Make Money! No, Make A Profit.
Why does focusing on profit matter? I’m not talking about making money, because that’s not usually the biggest issue I see in businesses as a consultant.
Generating a profit is different than making money. The attitude of “making money,” which is akin to “bringing in business” is about sales. Making a profit certainly involves sales increasing, but most businesses are not struggling with profitability purely because of sales issues. In my experience, struggling with profitability involves personality management issues, leadership development and goal/system mismatch issues, and a variety of common systems management issues. It’s not weird, sometimes we spend more than we make. Sometimes we do not plan for reliable ebbs/flows in sales, or the unreliable ebbs and flows. None of those things are unique, but the important question is: why are these well known/relatively obvious issues happening in the first place?
The Process
1. Leadership Meeting
Perform a brief SWOT, then create an assessment strategy
2. Individual Systemic Assessment
3. Strategic Planning &
Empirical Progress Management
Think “Hypothesis testing” and “running the experiment”
My basic approach is simple: we have to have a valid hypothesis about the causes of cash loss first. This is why the assessment process is so important. Taking time to get to know the players and the systems matters. Then we can create an experiment to tweak management styles, systems, schedules, etc. and see if that has the ROI. We will use your KPIs, or come up with new benchmarks appropriate for your culture, so that you see tangible progress.
I hate corporate feel good consulting. You don’t need me to come give a motivational speech or be your shrink. I’m here to help you make more money.