#631 - 亚马逊财务规划工作坊

在本期《严肃卖家》播客中，我们邀请了为电商卖家撰写《利润优先》一书的辛迪·索马森，她将全面探讨盈利能力。

On this episode of the Serious Sellers podcast, we are talking with Cindy Thomason who wrote profits first for ecommerce sellers, and she's gonna be talking all about profitability.

归根结底，我们成为电商卖家，就是为了确保获得利润，从而支撑我们的生活方式。

At the end of the day, we've become ecommerce sellers so that we can make sure to have a profit and fund our lifestyle.

因此，她将分享如何计算和管理资金，确保最终能够实现盈利。

So she's gonna be talking about how to make sure to calculate and manage your money to make sure that at the end of the day, you profit.

这不是很酷吗？

How cool is that?

我觉得确实挺酷的。

Pretty cool, I think.

你人在欧洲吗？

Are you in Europe?

如果是的话，一定要参加欧洲历史上规模最大的亚马逊卖家盛会——AMZ Hacking Live。

If so, make sure to attend the biggest Amazon seller ever in Europe's history, AMZ Hacking Live.

活动将于下周，即1月25日在德国柏林举行。

It's gonna be next week, January 25 in Berlin, Germany.

我会去的。

I'll be there.

凯文·金也会去，还有来自该地区的数百名卖家。

Kevin King will be there and also hundreds of sellers from across the region.

现在，大部分主要演讲将用德语进行。

Now a lot of the main presentations are gonna be in German.

然而，我的和凯文的不会，因为我们不会。

However, not mine or Kevin's because, we don't.

所以这些演讲将用英语进行，但无论你懂德语还是英语，我相信你都能在那里和我们所有人很好地交流。

So those will be in English, but regardless if you speak German or English, I'm sure you'd have a great time networking with all of us there.

现在就去购票吧。

Make sure to get your tickets now.

H10.me/germany。

H10.me/germany.

H10.me/germany。

H10.me/germany.

我们到时候见。

We'll see you there.

大家好，欢迎收听由Helium ten出品的《严肃卖家》播客另一期节目。

Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers podcast by Helium ten.

我是你们的主持人布拉德利·萨顿，这就是本节目。

I'm your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show.

但这是一场完全真实、无脚本、无排练的真诚对话，探讨电商领域各个层次的卖家应采取的严肃策略。

But that's a completely BS free, unscripted, unrehearsed organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the ecommerce world.

今天，我们请来了一位谈论《利润优先》的嘉宾。

Today, we've got someone on that's talks about profit first.

你们中的一些人可能听说过《利润优先》这本书，不过我记不清它是什么时候出版的了。

And, you know, you some of you may have heard about the book profit first, which is written I forget when it came out.

但它的核心理念是先给自己发工资，因为很多人根本做不到这一点。

But it's basically pay yourself first because so many of us do not do that.

我们总是把钱继续投进去，结果陷入恶性循环，总是穷困潦倒，还在纠结今晚能不能买得起三美元一包的通心粉吃。

We keep putting money in, and it just becomes this vicious cycle where we're always poor, and we're trying to figure out, can I afford them the three for a dollar macaroni or not to eat tonight?

尽管我在亚马逊上实现了百万美元的销售额。

Even though I got a million dollars in sales on Amazon.

后来还出了一个针对电商的版本，叫《利润优先：电商版》，这个模型被专门设计并调整以适应电商环境。

And so and then there's a version of that that came out profit first for ecommerce where there was that whole model was designed and adapted to ecommerce.

我们今天的嘉宾之前曾参加过自由票活动，但有些事情已经发生了变化。

And we had our guest today was in the Freedom ticket a while back, but some things have changed.

所以她将为大家带来更新后的版本。

So she's gonna be talking about that in an updated version.

我们今天的嘉宾，如果现在请她上线，让她向大家展示这些内容，是辛迪·汤马森。

Our guest today, if we go go ahead and bring her on so she can show you this stuff, is Cindy Thomason.

辛迪在会计领域非常出色，她经营着一家记账公司。

And Cindy is amazing when it comes she runs a bookkeeping company.

她在这一领域做了很多工作。

She does a lot of stuff in the space.

她精通财务数据，懂得如何根据你的目标，想尽一切办法榨取利润。

She knows her numbers, and she knows how to get that profit, squeeze that profit out depending on your goals every which way you can.

我很期待谈谈现金流。

I'm excited to talk about cash flow.

我们已经讨论了很长时间的Profit First，但我真的认为，在当前的环境下，人们都希望快速增长。

Been talking about Profit First for quite a while, but I really think right now in the environment we're in, people are wanting to grow.

他们想迅速扩张，而现金流正是实现这一目标的关键。

They're wanting to go grow quickly, and cash flow is the ticket for doing that.

让我简单介绍一下我的背景。

So let me just tell you a little bit about my background.

我的名字是辛迪·汤马森。

Again, my name is Cindy Thomason.

正如凯文提到的，我十多年前创立了一家名为BooksKeep的会计公司。

As Kevin mentioned, I founded a bookkeeping business called BooksKeep over ten years ago.

事实上，六年前的这个月，我出版了《面向电商卖家的Profit First》一书。

About six years ago this month, in fact, I released the book Profit First for Ecommerce Sellers.

自从我开始使用这套方法以来，我一直是一名Profit First认证专家。

I have been a Profit First professional since since I opened it up.

我是第九号会员。

I'm member number nine.

从一开始我就知道我的客户需要这个，于是开始使用Profit First，通过这个关系，我逐渐专注于电子商务业务，并在过去十年里一直专注于这个领域。

I just knew from the beginning it was something my clients needed and started working with Profit First and through that relationship started focusing on ecommerce businesses and that's what I focused on for the last ten years.

几年前，我写了一本给女性的书，叫《母性、苹果派和所有那些快乐的废话》。

A couple of years ago, I wrote a book for women called Motherhood Apple Pie and All That Happy Horseshit.

这本书讲的是女性创业时，如何应对平衡家庭等独特挑战。

It's about, women starting a business and the unique challenges we have with juggling families, etcetera.

好的。

Okay.

这就是我。

So that's me.

今天的议程，我想先谈谈电子商务行业的现状，因为今年过得不容易，我深入研究了一些数据，想和大家分享我学到的内容。

Today's agenda, I'm I wanna start off with a little bit about the state of the e com industry because it's been a rough year and I dove into some of the numbers and I'd like to share with you what I what I've learned.

然后我们将进入Profit First的规则，以及一些更高阶的挑战：如何给自己发薪、雇佣员工、管理库存和产品盈利能力。

Then we're going to get into profit first, the rules of the game and then some of the next level challenges, paying yourself, hiring staff, how to manage inventory and product profitability.

所以这就是我们今天的内容流程。

So that's that's our that's our flow for today.

我会快速完成这一部分，因为我更想进入利润优先的内容。

I'm gonna do this first part fairly quickly because I wanna get to the profit first stuff.

但为了让你了解背景，我有超过125个电子商务客户。

But just so you know what you're looking at, I've got over a 125 ecommerce clients.

我分析了他们从2023年7月到2023年1月至7月的数据，以及2024年1月至7月的数据。

I've looked at their data from July '23 from January to July '23 and again from January to July '24.

当然，等年底所有账目结清后，我会再次更新这些数据，但目前是比较2023年上半年与2024年上半年这六个月的情况。

Now I'll update this again when all the books are closed for the end of the year, but it's a six month period comparing the first half of the year '23 with the first half of the year of '24.

这些数据都是匿名化处理后的平均值。

These are the data is anonymized in its averages.

我的客户中，有些表现比你看到的要好得多，也有些表现更差。

So I've got clients doing a lot better than what you're gonna see and I've got clients doing worse than what you're gonna see.

但我认为，将2023年和2024年的情况进行对比，能让你对自身业务可能遇到的情况有一些洞察。

But I think comparing how things looked in '23 with how things looked in '24 will give you some, insights into what you may be experiencing just with your own business.

首先，收入有所增长。

So first of all, revenue was up.

我们这个领域内企业的平均收入增长了大约13%。

The average revenue, for the businesses that, are in our world was up about 13%.

这是一个好消息。

So that's a good news story.

但毛利润下降了约8%。

But gross profit was down about 8%.

再次对比2023年和2024年，毛利润下降了8%。

Again, comparing '23 to the '24, gross profit went down eight percent.

造成这一情况的部分原因是亚马逊的销售成本上升了4%，我知道这对你们来说并不新鲜。

Now part of the reason for that is that Amazon's cost of sales are up 4% and, I know that's not news to any of you.

你们一直感受到费用在上涨，但另一部分原因是你们可能面临更高的商品成本，你们采购来销售的产品价格上涨了，而且你们的运费也可能上升了。

You've been feeling those fees go up But the other portion of it is you're probably hit with higher cost of goods, the products that you're buying to sell, and your shipping costs have probably gone up as well.

这些因素加在一起，导致毛利润下降了8%。

And those things altogether impact that gross profit number that has gone down 8%.

有些人会问，这是因为广告支出增加了。

And some people ask, well, that's because ad spend is up.

对吧？

Right?

但实际上，并不是这样。

And and really, no.

并不是。

It's not.

在我的客户群体中，广告支出占收入的百分比在2023年和2024年之间保持稳定，大约为14%。

Ad spend as a percentage of revenue was steady between for for my group of clients between '23 and '24, and that number was around 14%.

人们总是希望我告诉他们自己的广告支出应该是多少，但我不希望你们看到这14%就认为这是一个好数字。

People are always wanting me to give them what their ad spend number should be and, I don't want you to look at that 14% and go, oh, that's a good number.

这14%只是针对这125个客户的数字。

That 14% just happens to be the number for this 125 clients.

你们的数字会有所不同。

Your number will vary.

我有一些客户根本不花任何钱在广告上，而另一些客户则在广告上投入大量资金，占其收入的40%到50%。

I've got some clients that that don't spend anything on advertising and then I've got some clients that are spending a lot of money, 40 to 50% of their revenue on advertising.

这真是一个非常艰难的处境，我知道这确实严重影响了他们的利润。

That's a really tough place to be and I know that really impacts, their bottom line.

所以，看到14%这个数字从去年到今年上半年保持稳定，我有点惊讶。

So I was kinda surprised by this number that 14% kind of, held steady from last year to this year, the first half of the year.

但真正让人痛心的是这个数据。

Here's the one that really hurts though.

我看到的净利润比去年下降了19%，平均而言，我的客户企业现在处于亏损状态。

The net profit that I saw was down 19% over last year, and that put on average my businesses in in a loss.

去年2023年，净利润率大约在6%左右。

A year ago in 2023, the the net profit number was around 6%.

今年净利润下降了19%，导致企业的盈利水平低于盈亏平衡点13%。

This year when the net profit number went down, it went down 19% putting people at a 13% below profitability.

他们正在损失这么多钱，这真是一个非常艰难的处境。

They're losing, that much money, and it's it's really a tough spot to be.

在过去几个月里，当我提出这些观点时，我总能得到这样的反应：不只是我一个人这样。

As I've presented this over the last few months, I get this reaction of, it's not just me.

我知道，每个人都会因为知道‘好吧，我不是唯一一个’而感到些许安慰。

And I I know that everybody feels a little bit of comfort to know that, okay.

我不是唯一一个搞砸了或面临这种挑战的人。

I'm not the only one screwing up or this having this challenge.

但当我跟别人聊起这些时，我希望他们能明白，这依然不是一个好处境。

But when I when I talk to folks about it, I want them to realize it's still not a good place to be.

即使在泰坦尼克号上有一群人和你在一起，也不会让结局变得更好。

Having other folks with you on the deck of the Titanic didn't make it a better outcome.

对吧？

Right?

所以今天我想向你们介绍一些救生筏，帮助你们离开那艘船，进入更好的状态。

So what I want to do today is to present to you some life rafts to get off that boat, and to start being in a better situation.

我非常确定，因为我已经做了十年，那些管理好现金流并采用某种形式‘利润优先’策略的客户，实现方式有很多。

And I know for a fact because I've been doing it for ten years, the clients that manage their cash flow and that use some version of Profit First, there's a lot of ways you can implement it.

我将分享如何从今天开始着手。

I'm gonna share how you can get started today.

那些人拥有救生筏，正为自己长期的成功做好准备。

Those folks have the life rafts that are are positioning themselves to be successful over time.

最近我偶然看到一句阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦的话。

So I I've come across this quote recently from Albert Einstein.

它说：你必须学会游戏的规则，然后要比任何人都玩得更好。

It says, you have to learn the rules of the game and then you have to play better than anyone else.

我挺喜欢这句话的。

And and I kinda like that.

我认为这很好地描述了商业中发生的事情。

And I think that's a pretty good description of what happens in business.

所以今天我想向你们分享游戏的规则。

So what I want to do today is share with you the rules of the game.

我会向你们展示Profit First是如何运作的，它为什么重要，以及它如何依赖于你的行为。

I'm gonna show you, how Profit First works and why it's important and how it depends on your behavior.

这就是我们原本要涵盖的第一部分内容。

So that's the first section of what we were going to cover.

现在我们将进入利润优先法和游戏规则的部分。

Now we're going to move on to Profit First and the rules of the game.

先简单介绍一下利润优先法。

So just a quick introduction about Profit First.

它由迈克·米哈尔维奇于2034年撰写，我想那正是它面世的时间。

It was written by Mike Michalowicz in 2034, think is when it came out.

那正是我第一次了解到它的时候，他创办了一个名为利润优先专业人士的组织，我于2014年加入了该组织。

That's when I first became aware of it and he has an organization called Profit First Professionals and I joined that back in 2014.

我喜欢利润优先法的地方在于，它是以行为为基础的。

What I love about Profit First is that it is behavioral based.

我们所有行为都是由我们的习惯驱动的，而这些习惯直接影响我们的财务状况。

We all do things because of our behaviors and that's what impacts our money.

因此，今天我要向你们讲解的是，支撑我们行为背后的‘为什么’和‘怎么做’。

And so today what I'm gonna cover for you is the why and the how that's behind our behavior.

我想让你知道，这并不是合乎逻辑的。

And I want you to know it's not logical.

我们做事是基于情感反应和生活中的模式。

We do things based on emotional reactions and patterns in our lives.

我们如何管理资金以及在业务中花钱，背后有特定的原因。

And there's a specific reason for how we actually manage money and spend money in our businesses.

这正是我今天想教你的，然后我们会把这种‘为什么有效’的原理应用到你的业务中，指导你的行为。

And that's what I wanna teach you today and then we're gonna apply that why it works to that behavior to how you can use it in your business.

因此，这里起作用的行为法则被称为帕金森定律。

So the behavioral law here that's that's at work is called Parkinson's Law.

它由西里尔·诺斯科特·帕金森在20世纪50年代提出。

It was developed in the nineteen fifties by Cyril Northcote Parkinson.

他曾是英国皇家海军的一名军官，也是一位经济学家，他研究了这种我们可能都熟悉的状况：当海军获得更多的资金时，他们总是会花光所有钱，然后还需要更多。

He was an officer in the British Royal Navy and he he was an economist, and he studied this situation that was going on that I think we're probably all familiar with where more money would be given to the navy, and they would just seem to use it all up and need more money.

他无法理解这一点。

And he couldn't understand.

那么，为什么会发生这种情况呢？

Well, why why is that happening?

于是他对此进行了研究，并提出了以他名字命名的这条定律。

And so he studied it, and he developed this law that's named after him.

基本理论是：需求会上升以匹配商品的供应。

Basically, theory is the demand rises to meet the supply of a good.

对我来说的简短说法就是：你会用掉你所拥有的。

Short shorthand of for me, I just like to say, you use what you got.

在这个例子中，我给你们看一个挤了牙膏的牙刷。

So in this example, I'm showing you a tube a toothbrush with toothpaste on it.

我旅行的时候，如果带的是大管牙膏，我就会用很多牙膏。

When I travel, if I've got a big tube of toothpaste, I, you know, I use a lot of toothpaste.

但当我用的是快用完的小管牙膏，而路上还有三天时间时，我就只用很小的一点点牙膏。

But when I have that small little tube of toothpaste that I'm about to run out and I got three more days on the road, I use a very tiny little dollop of toothpaste.

所以我觉得牙膏是个很好的例子，我们都能理解——如果你有很多某样东西，你就会用得更多。

So I I think that toothpaste just is a great example that we can all relate to that if you got a lot of something, you use more of it.

如果你拥有的东西很少，你就会用得更少。

If you have a small amount of something, you use less of it.

因此，我们将把这个原理应用到我们的业务和业务中的现金上。

And so we're gonna apply that to our business and to the cash we have in our business.

现在，你们大多数人可能都熟悉损益表的样子，以及我们商业中常见的这个公式：从漏斗顶端的销售额开始，减去各项支出，剩下的就是利润。

Now most of you are probably familiar with what a, how a P and L looks and this formula that we all have, seen in business where we start at the top of the funnel with our sales and we take out our expenses and what's left at the bottom is our profit.

而利润，可能有，也可能没有。

And profit, may or may not actually appear.

根据我刚才与你们分享的内容，你们可以看到，如今我们的电商企业越来越难以实现利润。

Based on what I shared with you a minute ago, you can see that it's becoming more rare for for our ecommerce businesses these days.

利润优先法所做的，就是将这个等式颠倒过来。

Well, what profit first does is we flip that equation.

我们基本上是说，先从销售额中预留出利润，然后剩下的部分才用于业务支出和运营。

We basically say we're gonna take our sales and we're gonna set aside our profit and then what's left is what we're gonna use to spend in our business and to run our business.

所以，这其实就是基本的数学原理。

So, know, this is basic math.

你知道，你可以调换这些术语，从而得到一个平衡的等式。

You know you can flip those terms around and get to, to a balanced equation.

我们在这里所做的就是这些。

That's all we're doing here.

但重要的是要在业务中提前规划利润，而不是把它当作事后才考虑的事情，不要让它只是剩下的部分。

But it's an important distinction to plan for profit in your business and not let it be an afterthought, not let it be just the leftovers, if you will.

我们实现这一点的方式是通过使用银行账户。

And the way we do that is through using our bank accounts.

如今，银行账户通过手机就能轻松访问。

Bank accounts are, so easy to access now on our mobile phones.

当我问现场观众，他们平均每天查看手机银行账户的频率时，大多数人至少每天查看一次。

When I ask folks how often, you know, in a live audience, how often they're checking their mobile bank accounts, on average people are on are checking their bank accounts at least once a day.

许多人告诉我，他们每天早上起床后，都会把查看银行账户作为一天的开始。

Many people tell me they get up and they look at their bank account as part of starting their morning.

所以，我们将利用这些银行账户。

So, we're gonna use those bank accounts.

这是一种轻松的方式，帮助我们登录银行账户，将其用作仪表板，让我们了解资金是如何为我们工作的。

It's an easy way to help us log in to that bank account, use it like a dashboard to let us know how our money is working for us.

接下来我要向你们介绍一种快速启动方法，然后在下一节中我会进一步扩展，讨论更高一级的策略。

So what I'm gonna introduce you to are is a quick start methodology and then I'm gonna expand on that into the in the next section where we talk about the next level.

但作为起步，我认为你需要三个银行账户。

But just as a way to get started, I think you need three bank accounts.

现在，我在和大家谈论金钱时总是很谨慎，因为我知道，如果你随意调整资金分配，可能会彻底打乱你的生活。

Now I I'm always careful when I'm talking to folks about money because I know that you can go in and move some things around and really upset your whole world.

所以，我想让你明白，这种快速启动方法就像从海滩慢慢走进水里。

So I want you to be aware that this quick start method is like walking into the water from the beach.

我们会慢慢适应它。

We're gonna get used to it.

是的。

Yes.

这是一种快速起步的方式，但并不是直接跳入深水区。

It's kind of a quick start, but it's not diving into the deep end.

所以这是一个非常简化的模型。

So it's a very simplified model.

当你稍微适应之后，我们就会变得更复杂一些。

And then after you get your sea legs a little bit, then we're gonna get more sophisticated.

如果你已经有一个用于经营的支票账户，亚马逊的收入进账和账单支付都通过这个账户，那么这个经营支出账户就是你的主要账户。

So if you probably already have some kind of, operating business checking account where your Amazon dollars come in and where you pay your bills out of, that operating expense account is gonna be your main account.

你会继续使用它。

You'll keep using that.

但我建议你再开设两个账户。

But the thing that I'm gonna recommend to you is that you create two more accounts.

其中一个将是你的库存账户，稍后我会详细解释为什么你需要一个库存账户，另一个则是利润账户。基本流程是：亚马逊的结算款项会进入你的经营支出账户，你查看哪些产品售出以及补货成本，然后将这些资金转入单独的库存银行账户。

One of them will be your inventory account and let me go into some detail here in a minute why you need an inventory account and then the other one will be a profit account and basically the flow is the dollars will come in from your Amazon settlement into your operating expense account, you're gonna look and see what products sold and what that replenishment cost is and you're gonna move those dollars into inventory and that separate inventory bank account.

然后你再看看剩下多少。

And then you're gonna look at what's left.

假设你把30%的资金转到库存账户。

Let's say you put 30% over in inventory.

你会看看剩下多少钱。

You're gonna look at what's left.

你还剩下70%。

You've got 70% left.

你会从剩下的金额中取出1%，存入你的利润账户。

You're gonna take 1% of that value that's left and put it in your profit.

每次收到结算款时，你都重复这个过程，这样就能建立起一个库存现金流账户，让你清楚：我的库存账户里有没有足够的钱来下一次下单？

You're just gonna repeat that every time you get a settlement and what that's gonna do is start to set up a cash flow account for inventory so you can see, am I building up enough dollars in that inventory account to place my next order?

因为当你把所有钱都放在一个账户里——全部作为运营支出时，你就搞不清这些钱具体是做什么用的了。

Because what happens when you have all of the money in one bucket, all in operating expenses, you lose track of what that those dollars are for.

所以通过设立单独的银行账户，我们为这些钱赋予了明确的用途，就知道了：好吧。

So by setting up a separate bank account, we give that money a purpose, and we know, okay.

如果我从这里花钱，就没钱支付下一批库存了。

If I spend money out of here, I'm not gonna have the money to pay for my next level load of inventory.

我们来谈谈为什么库存特别重要，以及为什么我们需要单独监控它。

So let's talk about why inventory is special and why why we need to monitor it separately.

大部分情况下，尤其是做自有品牌时，你通常会大批量订货，供应商要求先付一部分定金，然后在发货前付清余款，接着你可能还要等六十到九十天，货物才在船上运输。

Inventory for the most part, especially like if you're private label, you're probably ordering large quantities, your supplier wants some kind of down payment, then they want the rest of the money before it ships, then you've got, you know, possibly sixty to ninety days of actually the the inventories on a boat.

等货到之后，你还得花点时间进行质检，然后把货物运进亚马逊仓库，或者你用来发货的其他仓库。

And then once you get it in, it takes a little bit to do your inspections and get it into the Amazon warehouses or whatever warehouse you're gonna fulfill from.

到了这个时候，你才能开始销售，并从中真正赚到钱。

And then at that point in time, you can start to sell and actually generate some money on that.

所以，你花在库存上的那些钱，要过很久才能回本。

So what happens is those inventory dollars that you spend, you're not gonna get those dollars back for a long time.

这个周期可能长达六个月，甚至更久，具体还要看你的产品销售速度有多快。

That cycle can be almost six months possibly, and depending on how quickly your product sells through, it can even stretch out longer than that.

因此，如果把这些库存资金和运营账户混在一起，你就根本搞不清楚状况了。

So having that kind of noise in your operating checking account, you just can't understand, okay.

到底哪些资金在流动？有什么影响？我需要留多少钱才能下一批库存订单？

What's actually flowing through here and and what's the impact and how much do I need to keep to make that next, inventory order?

所以，只要把库存资金单独存在一个银行账户里，或者定期往库存账户里补充资金，就能清楚地知道，你已经为下一批库存采购做好了资金准备。

So just by putting that inventory in a bank account or or replenishing dollars in an inventory bank account, it helps you know that you're setting yourself up to have the funds to be able to buy the next round of inventory.

所以这就是我喜欢把它分开的原因。

So that's the reason I like to separate it.

库存账户会随着时间推移逐渐增加，然后下降。

It it it inventory will that account's gonna build up over time and get bigger and then it's gonna drop.

然后它又会随着时间推移逐渐增加，再下降。

And then it'll build up over time and then it's gonna drop.

这和我们的运营支出运作方式完全不同。

And that's very different from the way our operating expenses operate.

比如，你支付仓库租金，或者聘请记账服务，又或者支付承包商费用。

You know, if you're paying for, rent on a warehouse or maybe you you've got a bookkeeping service or maybe you've got, maybe you're paying contractors.

这些支出是定期发生的，而如今我们大多数人的生活都基于某种订阅模式，每个月都要为这些服务支付一点费用。

Those things happen on a regular basis and and most of our society now is operating on some type of subscription and and every month you're paying a little bit for those services.

下个月你又要重复一遍。

In the next month you do it all again.

因此，运营成本往往具有相对稳定的现金流，这些支出在每个月都比较一致。

So operating costs can have a pretty steady type of cash flow where those dollars are pretty consistent month over month.

所以你可以看到，如果所有这些运营费用都混杂着库存的波动，你就会真的难以看清我的运营费用到底发生了什么变化。

And so you can see that if all of those operating expenses then has the noise of inventory going on with it, you really, you kinda get lost in understanding what's really happening with my operating expenses.

它们是在增加吗？

Are they going up?

现在做业务的成本比以前更高了吗？是因为订阅费用上涨了，还是燃油价格上涨了，或者人工成本上升了，或者其他原因？

Is it costing me more to do business now than it used to because subscriptions have gone up or or fuel has gone up or labor has gone up or whatever.

如果把库存的干扰因素混在一起，就很难弄清楚这一点。

It's hard to understand that if you've got the noise of inventory in there together.

所以这就是为什么我喜欢把这两个账户分开，这样你才能真正理解现金流的模式和差异，以及库存与运营费用之间的不同运作方式。

So that's why I like these two accounts to be separate so you can start to truly understand the flow and the patterns of flow that and the differences of how that works with inventory versus operating expenses.

接下来我们要讨论的是频率问题。

So the next piece of it is is really we're going to get into frequency.

你需要什么样的节奏？

What kind of rhythm do you need?

如果你在亚马逊上销售，亚马逊基本上会帮你解决这个问题，因为它通常每两周给你结算一次。

Well, Amazon, if you're selling on Amazon, it, kinda takes care of that for you because Amazon is gonna pay you out every two weeks generally.

这与我们推荐的利润优先策略非常一致。

And so that's very consistent with what, we recommend with Profit First.

大约每两周，你应该将所收集的资金分配到这些账户中。

About every two weeks, you should take the money that's, that you've collected and allocate it to these accounts.

正如我所说，亚马逊已经这样做了，所以你可以直接融入这个系统。

And like I said, Amazon is doing that already so it's just you can flow directly into that system.

如果你主要在其他渠道销售，并且收款更频繁，我建议你选择一些固定日期，比如每月10日和25日，作为你实际划转资金的日子。

If you're primarily selling on other channels and you're getting payouts more frequently, then I would recommend that you, you pick some days like the tenth and the twenty fifth, and those be your days that you actually move the money.

资金会进入你的运营支票账户。

So the dollars will come into your operating checking account.

在10号，你需要查看销售成本，将相应资金转入库存账户，提取1%的利润，并以每两周为周期定期执行。

On the tenth, you're gonna look at your cost of goods sold, move those dollars into that, inventory bucket, take your 1% profit, and you're gonna just do that on a regular, two week type cadence.

你将养成的另一种节奏是有趣的部分。

The other rhythm that you'll get into is the fun part.

每个季度，你都可以查看利润账户中累积的资金，并取出一部分奖励自己作为企业家的付出。

It's where every quarter, you get to look at the dollars that have accumulated in your profit account and you get to take some of those dollars out and reward yourself for being the entrepreneur.

我们很多人都工作很长时间，家人很可能因为总是见不到我们而感到沮丧。

As so many of us work a lot of hours, our family probably gets frustrated with us because we're working all the time.

这是一种从你的企业中提取资金的方式，就像你持有股票并获得股息一样。

This is a way that you can take money out of your business much like if you were getting a dividend from a stock that you would own.

你从企业中取出一部分钱，用来庆祝一番。

You take some money out of your business and you do something to celebrate.

我对这一点非常坚持。

And I'm a real stickler for this.

人们总是说，要把钱再投资回企业。

People are always saying, wanna invest it back in the business.

但我却说，不。

And I'm like, no.

你的企业从一开始就应该设计成能够盈利的模式。

You have your business needs to be set up from the beginning to make a profit.

把这些钱取出来。

Take those dollars out.

和家人一起做点什么，为自己庆祝过去三个月你一直这样经营。

Do something with your family, for yourself to celebrate the fact that you have operated this way for the last three months.

所以我建议你在每季度的分配日——也就是季度最后一天——从你的利润账户中取出一半累积的资金。

So what I recommend is that you take on your quarterly distribution date, is the last day of the quarter, you take out half of what has accumulated in your profit account.

我之所以建议取一半，是因为我们要把另一半留在账户里，逐步建立应急基金。

Now the reason I say half is because we leave the other half in to start to build up a rainy day fund.

我可以告诉你很多令人震惊的故事，比如运往亚马逊的库存丢失，或者账户被暂停。

I could tell you so many horror stories of inventory that got lost when it was shipped into Amazon or accounts being suspended.

你需要一个应急基金，以便在遇到麻烦时帮助你渡过难关。

You need a rainy day fund to be able to help you get out of trouble from time to time.

所以，把一半的利润留在你的利润账户里，它们会逐渐积累起来。

So leaving half of those dollars in your in the in your profit account, they will just start to build up.

每三个月你都会往里存钱，其中一半取出使用，另一半则留在账户里，随着时间推移不断积累，一旦遇到困难，你就能用这笔钱渡过难关。

So every three months you're putting dollars in, half of what you put in that three months you take out, the other half stays in there and it just builds up over time And over time, you will have money in there to help you get through a tough spot should it happen.

你知道吗，我们所有人曾在2020年遇到的最大困难，就是亚马逊突然宣布：除了必需品，不再接受任何新产品。

And, you know, the the big tough spot that we all encountered back in 2020 was when Amazon just said, oh, we're not taking any more product except essential items.

而且我告诉你，第二天我收到了一封又一封邮件。

And and I will tell you, got email after email, in that next day.

第一封邮件是：‘感谢上帝，幸亏用了利润优先法。’

The first email was, oh, thank god for profit first.

我们没事了。

We're gonna be fine.

我们只能动用利润账户了。

We're just gonna use our profit account.

我们会挺过去的。

We'll be fine.

另一封邮件是：‘我想我得取消和你们的服务了，因为我们实在没钱支付了。’

And the other was, I think I'm gonna need to cancel our service with you because we just aren't gonna have the funds to pay.

你可以猜到我更喜欢收到哪一封，这也让我更加成为利润优先法的倡导者。

And you can tell which one I liked getting and it made me even more of a advocate for profit first.

所以，在我演讲的这个阶段，我通常会收到一些关于‘那如果……’的问题。

So about this point in in my talk, I usually get some questions around, but what about?

我的企业有债务。

I've got debt in my business.

我该怎么办？

What do I do with that?

我该如何完成这个过渡？

This how do I make this transition?

这会很难。

It's gonna be hard.

我该如何进行利润分配？

And how do I take profit distribution?

所以我简单快速地谈一下这些问题。

So I'll just touch on those real quick.

如果你有债务，比如信用卡、小企业管理局贷款等，你可以开始逐步偿还这些债务。

If you've got debt, credit cards, SBA loans, etcetera, you can start to work those that debt down.

在每个季度进行利润分配时，你可以拿出其中很大一部分，大约是你所提取金额的90%，用来偿还债务，这样就能形成滚雪球效应，逐步还清债务。

And when you take your profit distribution every quarter, you can take a good chunk of it, somewhere around 90% of what you've taken out, your share of it, and apply it to your debt and that will start to snowball paying down debt.

如果你的贷款利率非常低，我当然不会建议你现在就这么做。

Now if you've got very low interest loans, I'm certainly not gonna tell you to do that right now.

你不应该急于偿还低利率的贷款。

You don't wanna aggressively pay back low interest loans.

但如果你有高利率贷款，而且它正在严重拖垮你的生意，那你就需要开始偿还这些债务，而你的利润账户能帮你实现这一点。

But if you've got high interest loans and it's really killing your business, then what you need to do is to start working down that debt and your profit account will allow you to do that.

我已经谈过这个过渡阶段了。

I've already talked about this transition.

我们将采用这种海滩进入方式，通过这三个账户循序渐进地操作。

We're gonna take this beach entry and do things slow with those three accounts.

这是我推荐的做法。

That's what I recommend.

我有一些客户来跟我说：‘我们有现金，而且现在是个好时机，因为第四季度之后你可能会有现金。’

I have I have people who come in and go, oh, well, we have cash and and right now is a good time because you may have cash after q four.

但当人们过于激进地操作时，结果就是不停地来回转账，然后他们说这根本行不通，因为他们并没有改变自己对待金钱的行为方式。

But when people try to do it too aggressively, what happens is they just start moving money back and forth, and then they say this really doesn't work because they're not changing their behavior around money.

他们只是在资金之间来回挪动。

They're just moving money back and forth.

所以我要让你做好准备，能够为这些账户注资，可能你得减少一些开支，尤其是在预留库存资金的时候。

So I want you to get yourself in a position where you can fund those accounts and probably you're gonna have to reduce some expenses, in OpEx as you're setting aside inventory dollars.

你可能需要削减一些开支。

You might have to cut back on some expenses.

当你削减了这些开支后，也许下个季度可以把利润率提升到2%，然后逐步提高，最终达到通常我们希望的5%到15%的利润率，稍后我会给你展示一些相关内容。

And then as you cut back on those expenses, and you can maybe the next quarter bump your profit percentage up to 2% and just start working yourself up to where you get to a place where your profit percentage is higher in the typically, we like to see it somewhere five to 15%, and I'll show you a little bit about that in a second.

关于利润分配，我已经说过了。

And then the profit distributions, I've already said it.

我再重复一遍，因为我知道有人心里这么想。

I'm just gonna say it again because I know somebody's thinking it.

但我希望把利润再投资回业务中，以便更快地增长。

But I wanna invest my profit back in the business so I can grow faster.

这样做的结果是，你的业务会依赖于用掉所有现金来维持运营。

What happens with that is your business gets dependent on using all of that cash to keep the business going.

如果你持续地只将资金投入业务，却不为意外情况和利润留出储备，你的业务就会开始以这种水平和预期运行。

And if you continually just invest in the business without setting aside money for a rainy day and for profits, what happens is your business starts to operate at that level and that expectation.

而以这种方式运营，你就被困住了，必须进行重大调整才能做出改变。

And in operating that way, that's just you're stuck there, and you have to do major major shifts to make a change.

这一点很重要，如果你回溯到帕金森定律，就会意识到你的运营支出账户现在已经比以前紧缩了，你必须想清楚：好吧。

Now what's important about this is that if you take it back to Parkinson's Law and you realize that your OPEX account is now a little skinnier than it used to be, you have to then figure out, alright.

我要削减什么？

What am I gonna cut?

或者我要减少哪些开支？

Or what am I gonna reduce?

我如何才能更高效地运营？

How can I operate more efficiently?

我如何才能更节俭？

How can I be more frugal?

我如何才能更有创新性？

How can I be more innovative?

这种对你运营支出施加的压力能让你的企业更强大。

And those types of pressure that you can apply to your OpEx makes your business stronger.

因此，实施‘利润优先’的一部分自律，就是持续施加压力以控制运营支出，而实现这一点的一种方式是让自己手头留更多钱。

And so part of the discipline of implementing profit first is the discipline to keep pressure to keep those OpEx expenses down and one way you do that is by keeping more money in your pocket.

我见过太多企业从贷款中获得一笔现金注入，但六个月后又陷入困境，因为帕金森定律开始发挥作用——它让他们花掉所有收入，却没有真正投资和扩大业务。

I've seen so many businesses get an infusion of cash from a loan and then six months later they're back in a in a challenging time because they just Parkinson's Law went to work and what Parkinson's Law did was it allowed them to, spend what they've got without actually investing and growing the business.

现在，我也经常被问到关于信用卡的问题。如果你读过迈克·米哈尔维奇的书，他会认为信用卡不是明智之选，但我不同意。

Now I also get a lot of questions about credit cards, and if you've read Mike Michalowicz book, he does not, think credit cards are the way to go, and I disagree.

因此，在我的书中，我讨论了我们如何有效利用信用卡经营业务，因为我深知我们都喜欢积累积分。

And so in my book, what I talk about is how we can use credit cards, effectively in our business because I know we all love our points.

迈克推荐使用借记卡。

Mike recommends debit cards.

我认为借记卡会给企业带来风险，因为它们并不总像信用卡那样提供同等的欺诈保护。

I think debit cards creates a risk for our businesses because they don't always have the same fraud protection that a credit card has.

所以，这是第一点。

So that's number one.

第二点是它们没有积分，而我知道我们都喜欢积分。

Number two is they don't have points, and we I know we like that.

所以我建议你为信用卡设立专门用途，就像你为银行账户做的一样。

So what I recommend is you creating, purposes for your credit cards the same way as you do your, bank accounts.

取一张信用卡，说这张卡专门用于采购库存。

So take, one of your credit cards and say this is gonna be my inventory card.

我把所有库存采购都用这张信用卡，另一张则专门用于运营支出。

I'm gonna put all my inventory on this credit card, and the other one is what I'm gonna use for OpEx.

你得稍微调整一下，把付款集中到一处，或者把消费记录归到一起。

You have to do a little switching to get your payments all in one place or whatever or your, you know, your, the charges in one place.

但一旦你这么做了，你就可以查看信用卡账单，清楚地知道：

But once you do that, what you can do is you can look at your credit card statement and understand, okay.

我三十天内需要支付这么多钱。

I've got this much I'm gonna have to pay in thirty days.

我的银行账户，我的库存账户余额是多少？

What does my bank account, my inventory bank account look like?

你可以判断自己是否以一种能够支持偿还信用卡的方式在运营。

And you can understand if you're operating in a way that's gonna be able to support paying for that credit card.

所以关于信用卡，我只想说，分开使用更好。

So credit cards, I'll just say separate is better.

给它们各自设定用途。

Put give them a purpose.

把库存支出放在一张卡上，运营支出放在另一张卡上，这样你就能轻松看出它们与你使用的银行账户的对应情况。

Put, put your inventory on one, your OpEx on another, and then you can easily start to see how that's tracking with the bank accounts that you're using.

再简单回顾一下这三个银行账户：你最初应该设立的是运营支出账户，所有资金都汇集在这里，然后每两周或每次亚马逊结算日进行分配。

And just quick recap on these bank accounts, the three that you would start with is your OpEx, that's where all the dollars collect, and then where you're gonna allocate them out every two weeks or every Amazon settlement date.

你要把补货成本转移到新的库存银行账户中。

You're gonna take the replenishment cost and move those dollars over into your new inventory bank account.

我建议你用支票账户来做这件事，再设立一个储蓄账户用于存放利润——在转移完库存补货成本后，将剩余金额的1%作为利润存入。

I recommend you have that be a a checking account and then have a savings account for your profits and what's left after you've moved the replenishment cost of inventory, take 1% of that and put it in profit.

以这种方式运营三个月，站稳脚跟后，再尝试提高利润比例。

Operate like that for three months, get your legs under you, then try to bump that profit percentage up.

这是你每个季度要做的事情。

That's what you're gonna do on a a quarterly basis.

你会取出一些利润用于庆祝或偿还债务，然后说：好吧。

You're gonna take some profit dollars out to celebrate or pay down debt, and you're gonna say, okay.

我要再提高一个百分点。

I'm gonna I'm gonna ratchet this up one more percent.

我还能削减哪些开支，来多提取一个百分点的利润？

What can I cut out to take one more percent of profit?

这个循环每三个月、每九十天就会重复一次。

And that's gonna be your cycle every every three months, every ninety days.

这些内容在我们的快速入门指南中有详细说明。

So this is outlined in a quick start guide that we have.

你可以去那里查看，我刚才提到的所有步骤都为你列得清清楚楚。

You can go there and just all the steps of what I just talked about are are outlined for you.

好的。

Okay.

简单回顾一下。

So just a quick recap.

如果你没有一套系统，帕金森定律就会主导你，你会把钱花掉。

If you don't have a system, Parkinson's law is gonna take over and you're gonna spend your money.

管理现金流最简单的方法是使用银行账户，因为银行会帮你完成这些工作。

The easiest way to manage your cash flow is using your bank accounts because the bank actually does the work.

库存和运营支出的现金流运作方式不同，通过将它们分开设立账户，你能更好地理解它们的运作方式。

And the inventory and OpEx cash flow operate differently, and by having them in separate accounts, you can have a better understanding of how that's gonna work.

好的。

Okay.

我刚才讲了很多内容，但我们还有很多精彩的部分要继续。

So I covered a lot there, and, we've still got some more good stuff to go.

接下来我想和你们讨论的是如何进行更高阶的实施，即完整的利润优先实施方法，以及过程中你可能会遇到的一些挑战，比如该给自己发多少工资、什么时候可以雇佣员工等等。

So what I wanna talk to you about next is how to do, like, the next level of implementation, the full blown, profit first implementation, and then some of the challenges that you're likely gonna experience along the way, like how much to pay yourself, when can you hire staff, that kind of thing.

一个完整的利润优先实施方法，首先需要一个收入账户。

So a full blown implementation of, Profit First would have, first of all, an income account.

这个收入账户是所有资金汇集的地方。

That income account is where all the dollars collect.

如果你主要在亚马逊上销售，我认为你不需要这个账户，因为亚马逊已经持有所有资金。

Now if you're primarily selling on Amazon, I don't think you need this because Amazon's holding all that money.

但如果你在Shopify或Etsy上销售，并且每几天才收到一次付款，资金几乎每天都在流入，那就把所有这些钱集中到一个账户里，也就是你的收入账户，这就像你的托盘。

But if you're selling on Shopify or Etsy and you're getting payouts on a every couple of days and that money is is coming in daily or pretty close to daily, collect all that money in one account, that income account, and that's gonna be your serving tray if you will.

所有资金都会流入并存入你的收入账户。

That's where all the money comes in and lands in your income account.

这个账户的唯一目的就是汇集资金。

And the sole purpose of that account is just to collect it.

然后，我们会沿用每几周一次的节奏，进行资金分配。

And then in we will use that same rhythm of every couple of weeks, then you're going to do your allocations.

我们之前已经讨论过库存，所以你首先要做的就是把钱投入库存。

Again, we've talked about inventory, so the first thing you're gonna do is put money in inventory.

在利润优先的世界里，进入收入账户的总收入和实际收入是有区别的。

Now in the profit first world, there's a a distinction between top line revenue that goes into your income and real revenue.

这正是迈克在书中发现并阐述的精妙之处。

And it's really kind of the genius of what Mike, discovered and and outlines in his book.

通过关注真实收入，他为所有企业创造了一个公平的竞争环境。

It allowed him by looking at real revenue, it allowed him to kind of level the playing field for all businesses.

所以他的意思是，如果你是一名医生，收入进来后，你必须支付支持你团队的员工工资。

So what what he's saying is if you're a doctor, then you're gonna have dollars come in and then you're gonna have to pay for, you know, your your staff for that supports your team.

你可能还需要支付一些药品费用。

You you probably have some kind of medicines that you have to pay for.

如果你是个建筑商，你需要支付材料和分包商的费用。

If you're a builder, you have materials and subs that you're gonna use.

在我们的行业里，那就是我们的产品。

In our world, it's our products.

任何零售类业务，都是我们的库存。

Any kind of retail type business, it's our inventory.

一旦我们扣除库存成本，剩下的就是真实收入，这些钱用于支付利润、业主薪酬、税费和运营支出。

So once we take our inventory out, what's left is our real revenue and that's the dollars we have to pay for a profit, for our owner pay, our taxes, and our OpEx.

明白吗？

Okay?

所以，在你站稳脚跟之后，我建议你开设的两个新账户是业主薪酬账户和税务账户。

So the two new accounts that I would suggest you create after you've got your feet under you are the owner pay and the tax account.

我们已经讨论过利润了。

So we've talked about profit.

你理解它是如何运作的。

You understand how that works.

你知道你的目标是不断提高这个银行账户的百分比，也就是分配比例，让账户余额越来越大。

You understand that your goal is to keep making that bank account percentage, that allocation percentage higher so the bank account gets bigger.

接下来我建议你考虑的是业主薪酬，以及税务。

The owner pay is the next one that I would recommend you consider along with taxes.

如果你同时考虑这两点，那么当你更盈利时，你就能为自己提取更多资金，同时预留资金用于支付四月到期的税款。

If you consider those two things at the same time, then when you are more profitable, you start to take more money, out for yourself and you start to set aside dollars to be able to pay for your taxes when they come due in April.

剩下的就是运营支出。

And then the OpEx is what's left.

它被放在底部是有原因的。

It's at the bottom for a reason.

没人做生意是为了让运营支出变得很多。

Nobody goes in business so they can have a lot of OpEx.

对吧？

Right?

我们做生意是为了获得利润，并且能好好地报酬自己。

We want to go in business so that we can have profit and we can pay ourselves well.

而随之而来的结果是我们支付税款。

And a byproduct of that is that we pay for taxes.

我从不介意缴税。

I never mind paying for taxes.

这说明我这一年过得不错。

It means I had a good year.

所以这是一种心态的转变。

So that's a mindset switch.