Tag: profit

Thoughts on revenue versus profit

If you are building a business, or if you are self-employed, are you trying to grow to eventually become profitable? Instead of focusing on rapid growth and ever increasing revenue, why not focus on growing sustainably and profitably from day one?

The saying is “revenue is for vanity, but profit is for sanity.” Who cares if you had millions of dollars in revenue when your business is not profitable (or is barely profitable)? Why would you want to work so hard and not make any money? It might sound good when you tell others how much you sold, but it’s not the top number that matters. It’s not how much you make, but how much you keep. What is your net profit?

Keep your ego in check. Focus on being profitable, on doing things the right way, on helping as many people as possible, and forget about the vanity metrics. Over time, they will eventually come. But just like a lack of sales can kill your company, so can growing too fast. Grow sustainably and do it right from the beginning otherwise it is going to be much harder to try to put the systems in place after the fact.

A rough draft of my core values

Defining the core values for my life/business…

1. Always try your best, but have fun while doing it. Life is too short to not have fun. You should enjoy what you do, but that doesn’t mean you should just “coast.” Work hard, play hard. Try your best to become the best. How can you become an expert in whatever it is you do? You may not have the most natural talent, but that’s out of your control. You can always control your effort and your attitude.

2. Put people over profit. If you value making the right decision/doing what’s best for others, people will like and trust you, leading to repeat business or referrals. Treat people like people and the profits will come. You may take a hit in the short-term, but in the long run you will be better off for it.

3. Be humbly confident. You need to have confidence in yourself or else how can you expect others to have confidence in you? You need to believe that you can figure everything out – even if it means asking for help. But the key is to be confident without being arrogant. Be humble. You don’t need to brag to everyone about how great you are. Let your actions do the talking. Stand out straight, keep your head up, look people in the eyes, walk with purpose, and speak clearly, succinctly, and loudly.

4. Be a dreamer AND a doer. You should have big dreams/goals. People won’t understand it. They’ll say it’s not realistic. And they’re right, if you only dream, but don’t take action. Have big dreams, set a plan, then take action immediately. What are you doing today that is bringing you closer to your goals/dreams/ambitions?

5. Perseverance. If you’re setting worthy goals, you will often stumble on your way towards success. But you have to keep going. Don’t let little setbacks affect you. You’ll get through this hardship faster by continuing to move/take action.