How is Profit First different for ecommerce versus other businesses?

If you've tried the original Profit First and it felt like something was off, you're not wrong.

The original system was built for service businesses.

Consultants. Agencies. Businesses where the biggest expense is people.

Ecommerce is a completely different animal.

Your biggest expense is inventory - cash that's tied up for a bit before you see a dollar back.

Mike Michalowicz's original framework doesn't have an Inventory account.

So when I wrote Profit First for Ecommerce Sellers, I added one.

Without it, ecommerce sellers try to follow the system, allocate like the original book says, and then wonder why there's nothing left to reorder product.

The allocation percentages are different too.

In most service businesses, cost of goods is relatively low.

In ecommerce, 30–50% of your revenue goes to inventory before you pay for ads, software, shipping, or yourself.

And if you're selling on Amazon, add another 31% in all the platform fees.

That's roughly a third of every dollar gone before you touch it.

Then there's the timing problem.

Platform payout delays.

Inventory cash conversion cycles that stretch 60, 90, even 120 days.

Seasonal swings that can make January feel like a completely different business than you had in August.

Standard Profit First doesn't account for any of that.

Profit First for Ecommerce does.

It's the same core principle - allocate first, spend what's left - but recalculated for the way ecommerce cash actually moves.

If you've been trying to make the original system work and it keeps falling apart, it's not you.

It's the framework.

Take our Ecommerce Business Performance Assessment to see where your cash flow stands today.

Then schedule a call and we'll walk through how Profit First should actually look for your business.

Cyndi