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Hi everyone,

It’s Stephen Edwards from Gro Profit First Accountants, and welcome to this week’s Profit First Club Newsletter.

Whether you're reading this via our Beehive newsletter, listening to the podcast, or watching on YouTube—I'm grateful you're here. As always, our mission remains simple: help entrepreneurs build a business that gives you more profit, more cash, and more freedom. And one of the key levers to do that? Core values.

This week, we're diving into Step 3 of the Entrepreneur Freedom System—Values—from my book How to Build a Business That Runs Without You. You can grab a copy on Amazon, or if you’d like one for free, just drop me an email.

We’re now in Week 3 of our series:

Vision – Crafting your personal and business vision

Numbers Plan – Creating a high-level financial roadmap

Values – This week’s focus

Team Structure

Scorecard

Marketing

Finance & Profitability

Operations Manager

Transform Your Role

Freedom

Many think values are “fluffy” or reserved for big corporates. Not true.

If you want to build a sustainable, scalable, and profitable business, your values act as your compass. They guide hiring, decision-making, team culture, and even how you serve clients. Values are directly linked to team alignment, profitability, and long-term sustainability.

In the book, I initially shared our acronym P.A.K.K.T.T., which stood for:

Person First – We always see the human behind the business.

Above the Line Thinking (OARBED) – Ownership, Accountability, Responsibility. No Blame, Excuses, or Denial.

Kaizen – Continuous 1% improvement.

Keep it Simple – No unnecessary complexity.

Team Player – Collaboration over ego.

Tough Love – Say what needs to be said.

Over time, we refined these into something simpler and easier to embody:

Kaizen – Always improving

Above the Line Thinking – No excuses, just action

No Eeyores – Energy matters. No moaners, no drainers

(Yes, Eeyore as in Winnie the Pooh! We want Tiggers, not doom-and-gloom.)

Here’s a simple way to start:

Post-it Note Workshop – Gather your team and brainstorm what matters most.

Keep or Cut – Narrow your values to just a few that truly represent your business.

Use an Acronym – Helps the team remember and live them.

Check for Alignment – Do your current team and clients reflect these values?

Want help running a values workshop? Clients get access through Grow Academy, or reach out and I can guide you.

You might wonder—what do values have to do with cash flow and profit?

Everything.

You can’t build a business that runs without you without a strong team. And you can’t build a strong team without shared values.

When everyone’s aligned, you spend less time managing people and more time scaling. It impacts hiring, culture, service quality, and ultimately—your bottom line.

Define (or revisit) your core values.

Ask:

What behaviours do I admire in my best team members?

What are non-negotiables for people working in my business?

What do my best clients love about working with us?

Write them down. Test them. Live them.

Want the full 10-Step Entrepreneur Freedom System?

Email me at [email protected] with “Free Book” and your address, and I’ll send you a copy.

Until next week—keep building a business that gives you more life, not just more work.

To your success,

Stephen Edwards
Profit First Accountant & Business Coach
Gro Profit First Accountants

wearegro.co.uk