Six Steps to Creating Profit: A Guide for Small and Mid-Sized Service-Based Businesses - Hardcover

Sigmon, Patricia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0470554258 ISBN 13: 9780470554258

Publisher: Wiley, 2010

Synopsis

An insightful look at how you can put net profit income at the forefront of your small to mid-sized business

Enable you to make changes that will create a profitable, sustainable business future, Six Steps to Creating Profit authoritatively shows you how to maximize profit for your small to mid-sized, privately-held, service-based business.

• Shows how to avoid the business model where all income is devoured by expenses, leaving a valuation that would not render any measurable sales revenue if the business should be sold
• Discusses how to create a company where actual profit generation is one of the primary goals
• Provides the steps necessary to create "true" profit
• Features coverage of rules of operation, visibility in the marketplace, marketing, cash flow, and management costs

Demonstrating how measuring the results of change is vital and part of the ultimate, ongoing, profit-based solution, Six Steps to Creating Profit reveals how the before and after of each operational area is as important to evaluate as the intended change itself.

About this title

About the Author

PATRICIA SIGMON is the founder of LPS Consulting, which helps companies manage IT systems through their entire lifecycle from planning to the introduction of new systems and integration with existing ones while providing training and in-house support. She is also the founder of David Advisory Group, which meets the needs of CEOs and business owners, whose excellence in service and product development requires expert practice management assistance to reap profits and sustain longevity.

From the Back Cover

Six Steps to Creating Profit

"In this easy-to-digest book, Pat Sigmon has created the advanced business management checklist that every small business owner should keep on their desk. She has captured hundreds of useable, practical, and easily implemented thoughts and tactics that will help the typical business owner reach their next level of growth and profitability. While no one could put all these suggestions into practice at once, putting them all into practice one at a time is a worthy business planning and execution exercise."
―Dan Kraus, President, Leading Results, Inc.

"In Chapter Six, 'Making Everyone a Salesperson,' author Pat Sigmon has done a masterful job laying out a step-by-step process on how to enlist everyone company-wide to think sales. This book is a must read for every small to mid-sized business owner who realizes that instilling a 'sales culture' is paramount to future growth and sustainability in today's economy."
―Chris Robinson, Regional Sales Manager, SugarCRM

"As a good manager, make sure you have several hours to read this book cover to cover . . . I found it difficult to mark my place and wait another day to read the next chapter. In today's unprecedented economy . . . every owner and key manager needs to know the facts that Pat has made so clear to us in these six simple chapters. This book is clearly a wakeup call to refocus on the reality of running our service based businesses for a solid return on our investment, every single day. Pat reminds us that not only is our economy changing daily, but also the way we all have been doing business is rapidly becoming obsolete."
―William H. Mills, Chairman and CEO, ClickBase Corporation

Despite the difficulties of running a business, many owners of small to mid-sized service-based firms are able to become masters of their craft, boasting a long list of repeat clients and a stellar reputation. What's missing, though, is the most important piece of the puzzle, one of the main reasons you went into business in the first place―a good, healthy profit.

Finally, you can figure out why your business is no longer earning what it once earned or maybe even why your employees are making more money than you are.

Six Steps to Creating Profit helps you understand your business's weaknesses and confront the problems that exist and have resulted in a lack of profit. This savvy guide explores how you can promote long-term growth through both economic and personal downturns by:

• Replacing yesterday's stale successes with today's winners

• Staying visible and connected by increasing credentials and growing affiliations

• Keeping the cash flowing, knowing your budget, and working to the bottom line

• Changing the back office focus and managing for profit

• Putting online networking to work for you

• Creating a mantra and spreading the message

Everyone knows the recession is not kind to unprofitable businesses. It's time to stop "making payroll" and get past the roadblocks that are holding your business back from the success it deserves. Where other business books address everything you need to know to set up shop and get and service clients, Six Steps to Creating Profit: A Guide for Small and Mid-Sized Service-Based Businesses goes past the basics, equipping you to master the delicate balance of running a business and making a great profit. From the daily trials and tribulations of cash flow to what's up with your missing profits and shrinking sales, this is advice you can put to use right away for increasing sales, attaining business longevity―and realizing those profits.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0470554258
• ISBN 13: 9780470554258
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208