Profit First for Creatives: Building Systems for Financial Growth With Christian Brim

Christian Brim

Christian Brim is the CEO of CORE Group, an outsourced bookkeeping and tax preparation services firm. With over 25 years of experience in business finance, he helps business owners increase profits through financial planning and reporting, business valuation, and budgeting. Christian is also the author of Profit First for Creatives.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

[4:11] How Christian Brim adopted the Profit First process
[7:22] The principles of Profit First for Creatives
[9:59] How creatives can shift their mindsets about money
[15:11] Value pricing systems for creatives
[19:22] Advice for reevaluating your pricing

In this episode:

Creative entrepreneurs often separate profit and passion, believing they can’t pursue what they love while making money. How can creatives change their mindset around money to pursue their endeavors?

According to creative finance master Christian Brim, creative entrepreneurs who view passion and profit as mutually exclusive often underprice their services. Profit is essential to a sustainable business, so rather than structuring pricing based on costs and revenue, Christian recommends identifying the value you deliver to customers with your products or services. You can accomplish this by obtaining feedback from customers on how your products or services benefit them. This allows you to create a business model that rewards you for your services.

Tune in to this episode of Systems Simplified as Adi Klevit hosts Christian Brim, the CEO of CORE Group, to discuss how creatives can adopt a Profit First mindset to price their services. Christian shares his value pricing system for creatives, how to reevaluate your pricing, and why he adopted Mike Michalowicz’s Profit First process.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Quotable Moments:

"Processes give you creative space. It uncluttered the things that prohibit creativity."
"All entrepreneurs are creative, right? I mean, they're creating something new."
"The best entrepreneurs combine both the creative element with the process, operational, and analytical side."
"Profit First is a tool. It's a great tool. And as Mike says, it's successful 100% of the time."
"Pricing is driven by the buyer, by the client or customer, and it's the value they receive or perceive."

Action Steps:

Embrace the Profit First methodology: This method simplifies financial management by aligning with natural habits and helps prioritize profits. By doing so, creatives can overcome their aversion to processes and procedures to create a sustainable business model.
Shift your mindset around money: Address the creative mindset that often pits passion against profitability by viewing profit as essential for sustainability. Transforming this mindset helps creatives value their work appropriately and aligns with the idea that profitability and creativity are not mutually exclusive.
Adopt value pricing: Reframe your pricing strategy to focus on the value delivered to customers rather than just cost-plus pricing. This approach ensures that creatives are compensated fairly for the true value they provide, addressing underpricing issues common in the industry.
Engage in customer feedback and research: Regularly ask customers about the problems your services solve and listen without bias. Understanding customer perspectives can reveal hidden value in your offerings, allowing you to adjust pricing and services to meet market needs better.
Utilize tools like Lean Canvas for business planning: Use Lean Canvas to clearly define the problems you solve and outline your unique solutions. This structured approach helps clarify the business model and ensures alignment with customer value, enhancing strategic planning and decision-making.

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