Ron Collier’s new book Profit Is an Attitude: The Strategies You Need to Optimize Profits is a statement of prowess that all business owners should hear; In short, if you want to be in business, you must want to make a profit. That may seem like common sense, but all too often businesses fail because the owners aren’t focused on growing their profits or even tracking whether or not they’re making it. As Collier states, most companies are stuck behind a wall of growth and must accept that they have to do the work to overcome that wall. Without making a profit, rarely a business will continue, which is why Collier, a successful entrepreneur and sales and business management consultant, has written this book to demonstrate how to run a profitable business.
Collier’s background and tell-it-like style is refreshing. Having read many business books, I appreciated how she got right to the heart of his argument. Collier begins by noting that the business owner wears three hats: owner, manager, and co-worker, especially in the beginning. Unfortunately, the business cannot grow if the owner is too busy being the co-worker or even the manager. A business is successful when the owner finds other co-workers and business managers so the owner can focus on being the entrepreneur.
While business books generally highlight how to get customers and sales, Collier points out that most businesses fail not because of a lack of customers or sales, but because of poor management. The owner must develop a “profit attitude” and go to work every day with the intention of making a profit for the business to be successful. Unfortunately, many people lack a profit attitude or get too involved in the nitty-gritty of business operations to focus on the primary goal of making money. Collier shares several stories of business owners he knows or has worked with throughout the book, many of whom are wrong in this way. For example, a business owner bragged that he was so busy that he hadn’t had time to bill any of his customers for three months. Such business owners, as Collier points out, often end up in bankruptcy. Instead, a company must be constantly focused on making a profit, and to do so, it must be well organized.
From there, most of Profit Is an Attitude is about how to get organized, both financially and in relation to employees and customers. While many business books cover the topics Collier addresses, I found the way he guided readers through understanding profit and loss statements and balance sheets to be practical and easy to follow, and unique in that that he continually brought the discussion back to what was necessary. to make a profit. A key point that Collier makes is that there are only three ways for a company to increase profits: increase sales, reduce costs, or increase prices. He talks about all of these options and how to determine which one is best in which situation; also provides supporting mathematical examples; For example, he demonstrates how a slight price increase will help profits grow more easily than increased sales. Ultimately, he argues, companies should go to some degree to perform these three activities regularly.
Collier also discusses pricing, showing that increasing sales and being busy doesn’t always equate to making a profit. Instead, it depends on how you price your products or services. In fact, he claims, “If you’re too busy, your price is too low.” He talks about determining what’s a good price to charge, as well as telling us how not to set prices based on the stories of the business owners he’s spoken to. A homeowner counted how many people lived in a house to determine how much to charge for installing air conditioning; not a well thought out pricing plan. Ultimately, Collier explains why flat rate pricing, rather than charging by the hour, is often the better option; it makes customers happier because they know what to expect, and it usually leads to more profit for businesses.
Each chapter begins with an inspirational quote. One of my favorites, by Robert Kiyosaki, was “It’s not how much money you make, but how much money you keep, how much works for you, and how many generations you keep it for.” In addition, there is a glossary of terms, appendices including sample balance sheets and profit and loss statements, and various references to various tools you can find on Collier’s websites to help you set up or reorganize your business to make it profitable.
Most of all, I appreciated Collier’s main message that profit is an attitude. It’s great to serve customers, but we can serve more customers, more employees, and ourselves when we focus on building a profitable business that supports us, our loved ones, and those we do business with for the long term. The benefit is an attitude can be the missing link that many companies are looking for. It is a book to be read slowly and carefully, read again, and then applied for greater gains and success.