The Two Types of 'Easy' In Business (And Which One to Avoid)

🏆 This Week’s Profit First Club Newsletter

Estimated Read Time: 4 mins

Hi everyone,

It’s Stephen Edwards from Gro Profit First Accountants—your Profit First Certified Accountants helping ambitious business owners across the UK build sustainable profits and the freedom they started their business for.

In this week’s Profit First Podcast, I shared a concept that’s been a real breakthrough for me this year—the two types of easy—and how understanding this can help you push through the hard, complex middle stage most business owners get stuck in.

The Two Types of Easy

When you first start your business, it often feels easy. Not because you’re a genius, but because you “don’t know what you don’t know.” You’re naive, full of energy, and unaware of the hidden challenges ahead.

Then reality sets in. You learn more, take on more, and suddenly you’re juggling a million priorities—marketing, sales, operations, finance—while still delivering your core service. This stage isn’t easy at all. In fact, it’s overwhelming.

Most business owners get stuck here—open-minded, eager to grow, but buried in complexity and unsure where to focus.

But there’s another type of easy—the kind that comes after complexity. Once you’ve battled through, simplified, and built systems, business feels lighter again. You know what matters and what doesn’t. Less is more, and progress accelerates.

The Four Big Machines

Every business has just four major functions:

1. Finance (where Profit First lives)

2. Sales & Marketing

3. Operations

4. HR

You can’t fix all four at once, pick one, master it, then move to the next. We help clients start with Finance, ensuring bookkeeping is accurate, VAT and payroll are streamlined, and Profit First is embedded. Once your numbers are clear, decision-making gets a whole lot easier.

Profit First Quick Wins for This Week

If you’ve read Profit First but haven’t yet started, here are two actions that can change your business overnight:

1️⃣ Separate your VAT – Create a dedicated VAT account and transfer VAT as soon as you receive it. If you can’t manage this, Profit First is telling you something’s broken—possibly pricing, profitability, or cash flow timing.

2️⃣ Start a Profit Account – Move just 1% of your revenue (top-line, before expenses) into a separate account. This tiny habit rewires how you think about profit and builds momentum without hurting cash flow.

Do these two things together and you’ll prove to yourself you can run the business with money set aside—and then you can scale up from there.

💡 Final Thought: Business is only overwhelming if you try to grow without simplifying. Choose one area, master it, and remember—on the other side of complexity is a much better kind of “easy.”

Until next week,

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

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