Still no Spotify, been travelling for a week. Listen right here:

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Ducks to the horizon

Every day in business can feel like being pecked by a thousand ducks.

You start the day with a clean slate and winning plans. Then it starts.

Refereeing minor staff disagreements. Swatting away endless people who would like you to “jump on a call”. Your biggest client wants a report by tomorrow on your CSR policies, though you know full well they don’t give a fuck about society and just want to tick a box for their board report. Reviewing security camera footage of one of your company vehicles backing over bollards. Damaging your brain working through the different rates and thresholds of payroll tax in every state.

Peck, peck, peck. It’s all stuff that must be done. And none of it advancing you a single step toward your goals.

How you get to your goals

A business-owner friend told me a single line more than a decade ago. It’s stayed with me since, and I still find it invaluable every day.

He has a permanent reminder note on his desk saying:

“What have I done to make money today?”

It’s not exactly “find your why”.

If you didn’t know him, at first glance it seems a bit simple and materialistic, like the motto of an insufferable hustle bro. Or a cheap-ass drop shipper who will do anything to shave half a cent off their stock price. And it shows in their nasty product, empty promises and demoralised staff.

Not the case here. My friend’s business is the opposite of that in every regard.

It’s a high-end women’s fashion brand he and his wife started about 20 years ago. Their  designs, fabrics and finishes are up there with any fashion label in the world. Look at any of their pieces, touch them, and you know no corners have been cut. Their stores across the country are immaculate and staffed by pleasant, experienced people who know their long-term clients well.

They’ve maintained impeccable integrity, through all the many horrible obstacles thrown at them.

Because they had the money on hand to deal with it all. That short desk note made it all possible.

Yes, you need the vision, the story, the moral values, but all of those things cost money to deliver. If you can’t deliver, everything else is just platitudes.

Profit is good

The word profit brings a mixed response. Decades of protest marches toting DOWN WITH CORPORATE PROFIT$!!! placards have given it a sort of fat-cat, Mr Monopoly vibe. And sometimes it deserves it.

Most of the time though, profit is a really good thing.

You can afford to hire the good people. Who grow the business through positive customer experiences. You can make the stores nicer. You can spend more on product development and staff training. You can design your whole product and business around your own quality ethics.

My anecdotal experience is that most business owners want to create something worthy, that shows they understand what customers want. They back themselves to find better ways of doing it than their competitors, and that’s what drives them.

Rather than “I want to set up a brand that offers a really average experience and gets a lot of complaints, but I’m willing to put up with that to make enough profit to buy myself a large boat.”

From experience with suppliers, you know low-margin businesses are crap to deal with.

As a supplier, procurement departments would like you to make a razor-thin profit, and you know what it leads to. Low-grade, high-churn people servicing the account. Slow responses. Shittier product. Procurement is never there to feel the day-to-day pain of their detached Scroogery.

Chase up some old clients. And fire your worst ones

How do you make money? Start with the obvious one and chase up some clients. Get a list of clients from previous years that have dropped off the list. Get in touch and find out why. They’re far easier to bring back than cold-calling new ones.

Work out who your top clients are. Get in touch and show them some love when you don’t have to. They’ll have more to spend.

Work out your worst clients, the ones who chew up endless time wanting a premium product for a Temu price. Stop working with them. Put their prices up until they go away. It’ll boost your bottom line and your staff will be so happy.

Check your pricing

Put your prices up a little bit more frequently. There is no greater time distortion than the perceived gap between price rises.

You think it was a few months ago that you revisited your rates. You check your records and it was two and a half years ago. During that time your wages, rent, supplies and everything else have gone up fast. That’s a fat chunk out of your margins.

Now, just to stay level, you must jack up your prices by an amount that will scare everyone.

Teach your sales people the difference between revenue and profit. And the catastrophic effect of discounting on margin. Oh my god this syndrome goes right to the top of so many organisations.

They do a 15% discount and think it’s only a 15% reduction in your net income. Rather than possibly chopping net income in half or worse. Hey let’s all do twice as much work to deliver the same result! A concept justified with lines like “hey at least it’s keeping the doors open!”.

Good and bad ways to cut costs

Go through all the subscription products munching away at your bank account every month. Do you need them or even use them? Those bastards are never shy about putting their prices up.

Don’t contact your suppliers and tell them you want a better deal just because you want it. It’s counter-productive and they will never go out of their way for you again.

If you want to spend less, contact suppliers you respect and be open about it. Say “We’re in some tight times, we need to spend less for a little while, what’s your advice on the best way to do that?” Get some buy-in by being reasonable and you’ll get a better result.

Need to cut more? Lose staff members who contribute nothing to your bottom line. The more you grow, the more they flourish. Report-writers. Meeting-attenders. Reply-all enthusiasts. You know who I’m talking about. Or if not, here’s a guide to identifying middle-management bloat.

The boring reality of success

Whatever you do, do something.

It’s not about only thinking about money. There’s lots of other things that need your attention.

But it’s easy to get distracted and lose track of your priorities and why you’re there.

Everyone’s looking for the secret strategies and advanced MBA skills to get an edge in business.

Reality: success is largely just remembering to do things you already knew. Every damn day.

Boring but true.

Don’t be afraid to be boring.

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