1 rich Libsyn https://www.libsyn.com 90 600 Hello and welcome to GROW FOR IT!&amp;nbsp; I’m Jim and this is a business podcast designed for small business owners, managers and other professionals.&amp;nbsp; My goal is to work in the space between your ears – on your mindset – to help you focus on the actions and activities that help you to move closer toward your vision. In today’s episode, we’re going to discuss a couple ways to use your financial reports, breaking down your customer segments and I’ll even give you a few tips on maximizing your profit margin. The simple truth is Business Planning can be as high-level or as micro-specific as you want it to be.&amp;nbsp; The company size, the organizational focus, even your specific role can benefit from a Business Plan.&amp;nbsp; However, none of these really determine how complex your planning has to be.&amp;nbsp; The fact is, if you’ll invest more time upfront, you’ll have a better chance of achieving your goals and moving closer to your vision. We can’t get time back, so momentum, focus and velocity are typically to your advantage – SO LET’s PREPARE! The best way to begin is to do a DEEP DIVE on your financials for the previous year.&amp;nbsp; I’m not talking about just looking at your Gross Revenue and Net Profit. You’ve got to go deeper. I recommend you break the numbers down by client segment, service and vendors.&amp;nbsp; YOU HAVE TO KNOW YOUR METRICS! Let me caution you here.&amp;nbsp; People like to get very enamored with margin percentages.&amp;nbsp; “Hey I’m making 38% on this product!”&amp;nbsp; The reality is you don’t pay your bills with percentages.&amp;nbsp; You pay with dollars.&amp;nbsp; It’s always about the margin dollars! As you stack-rank your client segments, you can quickly see which deliver the most profit margin to your bottom line.&amp;nbsp; Simply looking at gross sales by segment can be very misleading.&amp;nbsp; Topline revenue is only part of your business formula. I won’t tell you it’s unimportant, but it’s definitely less important that net margin, and ultimately net profit. You want to fully understand who is driving your margin!&amp;nbsp; The next step is to align business activities to focus on those client segments, products and services. What you’re really looking for are your sweet spots.&amp;nbsp; Which activities deliver the most margin dollars, for the least amount of effort?&amp;nbsp; How can you do more? Equally as important, which activities deliver the least amount of margin dollars?&amp;nbsp; How can you do less of them? Consider this:&amp;nbsp; Did you leave money on the table last year?&amp;nbsp; Are there discounts or rebates you simply didn’t take advantage of?&amp;nbsp; Make a note to start asking each vendor about various programs, discounts and rebates.&amp;nbsp; If there’s free money on the table, you need to figure a way to get your share of it! Grow For It! http://growforit.libsyn.com/website <iframe title="Libsyn Player" style="border: none" src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/6311859/height/90/theme/custom/thumbnail/yes/direction/forward/render-playlist/no/custom-color/88AA3C/" height="90" width="600" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen></iframe> https://assets.libsyn.com/secure/item/6311859