Episode 52 Podcast Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):

As a business owner, it’s not about looking good, it’s about bottom line is the most important thing. Running a lean and mean business that maximises profits is the key. Hi everyone. Rob Kropp and Dan Stones here from Pravar Group and welcome back to Another Matters episode. Hey everyone, and today we’re focusing on money and having the mindset of being unapologetically profit driven. I’d be willing to bet you got into business to make money and have the time to spend with friends and family and doing all the things that you love. Unfortunately, stats and our experience tells us that most business owners are overworked and underpaid with time and money being their biggest challenges. Speaking of bottom line, most business owners wouldn’t even know how much they’re making and no wonder that they’re having money problems.

Speaker 2 (00:51):

Yeah, business is a bit like a coin. I think Rob one side is the need to service customers and create opportunities for your team, basically try to make everyone happy. On the other side is that cold, hard fact that you still must make a profit.

Speaker 1 (01:04):

Yeah, you’re probably obsess over service and doing a good job, which is great, but honestly, how much time do you spend making and managing money and maximising your profits? In today’s episode, we’re going to discuss the three principles to make your money matter.

Speaker 2 (01:18):

Okay, so let’s kick it off with principle number one. Be unapologetic about making profit.

Speaker 1 (01:24):

Yeah, the hard truth is it’s your duty obligation and responsibility to make profit. If you’re not making money, the reality is your business is just a hobby or you’re doing it just for fun. It’s not a business. Revenue fuels growth, it fuels structure and the systems to absolutely set you free.

Speaker 2 (01:44):

Absolutely true. I think every decision you make, whether it’s marketing, hiring, operations, all of it has to be anchored first in driving profitable growth. And if you’re not doing that, then you’re playing small, the need to make other people feel happy so you feel good, whatever it is you are getting busy in, that’s what we call playing small. So the idea is to stop playing small and focus in on driving profitable growth.

Speaker 1 (02:09):

Yeah, I dunno what it is. We see it time and time again with business owners is that a lot of people have a negative connotation or negative feelings around money. Money is just a taboo topic. As we said before, people got into business to make money. The very thing people avoid in business is the topic around money, and that’s why I said that it’s your duty obligation and responsibility to actually make sure that the business is making money. Because in the end of the day, as a director of your company, you’ve got that level of responsibility. That’s your responsibility as a director. And if you are not doing that where you’ve got a business that’s breakeven or worse yet going backwards, then you don’t have a long-term viable future within your business. It’s destined to fail unless you it around. And so in the game of business, you’ve got to make sure that you not only get paid for what you do, but the business has to stand on its own two feet and be profitable to ensure that it’s got viability well into the future.

Speaker 2 (03:14):

Absolutely, and I think it’s at this point, it’s probably worth saying what you’re saying is that we don’t want to overplay it, but it’s true that money’s not the most important thing in life. I think it was Robert Kiyosaki, this is his quote, right? The rich dad, poor dad guy. It’s true that money is not the most important thing in life, but money does affect everything that is important to life. So once you get your head around that, then this idea about being unapologetic about making profit becomes a whole lot easier, right?

Speaker 1 (03:40):

Yeah, correct. It’s not about the love of money, it’s about seeing money as a tool to do the things that you love. It’s not the love of money it’s seeing to seeing what money can create for you to do more of what you love with who you love, but in the end of the day, money is what fuels that. Money fuels business growth, it fuels opportunity. It fuels family life. It fuels life. But in the end of the day, you’ve got to have a business that makes money and you’ve got to put your fears, your guilt, your shames and your negative connotation around whatever it is you’ve got with money, and you’ve got to make sure that the business is viable and making money and be absolutely unapologetic about charging what you’re worth and making the money that you deserve in your business for running the level of service that you do.

Speaker 2 (04:30):

Yeah, for sure. You’ve talked a bit about in there some words you threw around the breakeven, the margins, profit, all those sort of things. This comes to number two, which is know your numbers and own your power.

Speaker 1 (04:42):

The hard truth is, is that most business owners avoid their numbers. How do you know if you’re making money or not? If you don’t look at your numbers? And that’s a bit of a face of the facts moment for you as you’re listening here today, is if you’ve got cashflow problems and money problems, the question you’ve got to check yourself with is how much and how often am I actually looking at the key numbers within my business? How often am I looking at my profit and loss? What is my top line doing? Am I actually profitable? Am I meeting my break even point? Am I looking at my balance sheet? What’s happening with my cashflow in terms of money in and out? You might be thinking there going, holy shit Rob, I don’t even know what some of these terms mean. Then if that’s the case, then the reality is this is probably the very reason why you’ve got money problems in your world and your business, and so to be able to succeed in business, you’ve got to want to embrace this stuff. You’ve got to lean into it. You’ve got to want to understand what these terms mean and know how to use these to be able to make decisions so that you can be an empowered business owner to be able to ensure that you can drive a very healthy bottom line.

Speaker 2 (05:51):

For sure. And I think you’ve got to know how to read the scoreboard is what you’re really talking about. We talk about this all the time in coaching. You can’t improve what you don’t measure.

Speaker 1 (06:00):

Yeah, absolutely. Think of it a football game, you kind of can’t win if there’s no school board is there.

Speaker 2 (06:05):

That’s right. We’re just all running around for what purpose. So I think that’s really important

Speaker 1 (06:10):

And that’s what most business people are doing in the marketplace. They’re running around like a chook with their head cut off playing a game that they don’t even know if they’re winning or not.

Speaker 2 (06:19):

For sure. And if there’s one thing that does follow, the better you play the game, the more successful you’ll be at it. Making money is one of those things, and you talk about becoming fluent in the language of business, knowing your numbers is absolutely critical if you’re going to succeed and turn this around.

Speaker 1 (06:35):

Correct. And it’s not that scary, isn’t it? I know a lot of people are like numbers, it doesn’t make sense, but once you lean into it and you can learn to demystify it a little bit, it’s not that hard in the end of the day, is it?

Speaker 2 (06:47):

No, it’s not. And I think this comes to our third point, which is all talking around ego, whether it’s knowing your numbers or prioritising profitability, putting your ego aside and really working at this as a skill that you need to develop a mindset, you need to groove. No one’s really bored with this. You have to learn it, you have to spend time with it, and you have to get better at it. So I think let’s talk about ego for a minute and prioritising profitability over ego.

Speaker 1 (07:10):

Yeah. The hard facts are is that most people prioritise revenue over profitability or they prioritised vanity numbers over likes and followers and social media side of followers or the car that they drive or the house that they live in. The worst thing about social media these days is that everyone shows the good side of what’s going on and they amplify their life of what it all looks like on the outside, but very few people underneath the surface are actually hitting the numbers which matter, which in the end of the day is being profitable and having good cashflow. And so that’s the facts are that most people build a business and life that looks good on the outside, but very few people build a business and life that feels good and have a business that actually is profitable, which is the most important number in the end of the day.

Speaker 2 (08:05):

100%. And I think there’s a world of difference between having a business that looks good and a business that’s profitable. I look at some of you drive around in industrial estate and the businesses that we work in and the businesses we work with, you wouldn’t know by looking at them how profitable they were. But if you really looked at it, those guys that really do well in those sort of trades businesses and industrial companies where they’ve got factories and stuff, it rarely looks good, but I guarantee if they’ve been around for a while, they know their numbers and they’re dead set profitable.

Speaker 1 (08:36):

Yeah, correct. And there’s so many businesses that are struggling in today’s marketplace, and it’s just because they don’t know their numbers yet. They’re overreached in terms of their lifestyle. They’ve got the flashiest trucks out on the road all nicely signed, written, and all those types of things, but the end, end of the day, their business is bleeding. And so as a business owner, it’s not about looking good, it’s about bottom line is the most important thing. Running a lean and mean business that maximises profits is the key.

Speaker 2 (09:06):

Yeah, socials look great, but it doesn’t mean shit.

Speaker 1 (09:10):

Alright, Dan, well, let’s round this one out. And in the end of the day, I think we’ve got to remember that you’re not in this just for fun. You’re in this to make money. And as Bill Gates famously says, and I love this quote, if you’re born poor, it’s not your fault, but if you die poor, it’s your fault.

Speaker 2 (09:32):

Yeah, I know you love that quote. It’s on plenty of slides for our clients to see at events. I think you can’t agree anymore, but every day you’ve got to make decisions that strengthen your bottom line. So get out there, own those decisions because the money you make is what’s going to fuel your vision and fund your freedom, like you said at the beginning.

Speaker 1 (09:52):

If you’re looking to eliminate your cashflow problems and grow your profits book in a strategy, call@strategysession.com.au and we’ll build a roadmap to unlock business growth and family reconnection.

Speaker 2 (10:04):

And that’s it for this Money Matters episode. If something here sparked a thought, gave you an insight, let us know. We’d love to hear from you. We’ll speak to you next week.

Speaker 1 (10:12):

See you then.