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What Business Are You In?

Guest post by: David Flannery

Article Overview: It is the very first question I ask my new clients. The answers I get obviously vary, and I have never had a client give me the correct answer. If I was to ask you, as a business owner, what business are you in? What would be your answer? Some of the answers I have gotten in the past are: " I am in the recruitment business!" " I am in the concrete business!" " I am in the retail business!" "I am in the real estate business!" These answers are all wrong! and if your answer was like those above, then you are wrong as well!

What Business Are You In?

It is the very first question I ask my new clients. The answers I get obviously vary, and I have never had a client give me the correct answer. If I was to ask you, as a business owner, what business are you in? What would be your answer?

Some of the answers I have gotten in the past are:

" I am in the recruitment business!"

" I am in the concrete business!"

" I am in the retail business!"

"I am in the real estate business!"

These answers are all wrong! and if your answer was like those above, then you are wrong as well!

When I tell my clients what business they are in, they all say " Well, that obvious!" and my reply is " If it is so obvious, why didn't you give it as your answer?"

The answer to the question " What business are you in?" is:

You are in the profit making business!

I want you to read that again because in the day to day running of a business, business owners lose sight of this truth. You use your business to create profit.

In fact:

Your business is a delivery system for profit!

Your business exists for no other reason other to create profit for you. I want you to start thinking of your business as a delivery system. What do I mean by that? Well let me give you a few examples:

1. A cigarette is a delivery system for niccotine

2. A car is a transport delivery system

3. A pen is a delivery system for communication

4. A business is a delivery system for profit

A delivery system is something you use to get something else. If your business is creating little or no profit then there can be only be two things wrong?

1. If your business is only making a little profit, then your profit delivery system is not optimised properly. As an example of what I am talking about let's say you want to get from where you live to a distant town. You are going to use your car to get there, so you fill it with petrol, start it and start on your journey. However, about three quarters of the way there , you run out of fuel, you can't understand what happened and why you ran out of fuel, but then you notice that your tyres are slightly soft from not be correctly filled with air, and because of that you used more fuel than necessary.

Your car(transport delivery system) was not optimised(tyres soft) and therefore could not give you all you wanted(arrival at distant town) . In the same way, if your business (profit delivery system) is not fully optimised(all areas working in tandem towards a common goal) then you will not get all you want ( maximum profit).

A poorly optimised delivery system will only ever give you a fraction of what you want!

2. If your business is making no profit then your profit delivery system is broken. Using the car example again, lets's say you want to get from where you live to a distant town, you fill your car with petrol and turn the key but your car doesn't start, and then you realise the starter is broken. So your car (transport delivery system) is broken ( car won't start) cant give you what you want ( get to distant town). In the same way, if your business (profit delivery system) is broken ( any aspect of price, sales, costs and all sub aspects not performing to maximum capability) you can't get what you want(maximum profit).

A broken delivery system will never give you any part of what you want!

You need to start looking at your business as a profit delivery system. Look at every aspect of your profit delivery system to see if there are areas can be improved or fixed, and take action

© 2010, Profit Growth Dynamics International. All rights reserved.

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Article Tags: business owner, delivery system, profit, profit growth



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