Book · 2014
Profit First
by Mike Michalowicz
Mike Michalowicz proposes you pay yourself first, put the money in a separate account, and build a business on what's left—which turns out to be most of the job.
What does Reddit think of Profit First?
Every commenter is a different person—no repeat advocates, no tribal pile-on. r/smallbusiness carries more of the weight, and the ↑39 comment there spells out the formula directly: Sales minus Profit equals Expenses, inverted from standard accounting. The r/Entrepreneur contingent is warmer. A commenter (↑27) calls it "a game changer" five years after reading it, which is the kind of long-tail endorsement that doesn't show up for books that didn't actually change behavior. Clockwork, Michalowicz's follow-up, gets recommended by the ↑41 r/smallbusiness comment, suggesting readers trust the author enough to continue the series. The one critical note comes from r/smallbusiness (↑22): too many case stories, the core concept could fit under 100 pages. That complaint is accurate and common. The 10-person, 10-commenter ratio means no one's returned to repeat the argument.
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · Cash flow management through envelope-style bank accounts
- · Profit as a variable you set first, not a remainder
- · Small business financial systems for non-accountants
- · Behavioral design applied to business finances
- · Series ecosystem—Clockwork and other Michalowicz titles
Common praise
- + The inverted formula—Sales minus Profit equals Expenses—lands immediately and r/smallbusiness commenters explain it to others unprompted.
- + The ↑27 r/Entrepreneur comment credits it as still influencing money management five years after first reading.
- + r/smallbusiness recommends Clockwork in the same breath, which means readers trust the author enough to keep going.
Common criticism
- − The ↑22 r/smallbusiness comment flags the book as padded: core mechanics could run under 100 pages.
- − Ten mentions from ten different people suggests the book gets cited but not discussed—no one's arguing about implementation details in the threads.
- − The r/Entrepreneur activity stops at 2022, meaning the community that was noisiest about it went quiet.
Who it's for
You run a service business, you pay yourself whatever's left at month-end, and there's never anything left. This is the book r/smallbusiness and r/Entrepreneur reach for in that situation. The owner who already has a CFO or runs on accrual accounting with a solid bookkeeper will find it redundant. Founders who want a framework they can implement this weekend without touching their existing software get exactly that.
Mentions over time
Top subreddits
Which Reddit comments matter for Profit First?
Top-upvoted quotes across the subreddits where this book is mentioned. Click through to read the full thread.
“Alright! Should be enough to get you started. **An Introduction** * Trends.VC visited this topic once, and then again with a little bit of expanded detail. If you only want to read one t…
“Congratulations! Take some pressure off of yourself. A) it’s only money. B) You are the value-added. C) What are your chances of success if you did nothing; invested in stocks; or spent the time and money elsewhere? D) Freedom to fail is a valuable experience, while taking the opportunities may also…
“Echoing the comments above; delegation is essential. I highly suggest the book Clockwork by Mike Michalowicz (of Profit First fame). His strategies make your business so efficient that it no longer needs you to survive. It's been an immensely valuable resource to my own business when I became th…
“"Profit First" by Mike Michalowicz introduces a unique accounting method designed to ensure businesses become profitable from their very first deposit. Instead of following the traditional accounting formula of Sales - Expenses = Profit, Michalowicz proposes a new formula: Sales - Profit = Expenses.…
“I'd recommend reading books from Mike Michalowicz like *Profit First.* He writes about going through similar situations multiple times before finally turning things around.
“I read Profit First by Mike Michalowicz 5 years ago and it was a game changer for my business and how we manage our money.
“Here are the ones I aggregated from a couple of places - haven't read all though. Many of these have had really good feedback/upvotes/comments, and therefore I believe make a really good list. ​ **Tranche 1 - without a summary (However, well recommended):** 1. The Black Swan 2. Thinking…
“I'm reading Profit First by Michael Michalowicz. I'm not through it yet but one thing that bugs me is too many stories from other people. Those books make me feel like it's all filler and you could explain the entire process in less than 100 pages. Idk, I'll reserve judgements until it's finishe…
Convinced? Pick up Profit First
What else does r/smallbusiness read?
Other books mentioned in the same sub, ranked. Shared-sub overlap with this title breaks ties.
The E-Myth Revisited
Michael E. Gerber
Michael Gerber's diagnosis: most small business owners don't own a business — they own a job, and they're the worst boss they've ever had.
Good to Great
Jim Collins
Jim Collins studied 1,435 companies to find 11 that leapt from average to elite — the book r/Entrepreneur still recommends even after the methodology got shredded.
Never Split the Difference
Chris Voss
A former FBI hostage negotiator teaches the same tactical empathy he used to talk down kidnappers — applied to salary talks, vendor deals, and difficult bosses.
The Lean Startup
Eric Ries
Eric Ries tells founders to ship a broken version on purpose, collect data, and repeat until the market stops ignoring them.
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
Ben Horowitz
Ben Horowitz on the decisions nobody prepares you for: layoffs, firings, and the WFIO moments every real company survives or doesn't.
Company of One
Paul Jarvis
Paul Jarvis's argument that staying small on purpose beats chasing growth, cited on r/startups as the book that reframes what a business is allowed to be.
Guides featuring Profit First
Ranked best-of lists and editorial guides where this book's tracked mentions place it.
Profit First — frequently asked
Does Profit First actually work, or is it just a book full of stories?+
The Reddit data splits on this. The ↑27 r/Entrepreneur comment says it changed how the business manages money five years later—that's as strong an endorsement as you get. The ↑22 r/smallbusiness comment says the concept is buried in too many case stories and could've been a long blog post. Both are true. The method works; the book is padded.
What does Reddit think of Profit First compared to other small business finance books?+
r/smallbusiness treats it as the entry-level cash flow fix, mentioned alongside Clockwork (also Michalowicz) rather than against accounting texts. No one in the 10 mentions compares it to a competing title directly. It occupies the behavioral-systems slot—not "learn accounting" but "change how money flows so you can't spend it all."
Should I read Profit First before or after The E-Myth Revisited?+
After, if order matters to you. E-Myth deals with why the business exists as a system; Profit First assumes you have a functioning business and fixes how cash moves through it. r/smallbusiness commenters recommend both, but they're solving different problems. E-Myth first, then Profit First once you're operating.
Is Profit First worth reading if my business is already profitable?+
Probably not. The 10 Reddit mentions are all from owners who struggled with cash management, not founders optimizing an already-healthy balance sheet. The r/smallbusiness ↑39 comment describes the formula as a fix for businesses that keep spending everything they earn. If that's not your situation, the book has little left to offer.