Are you wondering why this is the case?

I have only one question and I hope that by answering it your will be able to find the cause of your temporary madness:

Is your work aligned with your lifestyle goals?

Here’s the problem

If your business or career is not taking you toward your lifestyle dreams you are never going to be happy. You must align your work and life if you want to be happy in what you do.

Take a moment to consider what it is that you want in your life.

Consider this

Do you want more money or more time?

Money and time are often mutually exclusive.

You can earn a lot of money if you are prepared to invest a lot of time.

Conversely if you are prepared to earn less money you will have more time for your own pursuits.

(Yes, it is possible to make lots of money without working all day every day but this does require a big investment up front.)

Do you want security or freedom?

Freedom requires risk. Security requires safety. Which do you want?

The solution?

It’s time for a little soul searching.

Do you even know what you want from your life?
If you haven’t established this it will be nigh on impossible to align your work and your life.
Sit and ponder what’s really important to you.

Does your work fit with your ultimate life’s purpose?
Once you know what you want to do with your life, you must make sure your work fits with it.
If your work doesn’t fit, change.

Photo by Eric Feldman.

Just bear that in mind as we go through five ways to increase your profits.

The five aspects of profit

The five aspects of your business that contribute to your profit are:

1. Leads
2. Conversion
3. Sale value
4. Number of sales
5. Margin

Let’s quickly look at each:

• Leads or prospects are the number of people that have an interest in buying something from your business
• Conversion is the rate at which prospects become buyers
• Sales value is the amount of income from each sale
• Number of sales is simply the number of times a customer buys from you
• Margin is the amount of money you actually make on each sale.

By now you should see that you can improve any of these with a little effort. And any increase in any area will lead to increased profit.

Some simple mathematics

Let’s assume in some time period you get 100 leads, you have a conversion rate of 30%, each sale is worth $10, you generally sell 3 times to each customer and your profit margin is 40%. Got that?

100 leads results in 30 customers.

Each customer buys 3 times time, that’s 90 sales at $10, giving you $900 in sales.

Your profit margin is 40%, so you make $360.

Now let’s tweak it

Imagine you increased each area by only 10%.

That’s 110 leads, 33% conversion, $11 per sale, average 3.3 sales, margin of 44%. You’d make a profit of $579.78.

That’s a profit increase of 61%. Not bad.

How to increase leads

• Focus on where your leads are coming from now
• Find out where your wasting time in your marketing
• Cease any marketing efforts that are not working (no matter how much you like them)
• Test and measure all marketing efforts

How to increase conversion

• Generate leads that are targeted
• Fewer qualified leads is better than many uninterested leads
• Review your sales presentation
  • What works, what doesn’t?
  • When do people buy?
  • Ask for the sale!

How to increase sale value

This one is easy. Put up your prices.

Make sure what you sell provides awesome value for money.

Don’t worry about losing customers. Do the mathematics. If you put up your prices by, say, 10%, how many customers can you afford to lose and there be no negative effect on your bottom line?

How to increase number of sales

Simple, provide amazing value for money, customer service and quality.

Do the things that your competitors won’t.

Make sure your customers know that you love them. Yes, love them!

Most customers leave a business due to perceived lack of care and attention on behalf of the business. Don’t leave them guessing!

How to increase margins

You have three choices: put up your prices, reduce costs or do both.

That’s it.

You now have five ways to increase your profits. Pick one, spend some time dialling it in. Then move on to the next one. The easiest thing you can do is put your prices up. Start there.

The quest for perfection

In Tron Legacy, CLU is a program designed by Kevin Flynn to create the perfect digital world. Unfortunately, this leads to him (the program) proceeding to destroy any aspects of his world that he deems imperfect. That’s a lot of work and effort. The pretence is also flawed. Perfection is a myth. Perfection is a state that can never be achieved.

Far too many business owners desire perfection and waste time and resources chasing it. A quick change of wording would set them free. If they were to aim for excellence and not perfection, they would have an attainable target.

The quest for excellence would see the implementation of a culture of action. This quest would be for the improvement of current processes rather than the removal of non-perfect actions. The approaches are polar opposites.

Changing the approach

Those searching for perfection become tyrannical and overbearing. They do not foster growth and creativity. The culture of a business seeking perfection is sterile, fearful and its future is terminal. Those fostering a culture of excellence, reward creativity and forward thinking.

Changing the direction of the business is as simple as admitting fault and making a decision to do things differently.

Admitting fault

In the movie, it was Kevin Flynn who created CLU and determined his core directives. Therefore, it was not CLU’s actions that were at fault, it was his design. The fault lay with the designer. As a business owner, it is you who design the processes and culture. It is you who is at fault if your processes and culture seek perfection.

Flynn never blamed his creation for the quest it/he undertook. Flynn understood it was his error that created the issue. As a business owner, you must be able to see your errors and correct them. You must be able to admit fault and move on.

Moving on

Remove perfection from your vocabulary. It is a poisonous word that has no place in business. Each time you think “perfection” change your thought to “excellence.” There is a huge gulf between the two.

Be prepared to admit fault and change direction. Be prepared to simplify your approach by aiming for the attainable rather than the mythical.

1. You’re not thinking about relationships

Commodity businesses are dead. Relationship businesses are what it’s all about these days. Online, face-to-face, it doesn’t matter. It’s all about relationships. We’re all connected. Business relationships are no different to personal relationships in so far as they require constant effort. (This should not be seen as a bad thing, in both cases the benefits far out way any effort required.)

If you are only thinking about profits, products, services and operations then you’re missing the big picture. When you start focusing on the relationship, you will find that the other parts of your business – the ones you’ve been anxious about – start to improve.

Regardless of what business you are in, you are in the business of relationships.

2. You haven’t explained yourself

It’s extremely difficult for anyone to make a connection and build a relationship if they don’t know what you’re about. Think about the people that you interact with. Think about your personal relationships. In each case, there is a level of understanding. There is understanding because you have communicated what you are about.

If you are to make an impact running a small business you have to make sure everyone knows what you stand for.

If they don’t understand you they won’t connect with you.

3. You are not trusted…yet

Unfortunately trust does not come for free. It’s something you have to earn.

You earn the trust of others over the long term not over the short term. Trust is developed through understanding, rapport and authenticity. You cannot develop true trust if you are just in it for yourself. You must make a connection. You must prove that you actually do care about them. And you must provide them with meaningful, helpful service.

When you are trusted you won’t have to sell to them, they will simply buy from you.

4. You are not listening

Your customers and your market will tell you what they want. You just have to listen to them. If you are doing something right or something wrong, they will tell you. If you want to know something, then ask. Today’s business world is honest, brutally honest. You’ll probably get answers to questions that you were too afraid to ask.

The answers are already out there, so listen up.

5. You’re talking about yourself instead of talking about them

Nothing is truer than the old saying, “what’s in it for me?” That’s what your prospects and customers are thinking. They are only interested in you because you can provide them with something that they need or want. Don’t get upset about it, you do exactly the same thing.

Take a look at your message, your image, your identity. Are you always talking about yourself? If so, you must make a dramatic change. It’s not about you. It’s not about features. It’s about benefits and emotions.

Tell your market how they can benefit from having a relationship with you.

Business stagnation happens. By making minor changes you can achieve substantial results. Just do something!

Episode introduction

In the final episode of the first season of Business Jolt TV, Adam provides another five things to think about as you chase success (whatever that means to you). Believe in yourself, ask for help, be prepared to change, surround yourself with the right people and invest in your education.

Episode excerpt

“Today, five more tips … Don’t be afraid, invest, ask for help, change when you need to change, be adaptable, maybe that’s the keyword for this particular episode, be adaptable. “

Duration: 8:30

Click here to view the embedded video.

Audio: If you want to just listen to the audio please use the player below. You can also download the audio via iTunes so you can listen to it anywhere and any time.