Problems That Hinder Profit Growth

This is the twelfth and final article on “profitability”—a guide to help understand and develop the true significance of its impact on a business: revenue growth, peace of mind and freedom to do about whatever you want to do.

 

Congratulations!  You have made it through all 11 articles about profitability.  There is just one final article in this series and I have left the most serious issues for this last article, identifying the key problems that hinder profit growth.

We all have great intentions.  We want our kids to be happy, to have a green lawn year round, to fund our retirement, and get our “to do” list complete. But these things rarely happen without focus and planning.

If you are really serious about growing your business, improving profit, cash flow and dramatically improving its value and your future retirement, what are you going to do differently today, tomorrow and next month that will make you more money?  It isn’t doing the same thing you did yesterday or last month.  You have to change your mind set if you want to improve your business.  Here are some concrete steps to take:

 

  • Create a revenue budget by month by product line or geographic area (by salesperson)
  • Establish gross profit targets by product line or geographic area
  • Define your overhead expenses by month
  • By doing the above, you will have already defined how much profit you should make for the year by each month of the year
  • Evaluate your targets with your monthly financial statements and if you are missing your monthly profit targets, determine what went wrong and fix it
  • Monitor your key balance sheet ratios monthly

If you do the above, I guarantee you will see dramatic improvement in the profit of your business.  If you don’t do these things you won’t see dramatic improvement.  I’ve been coaching businesses on profit improvement for 30 years and the above, six simple steps work.

If you don’t have the time, patience or expertise to perform the steps outlined above, but you want to, call me to set up an appointment to discuss how you can get this done and make the money you want.

Have a great week, and focus on profit.

 

Dan Lacy

The Business Growth Coach