Stop Running in Circles and Build Predictable Profit | 046

Angela started her business with an enormous amount of passion. She had this amazing recipe that had been in her family for decades, and she made this recipe all of the time, and her friends and her family kept saying to her, you know, you really need to open your own business. People would

love this. They would just come in all of the time, and they would buy your amazing food. And so Angela thought about it, and she talked to her husband, and they decided, You know what, we're going to do this. They they had been doing it at home for a little while, and then they decided that they were

going to make the leap and go ahead and start a business. And they started out with a lot of passion. They started out with a lot of energy. They started out with a love that recipe had been in her family for so long, it was part of her. And then they just went into this business. And like a lot of people, when,

when they started their business, when many people start their business, you know how it goes, you just do that next thing that's in front of you, and then you do the next thing, and the next thing, you just a problem comes off, you saw comes up, and you solve it, and you move on. A problem comes up, you

solve it, and you move on, right? You just keep going like this. And because they were really passionate and excited and had a lot of energy behind them, they went really far. And like I say, a lot of businesses start this way, and then they get to a point where they're just like, Wait a minute. I am

not really sure what's going on anymore. We started out, we kind of knew what we were doing. We did all of the things, and then suddenly we're stuck, right? I feel like we're like, lost in this maze and and we're making wrong turns and and running into corners and going around the same space over and over and

over again, and not figuring out how to get out of that loop. And then they just get to a place where they're overwhelmed and exhausted and lost and stagnant and businesses that become stagnant do so for a lot of reasons. Sometimes it's that energy from the business owner. They've just been pouring it in

and pouring it in and pouring it in and pouring it in, and they are empty, right? How many times have you just gone to bed at night, completely exhausted from everything that you had to do today. And not only are you completely exhausted, you really feel like you know what. What did I even get done? I was

running around putting out fires all day. I just don't feel like I made any progress. My to do list is still 473 items long. How can I make any progress? How can I make any money? How can I make this business a success when I am exhausted, overwhelmed, and I feel lost all of the time, this is something

that I hear from a lot of business owners, it is just so easy to get into these places. And it's not because they're not creative. It's not because you're not a creative business owner. And sometimes, here is a hard truth to understand. Sometimes it's because you're so creative that you get yourself

stuck in these corners, that you paint yourself into a corner and there's wet paint all around, and the only way to get out of it is walk through the wet paint and drag your footprints all over your house, right? It's not a lack of creativity. It is sometimes because you're creating more things and more

things and more things without any structure underneath to support those things that you have built and created, it's really important when you're running your business that you come at it from a little bit of a left brain, a little bit of a logical a little bit of a structural bent. Actually, I

feel like a lot of a structural bed. We really do need to put structure underneath all of those creative things that you've built and grown the if there's no structure underneath it, it will collapse. It will cut it, will it will fall down on you and bury you in the rubble. And nobody wants that.

It is so frustrating to have such a creative idea. And you know that this is going to be the thing everybody's going to love this. I'm going to I came up with this really creative design. Or this really creative approach and this really unique and wonderful thing, and everybody should have it, and

everybody should want it, and yet it's crickets because there isn't structure underneath all of the creativity. And here is another hard truth. When you're running a business, when you are the boss, when you're the CEO, when you gotta do everything you're wearing, all of the hats, in addition to being

overwhelmed, in addition to being frustrated and stuck and lost, a lot of times you get really, really bored, really bored. The same thing all the time, every day. It's a repetitive thing that you do every single day, and it's not challenging anymore, and your creativity just seems to be

draining out of you because this business that you started with your passion and your creativity, it just isn't really that much fun anymore. It's kind of boring. And here is where there's a golden nugget, if you get to the place where you have customers coming in, people are buying what you have to sell.

Your solution is solving problems in the world, and people are paying you for that solution. Here's the deal, here's the real truth, the nitty the gritty, you will get bored. You will. You just will, when something is working it, and you get really good at it, after a while, the challenge is gone,

right? If you're working out and you want to do 100 sit ups, and you get to 100 sit ups, and you can do 100 sit ups, and you're doing 100 sit ups for a week, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, five weeks, eventually, those 100 sit ups are really easy and it's kind of boring, because the challenge that the

The the effort, the creativity, feels like it's gone. And that is a it's good news and it's bad news. The bad news is it just doesn't feel awesome. It feels boring. And that, you know, that spark, that thing that kept you going, isn't there for that particular task. However, if you get to the point in your

business where people are paying you and you were doing the same thing over and over and over and over again, and people are continuing to pay you for that quote, unquote, boring thing. That means you're making money. That means you figured it out. You hit the sweet spot. You are right there where people are

giving you money to do the thing that you do. And that was the goal all along. Because sometimes we think, Oh, the goal is to use my creativity. If that is your goal, then you are, you're going to have ups and downs, right? It's, it's, you're going to be creative. And that's this thing's going to work

again, be creative, and then that next thing doesn't work so well, right? If you get caught in that creativity trap, you can really keep yourself stuck in your business. If you can accept as a CEO, as a business owner who is successful, who's running a profitable business, that when you get to a certain level, the

things that were very challenging and exciting for you and that people loved and people want to buy are no longer exciting. If you can get to that place where you're okay with that, you will make lots of money. You will be profitable because you figured out the key. So that's the good news. When

things get boring, when people are buying it, you're doing things over and over again, the then the challenge becomes, how do you turn that thing that's become very profitable and very boring into something that's not so boring for you,

and that is where you can use your creativity to move the direction of motivating yourself and keeping yourself engaged in and making it more creative. How can you do that? Well, maybe you have a a really creative special for your clients, I used to do things like I would put we went into Las Vegas for a conference,

and when we came home, I brought home poker chips, and I would have people pull poker chips out of the bag for a for a discount. I would use social media to get my clients engaged. Engaged in what we were doing, I would do things that were fun and creative for me, that still met the boring need of my clients,

but made gave it a creative outlet for myself. So if you are that creative, and if you are in that spot where you're like, I, you know, I just don't it doesn't fill me up anymore. It doesn't jazz me. People are paying me lots of money, but I'm kind of lost in this. If it's a business that you want to

continue to do, and it's making you money, and it's checking all of the other boxes, but you're a little bored. I'm trying to think of the right way to say this grow up, was the first thing that came to my mind. Sometimes we have to be the adult in this situation. We have to tell ourselves, you know

what? This might not be the most exciting thing that I'm doing in my business, and it's making me money, and my clients are really happy, and I'm solving a problem in the world, and because I'm making money, I can make a difference in other people's lives, because I now have money to contribute to causes that I

care about, I can get involved with my community because I'm getting the I'm getting funding in the front door, and it's working. And now you just need to figure out, as the business owner, how do you shift so that you can keep it still exciting for yourself? Because let's, let's face it, we creatives. We

need something to do that. Another thing that I utilized a lot, which was another thing that I utilized a lot, was getting really into the customer experience. And how could I make that customer experience really unique and wonderful and memorable, and have people coming back in day after day and

telling their friends and telling their family and recommending us? So that's another avenue where you can get really creative, that any area of your business you can utilize your creativity to continue to stay engaged in your business with that thing that's really working and that's making you

money, but maybe you're a little bit bored by right now. So that's my little rant on getting bored because I as a as a creative myself, I understand when we get to that point where we need another little hit of dopamine. We need a little shy we need a little shiny thing. We need a star on our on, you know,

our tour chart. We need that little, that little bump to figure out, oh, that's something else that I'm excited about doing in my business. So it what I really wanted to talk about, in addition to this creativity and the times that you're going to become bored because you will, is that it's really

important to have a successful and profitable business. It's really important to have that structure underneath it. So when I'm talking about the creativity, the structure, the creativity comes within that structure, you can have a profitable business if your business is built right, your

profitability becomes predictable when you can put in the foundational pieces into your business. You can predict when you are going to make money. You're going to be able to predict what services and products are going to make you money. You're going to be able to predict how much money you

are going to increase your sales this month, next month, this quarter, when you have a system and processes in your business, when you have that structure in place, your profitability becomes predictable. And that's really cool, and not just reliably predictable that it repeats what it's already doing,

but reliably predictable in increases. I was able to run my business, and I had 30% increase per in sales per quarter, 30% increase per quarter, year after year. So my first quarter in one year was 30% hot if my first my 30% in one year the next year, that was 30% higher in that same quarter. I think I just did

fuzzy math out loud anyway, if I did 30% in quarter one, this year, next year in quarter one, my sales were 30% higher every single year because of the systems that I put in place. It is doable. It is achievable. And you can do that when you have the structure. And my structure, as you know, is the Seven

Pillars of profit. So these are seven areas in your business where you need. Have systems and processes in place so that it can support your business in all areas. If all seven pillars are firmly in place, then you have the predictability. You have the stability that builds predictability. So really

briefly, the seven pillars of profit are the first one is the profit path. Where is your money coming from? Where is your money going? How is your money handled? What is going on with the money that comes into your business? Because profit is not the money that comes into your business when you make a sale.

Profit is the amount of money you get to keep from your sale. A lot of new business owners will go, oh, I sold $100 that means I have $100 now I have the value of $100 however, you don't actually have the value of $100 because you have expenses, and you have things that cost you money to run the business, to to

to have that availability of that $100 you have expenses associated with that. So profit is what's left over. So if you have a really good profit margin, and you sell something for $100 and you get to keep $50 or $75 of that, then that's a pretty good profit margin. However, there are people who

sell $100 worth of a product, and they get one or $2 or sometimes they're in the negative, it costs them money to sell that $100 worth of profit. So that's things that we tackle in the profit path. That's all about what's going on with your money, where, when it comes in, when it goes out, what you do

with it, when you have it. The second thing in the second pillar, in the seven pillars of profit, is the relationship journey. And this has to do with people. I spoke a little bit earlier about my passion for clients and their customer experience. This is part of the relationship journey. This has

to do with people, your vendors, your customers, your employees, your 1090, nines, if you have people that you interact with in your business, then you need to have a clear relationship. Journey for all of those people, having a very clear path, a path for them to follow gives you predictability. It builds trust

because they know what to expect from you, and it creates an environment where you don't have to think so much about everything that you do when it comes to the people that you're interacting with, because you have their journey all laid out. The third pillar is the thing you do that is whatever you

sell, whatever you make, whatever you're doing as commerce between you and your customers or clients, that's the thing you do, and that's usually the thing that people have the easiest handle on. They have they know what they're doing and they know how to do it. However, I have found that most business

owners, when I go into their business and I look at the thing they do, they're not doing it as efficiently and effectively as they could. So there's always things to tweak within the thing you do as well. The fourth pillar of profit is one that's really important, one that's not talked about all of the time.

And when it is, sometimes it feels really squishy and maybe like, Oh, I'll that's, that's a Monday problem, right? And that's what I call the joy quotient. And the joy quotient is that peace, that is what do you need to put into place, to put you back in the position where you have joy in the thing

that you're doing, where you have joy in your mission. Why? Where you have joy in your business? So a lot of times we'll get started and we're really passionate, we're really

joyful, and the the running of the business becomes so heavy that you just don't even know why you're doing it anymore. And the fact of the matter is, your business is only as healthy as your business owner. So you need to make sure that you're taking care of your physical health, your mental health, your

emotional health. You need to make sure that you're filling your cup back up and that you're not constantly trying to pour from an empty cup. The fifth area that we have a pillar for the pillar of profit in the fifth area is the mission map. And the mission map is your vision. What is it that you want

to do? What is your mission? For me, I believe in unleashing the full potential of entrepreneurs to create resilient, successful businesses that in turn, make a massive positive impact in the world. That's my mission. And what is the vision that I have for making that happen? What is your vision for making what you

want to create in your business? If we have a really clear vision, it's really easy to say, Hey, someone come. Up to you, and they're like, Hey, there's this opportunity over here. And someone else says, Hey, there's this opportunity over here. And you're standing though, should I take that opportunity or that

opportunity? If you have a really clear vision, if you know what your mission map is, you're able to say, You know what opportunity number one does not line up with who I am as a business. This is not really fitting into my box, so I'm going to say no to that opportunity, but opportunity

number two that fits right into my my wheelhouse, and I'm going to say yes to that. So having a really clear mission map allows you to make informed decisions that move your business forward. The sixth pillar is the connection compass, and that is about, how are you create? How are you connecting to the

outside world? How are you connecting to your clients? How are you connecting to your vendors? How are you connecting to the people in your world that need you to have to be connected to them. So many times, business owners get so lost in their head, in doing the things and taking care of the stuff around

their business, that they forget that the people out there need to know what they have. Otherwise, you're the best kept secret, right? We don't want to be the best kept secret. We want everyone to know, and we want them to be able to connect with us, and for us to connect with them. And then the final piece

is what I call the Alliance engine. Because frankly, if it takes a village to raise a child, it absolutely takes a bit a village to build a business. We cannot do it on our own. We need to bring people in to help us, and for solopreneurs especially, and creatives especially, nobody else can do

it like we do it. It's it will take me so much longer to train somebody else to do it. It's just easier if I do it myself. I know what I want, I know what I need, I'm just going to do it myself, and that creates a lot of frustration, overwhelm and tediousness that does not have to be in your business if you

will, have your alliance engine running at top optimal speed. You have people in place that can help you do the things that you don't do so well do the things that you don't want to do. Your Alliance engine includes professionals like your CPA, your bookkeeper, a lawyer or multiple lawyers, but

attorneys, coaches, mentors, people that you bring around you to help you build your business. It's really important that we try that we don't let ourselves get into that it's all up to me and only me and only I can do these things, because that is a recipe for keeping yourself stuck, and I want you to have

the recipe to build your business right, so that your profit becomes predictable. So take a minute and listen to all of these seven pillars of profit. You can listen to it again. I will have a resource in the community so that you can take a look at that and look at the Seven Pillars of profit. And

of course, if you want to talk to talk to me and you want to get on my calendar, there'll be a spot for you to do that in the community as well. And the community is the profit connectors club. That's the profit connectors because you're the ones making the connection. Profit connectors dot c, l, u,

B, is the website profit connectors dot club, and inside the club, you will see all of the podcasts from all of our guests. You'll see all of their bios, their contact information from our guests. If they have given us a gift, a link to their gift will be in there as well. You can get all of that. It's

free to join. You just go to profit connectors dot club and you sign up, and you will get access to all of those gifts, and all of my gifts as well. And I thank you so much for joining me. You know, every time you continue to show up, every time you get consistent, every time you are there, you are making a

difference. So keep showing up your future self will thank you and remember it's your impact. Go. Make it matter. Do.