Profit First for Balloon Businesses
If you’ve ever looked at your business bank balance and thought, “I think I’m doing okay?”... same. For a long time, my day-to-day money tracking was basically: check the account, see if there’s enough for the next balloon order and hope taxes don’t wreck me later. And then I found Profit First for my balloon business.
While it's not a replacement for bookkeeping, it's a great, practical system that gives me clarity on what's actually available, how much of each sale is actually mine, and whether I'm actually saving enough for taxes.
Here’s the core shift: I stopped keeping all my money in one big pot. When everything sits in one checking account, it’s way too easy to feel “rich” one week and stressed the next, because you don’t actually know what that money is for. Profit First forces that clarity by using multiple accounts and preset percentages based on your business needs.
My setup is simple: I use four accounts:
Income (everything lands here first)
Operating (what I’m allowed to run the business on, as in, the account I buy balloons with)
Taxes (so I’m not scrambling at the end of the year)
Owner’s Pay (my paycheck... money that never goes back into the business)
A couple times a month, I do manual transfers from the Income account into the other three. And the percentages into each account are like having clear “guardrails” so I’m not guessing how much to put and where. It also helps me stop using “I’m reinvesting” as an excuse to not pay myself.
Because here's the thing... if you’re not taking money out regularly, you’re basically working for free. And that’s just not a sustainable business.
Profit First gave me major peace of mind around taxes. The first year I owed real money, I got hit with a tax bill I wasn’t at all prepared for, because I assumed what was in the account was mine. Separating tax money from day one completely eliminates that tax-time panic.
If you’re interested in doing this, I highly recommend it! Sure, January 1 is always a nice, clean slate for new systems, but waiting until the new year to start thinking about it is too late. I highly encourage you to read the book as soon as you can... set up your separate accounts and start enjoying the peace of mind around your money.
Listen to the episode 51 of The Bright Balloon Podcast to hear all the details!
