3 Easy Ways To Boost Your Profits, Ep 191

04/01/21 • 55 min

Just The Tips, with James P. Friel and Dean Holland

How is it possible to have a multi-million dollar business and not be making any money? Simple: Because sales are not the same thing as profits.

Everywhere you turn are businesses boasting about making six figures, seven figures, and up, but when you peek behind the scenes, are these businesses actually profitable?

If not--or even if they are--the best way to make them profitable may not be to simply make more sales. More sales can help, but only to a point. There are other key areas of your business influencing whether or not it’s profitable.

Neglecting these areas in favor of “more sales” is exactly how your business can make millions a year yet not be profitable.

Tune into this episode as James and Dean share three of these key areas, and how to use them to easily boost your profits.

First, Reduce Expenses

Here’s a little math to show you why “making more sales” in an effort to increase profits isn’t as always as effective as it seems. Let’s say you sell an item that grosses $100 per sale, but only $25 of that is profit because the rest goes to expenses and overhead. By selling two of that item instead of one, yes, your gross sales are up to $200 and profit is $50, but the percentage of profit--25%--is the same. That means the economics of your business haven’t actually changed. One way to change those economics is to first reduce expenses, so that, using our previous example, each $100 sale nets $50 in profit instead of $25. With a 50% profit per sale, you’ll get a lot more traction a lot faster than if you’d only focused on “making more sales.”

How To (Potentially) Free Up Thousands A Month

Pull up your bank and credit card statements and take a look at how many subscriptions and other products you’re buying or hanging onto “in case you might need them one day.” If you’re not even using them, odds are you can cut them and won’t even miss them. Even if it’s “just” $1,200 a year per subscription, those smaller expenses really add up when you’ve got a bunch of them. If you’re not using them, or can find an effective way to live without them, do it. You could potentially free up hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars a month.

Reduce The Most Expensive Cost

Acquiring a new customer is typically among the most expensive parts of running a business. Many businesses lose money on customer acquisition on the front-end. It’s even expected. Even so, the lower your customer acquisition cost, the more customers you can afford to bring in. The best way to lower customer acquisition costs is to test, test, and test some more. Tune in to hear examples from James and Dean on which things you should test to reduce what it costs to acquire a customer.

You’ve Got A Customer - Now What?

So you’ve put in all this time and money to acquire a customer. Your customers have more problems to solve. If you aren’t solving them, they’ll find someone who will. Yet a staggering number of business owners do NOTHING once someone becomes a customer. We’ve already established that new customers are the most expensive to acquire. Instead of doing nothing, help your one-time customer become a repeat customer. Stay in touch with them, send more offers, and get a feel for what else they need help with. To do otherwise is miss out on potentially thousands upon thousands of dollars PER CUSTOMER.

The Valuable Real Estate You’re Probably Not Using

Yes, consistent followup is a must. Yet no matter how skilled of an email marketer you are, there will always be a percentage of people who rarely, if ever, open your emails. But nearly 100% of people who buy your offers will see the thank you page. Use that valuable real estate to keep people engaged, promote another offer, send people to your blog, or even watch a video. Give people who buy from you a compelling reason to stick around, even if they never open another email from you.

Outline of This Episode

The difference between sales and profit [6:05]
The simplest way ever to increase profits [11:51]
Freeing up thousands of dollars a month [21:45]
Reduce customer acquisition costs [25:13]
Are you completely missing this valuable real estate? [34:45]
Deciding where to price your product [37:03]
After you acquire a customer, do this [40:04]

Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Connect With James and Dean

James P. Friel:

CEO Quickstart: https://jamespfriel.com/ceo-quickstart/
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/hustledetox/
Facebook Group (BulletProof Business):

How is it possible to have a multi-million dollar business and not be making any money? Simple: Because sales are not the same thing as profits.

Everywhere you turn are businesses boasting about making six figures, seven figures, and up, but when you peek behind the scenes, are these businesses actually profitable?

Neglecting these areas in favor of “more sales” is exactly how your business can make millions a year yet not be profitable.

Tune into this episode as James and Dean share three of these key areas, and how to use them to easily boost your profits.

First, Reduce Expenses

How To (Potentially) Free Up Thousands A Month

Reduce The Most Expensive Cost

You’ve Got A Customer - Now What?

The Valuable Real Estate You’re Probably Not Using

Outline of This Episode

The difference between sales and profit [6:05]
The simplest way ever to increase profits [11:51]
Freeing up thousands of dollars a month [21:45]
Reduce customer acquisition costs [25:13]
Are you completely missing this valuable real estate? [34:45]
Deciding where to price your product [37:03]
After you acquire a customer, do this [40:04]

Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Connect With James and Dean

James P. Friel:

CEO Quickstart: https://jamespfriel.com/ceo-quickstart/
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/hustledetox/
Facebook Group (BulletProof Business):

Previous Episode

The 3-Point Marketing Method to Simplify and Scale in 2021 with Tim Fitzpatrick, Ep 190

If something’s not working in your business, tactics are the first place a lot of entrepreneurs look. As in, if you tweak a headline, get more views, or change a button color, you’ll make more sales.

If you’ve got your fundamentals in place, tactics like those might make a difference. If you don’t, focusing on tactics like those is like putting new hubcaps on a car that has no engine. New hubcaps won’t make the car run.

In addition to wasting time and money, the tactics-only approach can add unnecessary and overwhelming layers of complication to your business, especially if you haven’t mastered the three fundamentals this week’s guest, Tim Fitzpatrick of Rialto Media, is going to share with you in his 3-Point Marketing Method to simplify and scale your business.

Tim’s start in entrepreneurship came from partnering in a wholesale distribution company, where Tim and his team grew the company 60% in nine years before selling it. In that time, Tim learned exactly how critical the fundamentals are to success in business. Tune in to hear how Tim’s 3-Point Marketing Method can help you both simplify and scale your business.

There’s Always Another Whizzbang

One of the top mistakes Tim sees business owners make is focusing on tactics when they don’t have the fundamentals in place. Tactics like “weird tricks” to get your emails opened, headline tweaks, the latest social media platform, and so on, may be a lot sexier to talk about, but here’s the problem: Focusing on tactics without your fundamentals in place is like building a house by putting up walls and windows before the foundation’s been poured. It just doesn’t work. Tune in to hear what you need to have in place before tweaks and tactics are of any use to you.

They’re The Hero, You’re The Guide

It’s not enough just to have a product. It’s got to be something people want, and that they KNOW they want. To show a prospect how your offer or product can help them, Tim advocates a storytelling framework where you position your prospect as the hero, and your business as the guide. Show them how your product or service helps them win, and how working with you is the key to making that win happen. Tune in to hear how this framework not only helps you sell more, but also helps you avoid getting so cute and clever that you confuse instead of convince.

Succeed At Planning By Keeping Things Simple

Most people are aware they need a plan--for their marketing, their business, their email strategy, and so on. But when it comes to actually creating the plan, a lot of people freeze, or move forward without one anyway. The most common reason Tim sees this happen is a false belief your plan needs to be long-term and complicated. Not the case! Tune in to hear Tim’s simple 90-day plan framework, along with his take on why 90-day plans are superior to year-long plans.

Product Not Selling? Trace It Back

Dean and his wife own a cosmetics ecommerce company that features top of the line makeup brushes. For nearly two years their makeup brush sales were less than expected, and they couldn’t understand why more people didn’t want them. Turns out the problem wasn’t with the products, it was with one of the three fundamentals Tim talks about in this episode. Tune in to hear which fundamental Dean and his wife traced the problem back to, and how doing so skyrocketed sales.

Why Tactics Without Fundamentals Are Expensive

Let’s say you’re paying an SEO expert $2,000 a month to drive traffic to your site, and this expert gets you 100,000 views a month. Impressive, right? On the surface you might think so. But if none of those views are leading to opt-ins and sales, can you really call it a success? Vanity metric “results” like these are just one possible danger of focusing on tactics when your fundamentals aren’t in place. Tactics like views, likes, and headline tweaks will not fix targeting the wrong people or a product no one wants.

Outline of This Episode

The marketing mistake holding you back [4:00]
Lessons from an artificial jellyfish tank [9:33]
Why cute and clever = confusing [17:10]
90 days, six steps [22:01]
The cause of most marketing problems [29:03]
Math major to marketing consultant [32:02]
Berkshire Hathaway business lesson [40:01]

Resources & People Mentioned

https://www.rialtomarketing.com/
https://www.rialtomarketing.com/just.the.tips.show/
Tim Fitzpatrick on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timpfitzpatrick/
The Rialto Marketing Podcast: https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/the-rialto-marketing-podcast-tim-fitzpatrick-ghE_paC4uXn/

Music for “Just The ...

Next Episode

Overcoming Today’s Entrepreneurial Epidemic, Ep 192

There’s an epidemic facing today’s entrepreneurs--one that all struggle with at some point: Shiny object syndrome. You’ve heard of it and may even be intimately familiar with it.

Considering human beings are hard-wired to seek out the fastest, easiest way to get the best possible results, it’s not a surprise shiny object syndrome is a problem IF it’s not properly managed.

In this episode James and Dean break down exactly what motivates shiny object syndrome, then share simple tips to ensure it doesn’t come between you and hitting your goals.

If you’re an entrepreneur, you’ve battled shiny object syndrome, and probably always will. Tune in to hear how to keep it from pulling you off course.

Why Do We Do It?

Every entrepreneur James and Dean know struggles with shiny object syndrome, but some manage it and some do not. Tune in to hear the differences between the entrepreneurs who master shiny object syndrome and continue growing their business, and the ones who don’t and get stuck. The differences probably aren’t what you think.

When Shiny Object Syndrome Is Useful

Shiny object syndrome is only a problem when it distracts you. Properly managed, it may even be an asset. For example: Brand new business owners have to explore a lot of different areas to find their product-market fit. Otherwise, they can end up married to an idea that’s never going to work. Once you find your product-market fit, however, your focus shifts. You still experiment, but with different things. You say no to things that won’t help you advance to the next level. It’s all about where you need to focus. Anything that pulls you away from where you need to focus to reach your goals is shiny object syndrome gone wrong.

No One Wants The Hard Way

It’s ingrained in our DNA to seek out the fastest, easiest possible path to getting what we want. This wiring is responsible for some of humanity’s greatest inventions, but like anything, it can go too far. You can easily get so distracted hunting for the easiest possible path that you never get where you’re going. Parts of your journey will feel hard. Beware the urge to flee the hard parts at all costs.

How To Stay Out Of The Rabbit Holes

One way to prevent shiny object syndrome from distracting you is by answering this question: What’s your goal? It sounds so simple, but when you stay focused on your goal, anything that doesn’t move you closer to that goal is a distraction. The pull of shiny object syndrome is so strong you may still get sucked down a few rabbit holes. But reminding yourself of your goal will pull you back on track.

What’s Your Driving Force?

One reason shiny object syndrome is so alluring is the dopamine hit you get when you start something new and exciting. That new and exciting feeling is intoxicating, but eventually it wears off. When it does, having a real, raw driving force that motivates you even after the excitement of the new has worn off is critical to staying focused. Tune in to get the guys’ tips on identifying your driving force, along with their take on the myth of how motivated you have to be in order to succeed.

Outline of This Episode

There is no silver bullet [5:05]
When you’re just starting out [11:01]
The easy way or the hard way [16:10]
Cure #1 for shiny object syndrome [22:25]
Cure #2 for shiny object syndrome [25:06]
Beware the entrepreneurial roller coaster [31:31]
What no one wants to hear [35:35]

Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Connect With James and Dean

James P. Friel: