in mind about how your timing works again. And then, I don't know, I just look at it and go...
Trudi Cowan (16:25.07)
And now find them, I'm sorry.
Sarah Eifermann (16:37.694)
Multiple bank accounts like this juggling them on top of everything else you have to juggle as a business. It's additional work.
Trudi Cowan (16:41.486)
additional work. It's additional work for your bookkeeper or your accountant to be reconciling all those transactions as well. And I also think that, you know, using an arbitrary percentage of how much gets allocated to each account is just not going to work. And if you've done the work to work out what the relevant percentage is, well, you've done proper cash flow planning anyway, so you're sort of not actually doing profit first, you're doing cash flow forecasting.
Sarah Eifermann (17:04.158)
Correct.
Trudi Cowan (17:10.35)
and knowing what's being allocated. And as you said, you know, the one thing we sort of, both of us just agree that we don't like is that one of the aspects of it is that all your income comes into an income account and then you split a percentage of that out into your expense account and all your expenses are meant to be paid out of that expense account. Now, as you say, if you've got direct debits but you don't have enough money in that account, well, you're going to have problems with defaults.
Sarah Eifermann (17:10.782)
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (17:39.438)
lending issues if you're trying to go for lending and you've got defaults listed on your account but then again as you say if there's no money in the account I've got a supplier that's due what do I do? I'm pulling it from one of my other accounts my profit account for example you're already defeating the purpose of the system because the system says no no you can only pay your expenses out of that expense account you can't rob the other accounts unless it's an emergency
Sarah Eifermann (18:04.446)
which means you're not following the system, right? So like as you said right at the start, maybe there's different components of this system that you love that you can take and you can apply. And I am all for the discipline of cashflow management and having an awareness of the needs to manage your cashflow and be on top of your cashflow. But if you're not able to meet, if this system doesn't meet your needs, like it's like trying to shove your business into, which is a square peg into a round hole because
Trudi Cowan (18:06.094)
which means not following the system anyway.
Trudi Cowan (18:15.79)
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (18:33.402)
Yeah, I doubt.
Sarah Eifermann (18:35.134)
the profit first methodology, you know, hundreds of thousands of businesses have used it over the last 10 years and therefore it must work. But that doesn't like, I don't want you as a business owner to feel like there's something wrong with you or your business. If this system doesn't work for you, cause I can tell you right now, it would not work for me. And
Trudi Cowan (18:47.438)
because it doesn't work for you.
Trudi Cowan (18:52.654)
I would just find too much work.
Sarah Eifermann (18:56.126)
Well, I was just thinking as you said it, right?
Trudi Cowan (18:56.686)
For my needs, it's too onerous and too extensive in order for me to manage my cash.
Sarah Eifermann (19:04.638)
But it's all the additional transactions for the bookkeeper as well. Like you could be paying an extra three or $400 a month or a quarter just to allocate the backwards and forwards between your own bank accounts.
Trudi Cowan (19:17.394)
Yeah. So yeah, so look, we're not saying don't use it. We're saying look at it with a questioning mind and decide whether it's appropriate for your particular business. But I guess maybe some steps of what we would typically recommend in order to manage your cash flow. I guess we would always start from a position of have you actually done your quoting for profit? Are you quoting correctly and in a way that is going to not only cover your expenses, but pay your wages and leave a margin.
Sarah Eifermann (19:29.15)
Yes.
Mm -hmm. Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (19:38.27)
Yes.
Sarah Eifermann (19:46.718)
Yeah, yeah, we're back to correct, correct coding for pricing for profit. So like we've talked about this with trade, labor hours plus materials plus 20 % profit plus JST does not profit equal. Right. And and so
Trudi Cowan (19:47.598)
I see it.
Trudi Cowan (20:00.878)
And in those expenses, your own wage is factored in already. We're factoring your own wage into this credit for profit also.
Sarah Eifermann (20:05.15)
Correct, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So before quoting for profit, we need to know what the wages were back to business goals. What do you want to earn? What does that look like? How do we then price to achieve that? And then make sure that you're covering off your operational expenses at the same time. You've built your wages in there and you've done your budgets and your cashflow forecasting based on that. So you can see and you know that in
the end of the June quarter, the end of the financial year, same quarter in this instance, this scenario, you need to pay your BAS and your GST, but then you may also need to pay income tax because you should have done your tax planning with your accountant a few months before. You should already know what's due and that money should be sitting or three quarters of it should be sitting in a bank account ready to go.
Trudi Cowan (20:45.582)
Yep, so you should already know how much you're going to owe or roughly how much you're going to owe.
Sarah Eifermann (20:55.134)
Not waiting until after the quarter finishes, the lodgement of the BAS gets done and then you go, I don't have any cash to pay that and now I need a payment plan. And as we know at the moment with the ATO, there's two things that are going on. One, you are struggling to get payment plans through and if you've got a payment plan, you're not getting a second one and to roll one plan into two to encompass a new debt is also very difficult. And nope. And
Trudi Cowan (21:08.558)
Yes.
Trudi Cowan (21:16.302)
Never liked that. Yep.
Sarah Eifermann (21:19.614)
Because all you're doing is kicking the can down the road guys. You're trading insolvently effectively and they can see it. It's like the number one giveaway that that's happening. And number two is interest. If you are then paying interest on late payments because you've taken a payment plan and you've effectively used the ATO to bankroll your business, then do not expect them to refund you the interest amount. And it's just effectively costing you 11 % more for a statutory requirement cost.
Trudi Cowan (21:36.718)
Isn't that right?
Sarah Eifermann (21:47.454)
that you should have known that you had in the first place. And if you're new to listening to our podcast.
Trudi Cowan (21:49.774)
And just on that point, there was a theory at one point that people seem to have the understanding that if I paid my debt, the interest would be remitted and refunded by the ATO. That's not a policy. That's not a thing that exists. And the ATO has actually publicly come out and said that you ringing and saying, I should get remission because I paid off my debt. That's not a reason for interest being remitted. And you need something a lot more than that for them to be willing to consider.
Sarah Eifermann (21:57.886)
Remaiton? Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (22:19.198)
And if you're new to our podcast, just bear in mind, Trudy and I have very strong feelings on people that choose to not pay their tax because, well, they just didn't want to. We all run businesses and we are all aware of what's required. None of us like doing it. Again, always the first to put my hand up and say, no, the goddamn tax bill. But it's a requirement of being in business. So you suck it up. You just, you know,
Trudi Cowan (22:24.91)
Hahaha
Trudi Cowan (22:29.678)
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (22:35.79)
NUTS
Hahaha!
Sarah Eifermann (22:46.622)
embrace the suck and get on with it. Like it's part of running a business. So there are things to consider when you're looking at your cashflow to ensure that you've got the funds that you need to trade and trade solvently. So.
Trudi Cowan (22:59.662)
Yeah. So once we've got our budgets and our cashflow, then yes, we did mention earlier, we do have, we do agree that having multiple bank accounts is useful, but maybe three, not necessarily five plus. And making sure that you do have a bit of a savings goal. So you are putting some money aside into an emergency fund. In the case that there is a downturn or an employee gets ill for a long period of time or, you know, any other sort of just unforeseen, yeah, loss of supply, loss of a major client.
Sarah Eifermann (23:10.174)
Yes. Yes.
Sarah Eifermann (23:23.902)
Yep. You lose a supplier. Yep.
Trudi Cowan (23:29.422)
Right? Just any of these sort of unforeseen circumstances where you may need a little bit of an extra cashflow boost to get you through, it is still important to have that reserve just in.
Sarah Eifermann (23:35.294)
Mm -hmm.
Yeah, absolutely. We also have a couple of other podcast episodes on cash flow forecasting, coding for profit, pricing for profit, break even. That can be really beneficial to you. So if you haven't listened to them, go back, you can search Spotify, you can search the toolbar on our website on financialfofu .com .au. They all give you the tools and the tips. And then if you need more information, like there's modules of our course that
that look at this, module three and four are fantastic. And then Trudy's two tax modules also talk about some of these things. You can actually buy them as a bundle of four as well and get a discounted price on those, just those four financial units of the course, because they give you the information and they give you the examples to actually apply this information to your business in direct, you know, real time. And I suppose the goal from today was to talk about
profit first for those that didn't know about it but also for those that do. If it's not working for you it may not be you.
Trudi Cowan (24:39.502)
Yeah, yeah, may not be. But look, I would also love to hear from you who's using the methodology, what's actually working for you out of it, what do you like, what don't you like. It'd be great to hear some people's views on it.
Sarah Eifermann (24:44.094)
Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (24:49.118)
and
Sarah Eifermann (24:52.958)
Absolutely. Until next time guys, you've been listening to Financial Fofu.
Trudi Cowan (24:57.134)
Thanks.