Home Wealth Project
Extensive Research On How To Build Wealth From The Comfort Of Your Own Home.
Job Growth in UX Careers [Infographic]
Aug 24th
We recently ran across this infographic about User Experence (UX) jobs. UX careers represent a relatively new niche in this consumer oriented economy but have become an indispensable and fast growing segment of the interactive industry. As you may have guessed from the name, User Experience jobs are all about improving the user experience, and making it as user-friendly, intuitive and elegant as possible. Companies like Apple have mastered the art of the User Experience.
This infographic covers many of the various User Experience job opportunities available including job descriptions, salaries, areas with job growth, skills required, software tools to be familiar with. It’s a great place to start if you want to develop your career in User Experience.
Source: Onward Search
View full post on Business Pundit
Web 2.0 Joint Venture Secrets Exposed – The Magic Of Business Growth
Aug 15th
Learn How To Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive! Find the Best Jv Partners Using Social Marketing Strategies & Gain Instant Aceptance. Up to $50 Per Sale + 1 Killer Upsell = Giant Paydays! Sign Up Now: Web2JointVentureSecrets.com/partners.html
Web 2.0 Joint Venture Secrets Exposed – The Magic Of Business Growth
Hyper Growth Muscle Mass Training
Jul 26th
A Completely Different Approach To Bodybuilding That Can Build Your Physique To Its Maximum Genetic Potential! Incredibe affiliate area: http://www.hypermusclegrowth.com/profit-center.htm
Hyper Growth Muscle Mass Training
Getting Your Growth Rates Straight: Annual Growth And CAGR
Apr 8th
One small thing that might make the business world just a tiny bit better is all of us agreeing how we measure growth.
I hesitate to wade into this subject because so many people have so many definitions. And you’d think it was obvious, but then suddenly I find myself in meetings, or on the phone, and I’m wondering whether we’re all on the same page. And the point here isn’t exactly getting something right or wrong, but having growth percentages mean the same thing to everybody. Let’s get on the same playing field.
Here’s a quick quiz:
- sales grow from $100 in one year to $150 in the next. How much growth is that?
- And what if sales grow from $100 to $150 over three years. How much growth is that?
Maybe I’m wrong, but I’ve had what I learned in business school confirmed for me many times by accountants and analysts.
Calculating Simple Growth
To calculate simple growth, subtract the final number from the starting number and divide the result by the starting number. Then multiply by 100 if you want to show it in percentage. So, for the example above:
(150-100)/100 = 50/100 = .5
((150-100)/100)*100 = 50%
And you can see that as a spreadsheet here to the right. C2 shows 50 because it’s the product of subtracting A2 from B2. Then the formula divides that by A2, to generate .50. Or, if you multiply by 100, 50%.
There is also a simpler formula that also works. Divide the more recent by the previous, and subtract 1. That gives the same result.
You can see that in the second illustration here.
Calculating Compound Growth (CAGR)
CAGR stands for compound average growth rate. The active word there is “compound.” It means that the growth accumulates, like interest. So if you grow 10% per year over four three years you’ve actually grown from 100 in the first year to 133 in the fourth.
There’s a formula that calculates the CAGR over a period of years (or months). It’s hard to explain, but easy to use. What’s especially awkward is the ^ sign in spreadsheet formulas stands for “raised to the power,” so 4^2 (four squared, which is four raised to the second power) is 16, and 2^3 (two cubed, which is two raised to the third power) is 8.
When the CAGR formula is written out, it’s:
(last number/first number)^(1/periods)-1
Which is probably easier to see if you look at the spreadsheet illustration here to the left. The first row has the first year and last year plus the CAGR formula. The second row shows the result when 100 grows at 22.47% over three years. And the combination illustrates and awkward point about how many years are involved: it would be easy to call that two years of growth, but the “periods” number here is three, not two. And you can see the spreadsheet formula clearly here, I hope. And the 22.47% growth from 100 to 122.47, and then again to 150.
Maybe it helps on that point to show the same thing for growth from 100 to 150 over four years. That’s another simple spreadsheet, and the calculation shows that the CAGR for growth from 100 to 150 over four years as 14.47% per year.
Conclusion: maybe it’s just that I like numbers, maybe that I use them a lot, perhaps too much … but it’s nice when the growth figures we talk about mean the same thing to one and to all.
Getting Your Growth Rates Straight: Annual Growth And CAGR
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Make the Decision to Drive Growth With Ingenuity and Innovation
Mar 24th
Inspire Self-Motivation, Not Mandated Performance
A garment made with W.L. Gore products is probably hanging in your closet somewhere at your home. It’s nearly impossible to buy a ski jacket or slicker without seeing the “GORE-TEX” tag hanging from the garment. But W.L. Gore’s reach extends far beyond the cold-weather gear most of us know, to dental floss, guitar strings, surgical products and many other categories.
Revered for its ability to innovate, W.L. Gore has been named “pound for pound, the most innovative company in America” by Fast Company. What lies behind this ability is what founder Bill Gore decided to focus on as he began the business: how people inside a company come to make decisions among themselves. Deciding how to decide has driven the growth, ingenuity and continued innovation at W.L. Gore.
Sustain a Culture of Innovation for the Long Run
W.L. Gore’s ability to drive a culture of continuous innovation rests with its ability to reject traditional hierarchical convention, titles and rank in its decision making. The company focuses instead on a democratic process in which decisions stick.
Founder Bill Gore wanted a company where employees’ spirit grew based on what they accomplished, not which corporate scrimmage they had won—where more time was spent generating ideas than generating ways to cover one’s backside. So he decided to create a “non-organization” approach for his new company that would inspire creativity in its employees.
Gore envisioned a “lattice” structure where people would work interconnectedly with each other rather than through a hierarchy. Gore wanted “leaders” to emerge through the ideas they presented and the commitment received to put ideas into action. “Power” is about ideas and the ability to get them sold.
Democratic Decision Making
This radical idea for a corporate culture has lasted because Bill Gore’s idea honors and upholds the human spirit of the people inside the company. At W.L. Gore, the belief is that people will step up and deliver when they are not regulated. Through a democratic decision and innovation culture, W.L. Gore has grown to a $2.5 billion company. And 2011 marked the 14th consecutive year W. L. Gore & Associates Inc. earned a position on FORTUNE ‘s annual list of the U.S. “100 Best Companies to Work For.”
Even though W.L. Gore is a large business now, it’s the decisions they made when they were just starting out that created their marketplace position of innovation.
As a small business, decision making is even more critical because everyone in your company is a Customer Ambassador. Does your company thrive and grow because of the people you hire and how you honor their contribution to the business? Does everyone feel like they are an equal part of the success of your business?
Do You Practice Democratic Decision Making?
W.L. Gore continues to innovate by shedding formal hierarchy in favor of the power of the idea. Belief that good ideas come from everyone is their growth engine. Do the best ideas of your company get to see the light of day? Are good ideas given a chance to prosper, no matter where they come from?
Make the Decision to Drive Growth With Ingenuity and Innovation
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Small Business News: Is Your Business Ready For Growth?
Feb 18th
Is your small business ready for growth? It may be a good tikme for entrepreneurs to be asking the question as government projections become more optimistic about both the growth of the economy and growth of the job market. We’ve prepared this roundup just for you. Read on.
Getting Ready
Could growth be on the horizon? The fed has raised projections for the growth of the economy this year. The projection comes with a lower than expected unemployment rate for 2011, signs of a faster than expected growth for the economy. How will this impact your business and are your ready? NYTimes.com
How to grow your staff to meet demand. As your business grows, of course, so will your need to bring in more people to get stuff done. But the kind of staff you bring in and how they perform will also have a great impact potentially on how much more your business can grow. If you want to do it right, check out Mairead Kelly’s outline for staffing success. Bloggertone
Growth Lessons
Always be ready for sudden spurts. Growing too fast can come with it’s own set of problems. Take this story of a visionary entrepreneur who found himself on the outside looking in at the company he created. Some entrepreneurs dream of overnight success. The savvy ones are aware of the dangers that can result. Montreal Financial
An overview of the growth process. In another post from her series, Mairead Kelly takes an overview of the whole process of business growth. We look at the necessity, obstacles and planning involved in moving your business forward and consider the key elements involved in growth. Bloggertone
Strategizing
Four ways to increase your business. The four ways to increase your business are NOT rocket science but they ARE something you may want to have stuck to your refrigerator so that you can look at them every morning. So fortunate than that Steve Miller has created a nice short and compact post suitable for framing. 
Two Hat Market
Overcoming the obstacles in your way. Sometimes growth requires more than just expanding your current operation. Often itcan include overcoming obstacles that stand in your own or your company’s way. These obstacles can be difficult to overcome at times and can come in several varieties. Though S. Anthony Iannarino is talking about obstacles to the growth of your sales team here, clearly the same advice can go for your whole business too. Future Selling Institute
Start-up
Start-up and growth is tied to your funds. It doesn’t much matter whether you’re a venture funded start-up or a small mom and pop struggling through the early days of your business. The fact is that the amount of money you have on hand in your business equals the amount of time you have to grow to true profitability. Think about how to stretch your funds and you increase your chances for success. Startup Professionals Musings
Social Media
Blogging and social media for growth. An obvious tool for growing small business, no matter what the market, is with blogging and social media. Yes, it’s talked about often enough in small business circles these days, but make now mistake, blogs and social media are great ways to grow at a low cost. Construction Marketiking UK Blog
Don’t miss the simplest opportunities. Sometimes the greatest opportunities to grow our businesses are right under our noses all the time. How about the simple opportunities presented to just about every bricks and mortar business with check-in social media like Foursquare. If you have a business, you probably already have a business site. And if you have not already claimed that space or if someone else has, it is another opportunity wasted. E-Marketing Associates
Operations
How to grow even in bad times. Surprisingly one of the key strategies to growth even during economic hard times like the recent recession may have little or nothing to do with marketing. Want to know if the rate of turnover and the amount of teamwork that happens in your company can impact the bottom line. Look no further. A new strategy for business management has arrived.Winning Workplaces
Small Business News: Is Your Business Ready For Growth?
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Small Business News: SMBs Show Global Growth
Dec 21st
Regardless of what poll you happen to read about how small business leaders, economists or anyone else feels about the economy, the plain fact is that there are signs of growth. Whether that growth is in your business or in your neighbors and whether it represents the kind of growth you would like to see is another matter. Take a few minutes to check out this roundup and get a broader perspective of both what’s happening out there and how you can make things better for your business today. Got something to add? Leave a comment below.
Holiday Tips
Small business lessons from Santa. What can your small business learn from the jolly, plump red suited elf with a penchant for making naughty or nice lists? Quite a lot actually. It turns out Santa’s got a lot to teach us all about a business model based on helping others and providing customer service that would shame many a chamber of commerce members. TheStreet
High Tech SMB
No limit on the scope of small business accomplishment. Small businesses are responsible for a wide range of accomplishments in the private sector and in a wide range of technologies. From the small mom and pop retail business to innovative biotech firms developing cutting edge protein-based therapeutic solutions like the one described in this article, the reach of small business is vast. Globes
Taxes
Taxes on small business owners represent considerable revenue. Though few small business owners are rich, the few that are represent a significant chunk of income tax revenue in the U.S., says Scott Shane, Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at Case Western Reserve University. Small businesses also contribute in other significant ways to the economy. It’s sobering to remember that, no matter what happens on Wall Street, small businesses still are a major player in the wealth the economy generates. Small Business Trends
Roundup
Whew! Talk about a week for small business news. For a small business roundup within a small business roundup, here’s blogger and business owner Gene Marks with a comprehensive view of small business and small business related stories from around the world this week. From tax breaks to holiday season buying trends, the good news is that not all the news is bad. You’re the Boss
Finance
Small business loans on tap for veterans. The U.S. Small Business Association is extending a program offering small business financing assistance to veterans for at least another three years. To date, the program has provided loan guarantees in excess of $560 million to almost 7,000 veteran small business owners with more to come. PilotOnline.com
Mobile
In ever greater numbers, small businesses are getting mobile. In fact, according to a recent survey from Discover’s business credit card division, a third of small business owners are using the devices although much of this use is for business only. While fewer small business owners seem to be using smartphones themselves (sorry, B2B marketers) many are scrambling to make sure their businesses are more accessible to mobile device users. TradingMarkets.com
Opinion
Nothing to fear but fear itself. Could the conservative, even pessimistic, attitude of some small business owners around the world be at least partially responsible for an ongoing economic recession? As Jeff Cornwall suggests, in this sober post, these small business owners are indeed taking a prudent approach, but a fear of the future and of any expansion could also be stalling recovery and progress. The Christian Science Monitor
Your Business
Deal of the day sites may be great for some small businesses. But not every small business wants to be on Groupon and this fact is what ultimately makes such tools less prevalent and less imperative to most small businesses than, say, Google search or social media. That said, Groupon will continue to be big. The only question is whether it’s really that important to your business. Business Insider
Revitalizing your small business: A five step approach. If your small business is not performing in the way you had hoped, it’s time to look at some steps designed to make a significant change. These five steps are the basics when it comes to improving your existing operation and tweaking what isn’t working. Connie Edwards, business consultant for the University of Georgia’s Small Business Development Center has more. SavannahNow.com
Policy
Fed may set limit on credit card “swipe” fees. The limit on credit card processing or interchange fees is being touted as a triumph for small businesses impacted by deep cuts into revenue. The fees have even prompted some small businesses to offer discounts when customers pay cash. But in a post published last year around this time when the issue was already brewing, Small Business Trends editor Anita Campbell asked whether such government interference would eventually lead to more trouble than it is worth. Business News Daily
Small Business News: SMBs Show Global Growth
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Venture Capital: Manufacturing Is Not the Path to Stimulate Economic Growth
Nov 18th
California has a high share of venture capital. But in a recent article, Where’s The Beef? Can Venture Capital Save California?, Gino DiCaro, Vice President of Communications for the California Manufacturers & Technology Association, makes an interesting point: point: All of California’s venture capital hasn’t created much growth in manufacturing. While California accounts for over 40 percent of all U.S. venture capital activity, DiCaro says, it is home to only “1.3 percent of the new or expanded manufacturing facilities in the last five years.”
DiCaro’s article raises an interesting question: Does it matter that California’s dominant position in venture capital fails to translate into growth in manufacturing in the state?
I think not for several reasons.
First, increasing manufacturing isn’t a path to faster economic growth. A study of the differences in state economic growth going back to the 1930s showed that manufacturing’s share of a state’s industrial structure actually reduces per capita income. So states like California are better off economically if they reduce their reliance on manufacturing.
Second, places with more venture capital have higher economic growth. Studies show that venture capital-backed companies are more innovative and have higher employment and sales growth than comparable companies not financed by venture capital. Therefore, California benefits from its large share of the U.S. venture capital industry.
A quick glance at California companies shows that new venture capital backed start-ups can enhance economic growth even if they don’t create any new manufacturing businesses. For instance, Google and Facebook don’t make anything, but are hiring workers and generating wealth at a rapid pace. If a state can create companies like these, does it matter if venture capitalists don’t back a lot of manufacturing businesses?
Third, recent research conducted by Larry Plummer of the University of Oklahoma indicates that efforts to increase start-up activity in manufacturing might hinder efforts to create more high tech companies. Plummer’s study shows that places with more high tech new businesses tend not to have more manufacturing start-ups and vice versa. Because venture capital is designed to enhance the growth of high tech companies, not manufacturing ones, there’s no reason to expect the size of a state’s venture capital industry to be related to manufacturing’s share of state economic activity.
In fact, Plummer’s study shows that the same factors that increase the rate at which manufacturing firms are created actually reduce the level of new business creation in high tech. For example, places with faster growing populations and a lesser share of the population that graduated from college have more manufacturing startups, but fewer high-tech ones. Although Plummer didn’t look at the effect of venture capital, it’s possible that places with high levels of venture capital have more high tech start-ups and fewer manufacturing ones.
In short, DiCaro’s article is an example of argument-by-spurious-association. He says that something is wrong in California because the state has high rates of venture capital activity but low rates of manufacturing firm growth. However, if manufacturing firm growth isn’t an objective of policy makers, this pattern doesn’t matter. Venture capital encourages the formation of high growth, high tech companies, which generate wealth and create jobs. As long as venture capital does this, we should be happy.
Editor’s Note: This article was previously published at OPENForum.com under the title: “Venture Capital Doesn’t Need to Encourage Manufacturing to Stimulate Economic Growth.” It is republished here with permission.
Venture Capital: Manufacturing Is Not the Path to Stimulate Economic Growth
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink: A Workplan for Profits When Growth is Hard
Oct 16th
It’s only natural for a business to seek revenue growth through adding to its portfolio of services and products. But would you believe that as much as 40 percent of a business’s offerings could be considered unprofitable? Senior MIT lecturer Jonathan Byrnes believes addressing that profitability gap can have a better payoff than taking the risk of introducing a new product or service.
Byrnes’ new book, Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink: Why 40% of Your Business Is Unprofitable and How to Fix It, provides an excellent financial overview to help small business owners identify the profit drains within a product lineup. I received a preview copy from the publisher, and was enlightened by its analytical tone. It reveals in straightforward language how to align suppliers, departments and customers to fill the profit gap for everyone’s financial benefit.
Revenues are good, costs are bad ….what a myth!
Yup, you read that correctly. The above is just one of 10 myths Byrnes addresses. For this one, “the truth is that some revenues are profitable, and some are very unprofitable.” The myths covered in Chapter 2 are general statements that have become truths by default, “vague generalities” born from mass-market practices instead of from an understanding of the core drivers of one’s business. The core concept of this book is profit management–learning about the profit levers within the business. In Chapter 3, Byrnes summarizes the logic behind this new way to approach profitability:
“We are entering a new era in business — shifting from a mass-market based business system to one in which managers carefully craft specific sets of customer relationships and precisely match them with specific sets of customers.”
This is not radically new science, but the focus on profit is different than activity base costing and revenue management. Byrnes asserts that there are means today to determine the leverage on profit. Chapter 6 shows how to develop a profit map–a means to identify unprofitability. The first step elaborates on how to create a profitability database; the second step is creating profit profiles based on customer examples. The profiles help to determine the profit levers as well as other benefits:
“Modeling the effects of key profit levers on representative customers is especially effective for three reasons: (1) It will be intuitively clear which elements of the business model can be changed and what the effect will be; (2) you can actually call the customers to see what their reactions to potential changes would be; and (3) it will be easier to explain the changes using concrete examples when you present the initiative to your colleagues.”
Profit map creation is similar to the business intelligence processes suggested in books like Analytics At Work (review here). Yet Island is not too scholastic; small firms will be able to implement the suggestions with the resources at hand.
First you find the profit lever, then you lead the change
The last several chapters elaborate on the “fixing” part — how to elicit change by the corporation, its suppliers and its customers to prioritize the profit improvement opportunities you have discovered. The managers are the champions who must bring forth change. The concept of managers leading organizational change reminded me of many analytics books that emphasize the need to be an analytics champion or ninja. Island offers a broader scope with more systematic remedies. The analogies previously mentioned help the reader frame the challenges a manager will encounter.
Segments that allow readers to match analogous imagery to their company — Chapter 15 is titled “Is Your Organization Reptile or Mammal?” — are almost identical to Chip and Dan Heath’s elephant/driver theme in Switch (review here). The images of a garden, sand castle, mountain and a plate of spaghetti offer unique takes on change.
Refreshingly good is the segment that encourages supplier involvement in implementing profitable practices. The chapter on changing customers is also good and ambitious – I had wished this was longer — but it also highlighted how innovation can be a hard sell to customers and that working with customers on the solution benefits must be executed as a win-win game. It is within these approaches that Island complements books like Find Your Zebra (review here) in which understanding your customer segment leads to excellent service of a profitable segment.
Other observations
I also felt Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink offers a potential complement to Service Innovation (review here) to see what it takes to examine the financial barriers to creating a new service, and to 1% Windfall (review here) to help determine the operation’s need to be profitable in the alternative segments suggested.
Brief chapter summaries provide a wonderful overview and jog readers’ recollection in case the book has had to be put aside for a while. Nice.
I wished there were more chart examples like the profit map and service differentiation chart. This would illustrate the processes even more. But the commentary is lucid enough that a reader can understand and imagine the value of the author’s points.
Better profits and operations await readers who arrive at this Island
Some of the most successful companies grew by figuring out how to draw upon their strengths rather than seeking revenue growth unmoored from reasonable strategy and economic reality. This book will benefit a number of managers. Small businesses and retailers with supply chain and service centers will have new insights on how to best work together. Even businesses with very small departments will take away useful advice on how adding any ol’ service — be it through an affiliate or created in-house — should be closely examined instead of hastily encouraged.
I liked the comprehensive overview Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink brings to how a profit is made, and how firms must carefully consider introductions, not just adding offerings in a willy-nilly panic. It’s a terrific reminder that financial discipline and realistic profitability management are achievable and essential for success.
You can follow Johnathan Burns “Islands of Profit” on Twitter @Islandsofprofit. also check out the Islands of Profit Blog.
Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink: A Workplan for Profits When Growth is Hard
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Island of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink: A Workplan for Profits When Growth is Hard
Oct 16th
It’s only natural for a business to seek revenue growth through adding to their portfolio of services and products. But would you believe that as much as 40 percent of a business’s offerings could be considered unprofitable? Senior MIT lecturer Jonathan Byrnes believes addressing that profitability gap can have a better payoff than taking the risk of introducing a new product or service.
Byrnes’ new book, Island of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink: Why 40% of Your Business Is Unprofitable and How to Fix It, provides an excellent financial overview to help small business owners identify the profit drains within a product lineup. I received a preview copy from the publisher, and was enlightened by its analytical tone. It reveals in straightforward language how to align suppliers, departments and customers to fill the profit gap for everyone’s financial benefit.
Revenues are good, costs are bad ….what a myth!
Yup, you read that correctly. The above is just one of 10 myths Byrnes addresses. For this one, “the truth is that some revenues are profitable, and some are very unprofitable.” The myths covered in Chapter 2 are general statements that have become truths by default, “vague generalities” born from mass-market practices instead of from an understanding of the core drivers of one’s business. The core concept of this book is profit management–learning about the profit levers within the business. In Chapter 3, Byrnes summarizes the logic behind this new way to approach profitability:
“We are entering a new era in business — shifting from a mass-market based business system to one in which managers carefully craft specific sets of customer relationships and precisely match them with specific sets of customers.”
This is not radically new science, but the focus on profit is different than activity base costing and revenue management. Byrnes asserts that there are means today to determine the leverage on profit. Chapter 6 shows how to develop a profit map–a means to identify unprofitability. The first step elaborates on how to create a profitability database; the second step is creating profit profiles based on customer examples. The profiles help to determine the profit levers as well as other benefits:
“Modeling the effects of key profit levers on representative customers is especially effective for three reasons: (1) It will be intuitively clear which elements of the business model can be changed and what the effect will be; (2) you can actually call the customers to see what their reactions to potential changes would be; and (3) it will be easier to explain the changes using concrete examples when you present the initiative to your colleagues.”
Profit map creation is similar to the business intelligence processes suggested in books like Analytics At Work (review here). Yet Island is not too scholastic; small firms will be able to implement the suggestions with the resources at hand.
First you find the profit lever, then you lead the change
The last several chapters elaborate on the “fixing” part — how to elicit change by the corporation, its suppliers and its customers to prioritize the profit improvement opportunities you have discovered. The managers are the champions who must bring forth change. The concept of managers leading organizational change reminded me of many analytics books that emphasize the need to be an analytics champion or ninja. Island offers a broader scope with more systematic remedies. The analogies previously mentioned help the reader frame the challenges a manager will encounter.
Segments that allow readers to match analogous imagery to their company — Chapter 15 is titled “Is Your Organization Reptile or Mammal?” — are almost identical to Chip and Dan Heath’s elephant/driver theme in Switch (review here). The images of a garden, sand castle, mountain and a plate of spaghetti offer unique takes on change.
Refreshingly good is the segment that encourages supplier involvement in implementing profitable practices. The chapter on changing customers is also good and ambitious – I had wished this was longer — but it also highlighted how innovation can be a hard sell to customers and that working with customers on the solution benefits must be executed as a win-win game. It is within these approaches that Island complements books like Find Your Zebra (review here) in which understanding your customer segment leads to excellent service of a profitable segment.
Other observations
I also felt Island of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink offers a potential complement to Service Innovation (review here) to see what it takes to examine the financial barriers to creating a new service, and to 1% Windfall (review here) to help determine the operation’s need to be profitable in the alternative segments suggested.
Brief chapter summaries provide a wonderful overview and jog readers’ recollection in case the book has had to be put aside for a while. Nice.
I wished there were more chart examples like the profit map and service differentiation chart. This would illustrate the processes even more. But the commentary is lucid enough that a reader can understand and imagine the value of the author’s points.
Better profits and operations await readers who arrive at this Island
Some of the most successful companies grew by figuring out how to draw upon their strengths rather than seeking revenue growth unmoored from reasonable strategy and economic reality. This book will benefit a number of managers. Small businesses and retailers with supply chain and service centers will have new insights on how to best work together. Even businesses with very small departments will take away useful advice on how adding any ol’ service — be it through an affiliate or created in-house — should be closely examined instead of hastily encouraged.
I liked the comprehensive overview Island of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink brings to how a profit is made, and how firms must carefully consider introductions, not just adding offerings in a willy-nilly panic. It’s a terrific reminder that financial discipline and realistic profitability management are achievable and essential for success.
You can follow Johnathan Burns “Islands of Profit” on Twitter @Islandsofprofit. also check out the Islands of Profit Blog.
Island of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink: A Workplan for Profits When Growth is Hard
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
