Secret to Following the Money

The Secret to Following the Money

Identifying Profit-Building Activities vs Profit-Depleting Activities

By Laurie Taylor

Just the sound of Profit-Building activities can get the attentio of someone who struggles with that concept. Making a profit. Taking home more than a headache at the end of a very busy day. What’s a typical day for you? You get to the office, check voice mails, check emails, open up your other mail, maybe review your to do list, organize paperwork and then IT happens, the first interruption.

Whether it’s a phone call from a client asking for something last minute, or a phone call from a vendor clarifying an order, or that phone call back from the bank to talk about your credit line, or an employee explaining there’s a problem in the production area, or your mother calling about dinner Thursday night – go ahead, play them out – no matter who they are from or what they are about they are interruptions to your day.

We get energized when our business is making money, right? How does it feel when you land a new client? A new project? Exceed your retail sale expectations? It feels great! So, why do we allow ourselves to spend so much unproductive time in profit-depleting activities instead of profit-building activities? The answer? Because it’s easier.

Whether you are a solopreneur and your own worst enemy or you are a business owner with employees who need your leadership, you have to decide how you are going to deal with those interruptions because they aren’t going away.

Here is an exercise you can do to 1) evaluate how you spend your day and 2) start turning a profit.

In my mind awareness is our best friend when it comes to staying focused. You have to be very clear about what interruptions are keeping you from doing the things you know you need to do. You have to then evaluate why those interruptions are happening and put in place processes that remove the interruptions that you don’t need to deal with on to someone who can deal with them.

The goal is to decide which activities are Profit-Building activities and which activities are Profit-Depleting.

Grab a piece of paper. Draw two lines vertical and in the far left hand column jot down each activity you do in a day.

Next to each item, in the middle column, put either a PB or a PD next to it depending upon whether that activity is a Profit Builder or a Profit Depleter!

I see you rolling your eyes! I know this is time management 101 but it can help a business owner get back to reality in terms of how they are spending their days.

In the last column indicate if the activity is something only YOU can do by putting a ME and if it’s an activity that someone else could do, put NME.

As a business owner, if you feel scattered, if you feel you are not getting the work done that you know needs to be done, you have to start examining what work you are doing and then take the next step. The part where you get very clear about what activities only YOU can do? Make sure you recognize what your strengths are and especially in the early stages of growth, don’t delegate your strengths!

My mantra to business owners in the start up and ramp up stages of growth is Follow the Money. If you, as the business owner aren’t focused on activities every day that drive business into your company, you aren’t focused on the right things at the right time.

Oh, and that call from your mom? Absolutely take it!

Laurie Taylor, President of FlashPoint!, is a business growth specialist who gets business owners focused on making more money, tapping into the intelligence of their organization and providing tools to predict how growth will impact their organization. Laurie specializes in working with solopreneurs and companies with fewer than 500 employees.