Shelby Curry's Key Ideas from Profit First
by Mike Michalowicz

• Paying yourself should always be your priority even if you’re in debt.
• Practice the one more day technique. Hold off on purchasing something and test how much you need it. You’ll feel rewarded when you see yourself saving more by going without certain items.
• Modern-day success is not about earning the most revenue, hiring more employees, and having the biggest office spaces. It is about generating the most profit through the fewest employees with the least expensive office space.
• You cannot add new debt as you pay the old debt off. Pay your smallest debt off first.

• 95% of your company’s profitability depends on what goes on beneath the surface (after the sales), and not the sales themselves.
• Serve your clients with the same or very similar problems, using your one consistent solution to solve the problems.
• The key to being efficient is repeatedly serving a consistent core customer need.
• The more you focus on improving efficiency, the closer you’ll get to achieving double the results in half the time.
• Focus on one area of your business that benefits your best customers and challenge yourself to figure out how to get twice the results for half the effort.

The benefits of accountability groups:

• Having accountability partners can make a potentially challenging experience bearable
• Enforcing a plan or a system with others ensures that you are more likely to do your part
• When you regularly meet with an accountability group, you get into a rhythm that makes it easier for you to stay the course ad achieve your goal
• Keep the accountability groups honest! Let your accountability partner(s) not be your friends.
• You must be accountable for the process by any means necessary.