Let’s say for a second that you have decided to exercise more. There’s more than a tire around your waist, after all, you have tires everywhere. To fix your fitness, you plan to hit the gym. You have two options:

1. The second you wake up, put on your gym clothes and head to the gym.
2. At the end of the day, right before you go to sleep, head over to the gym.

Which one do you think will be more successful?

The answer is obvious. Putting your workouts at the very start of the day will stage you for success. When you workout first, the obstacles of the day can’t get in the way. Also, you have the energy and availability to do it. Plus, as a bonus, a great workout in the morning positions you to have great energy for the rest of the day. You have no excuse not to work out when the work out comes first, so you do.

Conversely, working out right before nigh-nigh time is a recipe for disaster. You’re already tired from the day. Commitments and distractions abound. Plus, the workout becomes the one thing standing in the way of a good night sleep. When your work out comes last you have every excuse not to do it, so you don’t.

Now let’s talk about profit. Profit historically comes last. It’s the “bottom line” after all. So, you likely check your profitability at the end of the year. Or maybe at the end of the quarter or month. You, and most entrepreneurs, treat profit like a nighttime workout. No wonder so few companies are ever profitable.

Let me suggest something much more fiscally intelligent: Take your profit first. Take a predetermined percentage of profit from every single on of your deposits, every single time. Make your profit the equivalent of the morning workout. When profit comes first, you will have no excuse not to be profitable.

If you want a financially healthy business (and life), realize that profit is not the bottom line. It’s the first line. Profit first, always.