You’ve heard the saying that there’s no better time to plant a tree than 20 years ago. And the next best time is right now. That holds true for so many parts of life and business. The best time to quit smoking, eat better, start exercising, save for retirement… You get the picture.

And so, when I hear people talk about starting to work the Profit First system and they decide to wait until January 1 or next quarter or whenever, I want to shout at them that NOW is actually the best time to start. Today.

No matter when you read this, now is the best time.

Ultimately the goal of Profit First is to ensure that your business is profitable. That means taking a percentage of your revenue and putting it aside into a Profit account. Then, at the end of the quarter or year, taking half of that profit and doing with it what you want.

If you took 1% or 2% of this month’s revenue and set it aside, how much would you have? It might be $50 or $500 or more, but that’s profit that you likely otherwise wouldn’t have if you waited to start using Profit First.

The first step is getting your own Profit First system set up. I show you how in the Profit First Overview you can grab below.

Then it’s a matter of using it. Start with your first distributions, even if today is the last day of the quarter. It might feel silly, but do it anyway. It’s a habit that you’ll want to get into beginning now.

Then do your allocations as normal on the 10th and 25th of the month (or whatever days you’ve determined work for your business). And take your profit distribution at the end of the next quarter.

Doing this, you’ll start to see a few exciting things happening:

• You’ll immediately have profit
• You’ll start to build a tax savings account, leaving you with less stress come tax time
• You’ll be able to pay yourself a living wage

Doesn’t that feel like something you want to do right away? If you’ve been on the fence about starting to use the Profit First system, let this be your cue to start now.