Why Your Business Is Not as Profitable as It Should Be and What You Can Do About It – In Just 7 Minutes with Adam Lean

Check out episode
  • Discover how to make more profit without sacrificing more time and money
  • Learn more on which numbers you should be focusing on- profit, revenue, or cashflow
  • Find out how you can be an expert in your craft and business at the same time

Resources/Links:

Summary

Do you want to know the secrets of how to be more profitable? Do you care more about your profits than your cashflow? Are you sure you’re doing your business right?

Adam Lean has been an accountant and built a 7-figure business that grew to be an industry leader. He now wants to help 10,000 business owners know how to make more money.

In this episode, Adam shares his insights on how to make your business more profitable. He also talks about which numbers are important and you should be focusing on- profit, revenue, or your cash flow?

Check out these episode highlights:

  • 01:36 – Adam’s ideal client: “Our ideal clients are business owners who own small to medium-sized businesses that are working incredibly hard, and they just know that their business should be more profitable. They’re working hard, they’re just not seeing the money in the bank account.”
  • 02:10 – Problem Adam helps solve: “So there’s a lot going on in a business, when- as a business owner, you’re wearing all the hats, and you have to deal with marketing and sales and operations and a slew of other things- but the point of a business is to make money, and so the number one problem that we solve is to help business owners make more money.”
  • 03:09 – Typical symptoms that clients do before reaching out to Adam: “They really simply don’t know what to do. They’re an expert at the craft of their business.”
  • 04:28 – Common mistakes that people make before they find Adam’s solution: “The number one mistake that we see is that they end up working harder in the business. So instead of working 50 hours a week, they’re just thinking, ‘Oh, I need to spend 65 hours a week.’”
  • 05:55 – Adam’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): “Know exactly where you stand for certain numbers, just so you can see what’s working and what’s not.”
  • 06:23 – Adam’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Check out Adam’s Website: CFOproject.com/moneybook
  • 07:18 – Q: What is the most important number to improve in a business? A: Most people think it’s either revenue or profit, but it’s not, it’s cash flow.

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“Know exactly where you stand for certain numbers, just so you can see what's working and what's not.” -Adam Lean Click To Tweet

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Tom Poland 00:09
Hello, everyone, and another very warm welcome to yet another edition of Marketing The Invisible. My name is Tom Poland beaming out from Little Castaways Beach here in Australia, joined today by Adam Lean. Adam, good day, sir. A very warm welcome to Marketing The Invisible. Where are you hanging out?

Adam Lean 00:25
I am in Columbia, South Carolina over in the United States.

Tom Poland 00:29
And in the aftermath of the presidential elections, let’s not go there, right?

Adam Lean 00:34
Oh, my goodness. I’m so glad that’s over.

Tom Poland 00:37
I’m not sure it is. But-

Adam Lean 00:39
That’s true.

Tom Poland 00:41
All right, folks. So, we’re just recording this just a matter of almost six days after the presidential election so that’s the reference. For those of you who don’t know Adam, he’s been an accountant and built a 7-figure business that grew to be an industry leader. He’s now going on a mission to help 10,000 business owners know how to make more money, and the title, which I had a little wry smile at because I thought my goodness, that’s so true, “Why Your Business Is Not As Profitable As It Should be and What You Can Do About It” and my wry smile was, as a marketer, I always like my headings or my titles to be 100% pinpoint accurate, and necessarily looked at that and thought, “Well, gee, how does Adam know it’s not as profitable as it should be?” Then I thought about all the businesses I’ve owned, and all the clients I’ve had, and I’d say, that’s not very wide of the mark as well at all, it can be a lot more profitable than it currently is. So, Adam, our seven minutes is going to kick off now. Let’s start with question number one, who is your ideal client?

Adam Lean 01:36
Our ideal clients are business owners who own small to medium-sized businesses that are working incredibly hard, and they just know that their business should be more profitable. They’re working hard, they’re just not seeing the money in the bank account.

Tom Poland 01:50
Right.

Adam Lean 01:51
So, anybody that just needs help with that.

Tom Poland 01:53
Yeah. And then all this money seems to be flowing through their bank account and not around.

Adam Lean 01:58
Absolutely. That’s right.

Tom Poland 02:00
That probably leads us, six and a half minutes left, question two leads us into this question. Can you help us understand in more detail, what is the problem you solve for this folk?

Adam Lean 02:10
So, there’s a lot going on in a business, when- as a business owner, you’re wearing all the hats, and you have to deal with marketing and sales and operations and a slew of other things-

Tom Poland 02:22
Right.

Adam Lean 02:23
But the point of a business is to make money, and so the number one problem that we solve is to help business owners make more money. And that’s why business owners are in business in the first place. Even if they give all the money away to charity, the fact remains that the point of the business is to make money. So that is the problem that we solve.

Tom Poland 02:46
Perfect, in a nutshell, to make money. So, let’s get this going to question three, just over five and a half minutes left, we’ve got this business under the working hard, the money’s going to the bank cabinet, seems to be flowing out just as fast if not faster. Other than that, what are some of the typical symptoms that your ideal client is going to be experiencing in their business before they get to work with you?

Adam Lean 03:09
They really simply don’t know what to do. They’re an expert at the craft of their business. So, like a dentist starts a dental practice, and so they typically spend all their time doing dental things. But the fact remains that doing just dental things, things that you’re good at, the hairdresser that starts a hair salon, or cook that starts a restaurant because you’re good at those things doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re just going to make money at those things. That just means you’re great at that craft. And so, if a business owner is just feeling overwhelmed, and not sure what the next steps they need to do to make more money, that’s really the number one symptom of people that come to us. They know that there’s a problem, they just don’t know how to solve it, but that’s what we do is we get a solution.

Tom Poland 03:57
So, it’s- probably very good at what they do technically, I love the dentist but we don’t know exactly how to get more money out of that business. So-

Adam Lean 04:06
Right.

Tom Poland 04:07
Probably working too long, working hard. So, let’s go to that one because that’s a question four, four minutes left. What are some of the common mistakes? These folks are working hard, the money’s coming in, but simply disappearing just as fast. They’re going to try stuff, right? So, they’re going to- what are they going to try that actually ends up being not the correct answer? What are some of the mistakes they make before they find your solution?

Adam Lean 04:28
The number one mistake that we see is that they end up working harder in the business. So instead of working 50 hours a week, they’re just thinking, “Oh, I need to spend 65 hours a week.”

Tom Poland 04:38
I’m not working hard enough, right.

Adam Lean 04:40
I’m not work- right. I’m not working hard enough, or I can’t afford to hire other people. I don’t have systems in place. Everything revolves around me. Those are typical symptoms of businesses that don’t have a proper machine set up that just works like it’s supposed to, to do the one thing that machines supposed to do, which is to make more money.

Tom Poland 05:02
So, they work longer, and they work harder, and still end up with the same problem. And when they run out of time, they probably hire more people and still end up with probably even worse of a problem.

Adam Lean 05:15
That’s right. They’re like that hamster on that wheel. The wheel’s going around, but never going in the same place- never going in a different direction. It’s just you’re staying in place, but you’re running faster, faster, faster, just to stay in the same place. And that’s frustrating. That’s- that leads to burnout and overwhelming. And, you know, and then when the pail is due tomorrow, and you don’t have the cash in the bank account that leads to stress and, none of these things are good.

Tom Poland 05:40
Okay, so let’s go to question five, then just over two and a half minutes left. Let’s give people some light at the end of the tunnel. What’s one valuable free action that someone listened to this could take that is not going to solve the whole problem, maybe, but it might take them a step in the right direction?

Adam Lean 05:55
Valuable free action, I love that, by the way, is to know exactly where you stand for certain numbers, just so you can see what’s working and what’s not. So, the book, I think we’re going to talk about number six, will help you understand what’s working and what’s not. And this is a very quick read, but just understand where you are for the past 12 months for these certain numbers so you can really see what’s working and what’s not in your business.

Tom Poland 06:23
So question six is going to be the valuable free resource that people can- that’s kind of going to cover off question five and six, because, folks, if you go to the CFOproject.com, CFO being Chief Financial Officer, the CFOproject.com/moneybook, and I’m sure you all know how to spell “money”. Money Book, they’ll cover off questions, five and six, because it’s going to give you the means to take that one valuable free action. And how many numbers are they looking forward that with that book?

Adam Lean 06:55
So, in the book, there’s just five different things that they need to pay attention to.

Tom Poland 06:59
Five numbers. Five numbers, we can all do that. Okay, so that’ll give you clarity folks over the numbers you need to be tracking, and I’ll show you how to track them, be a terrific step in the right direction. So, question number seven, and we got 70 seconds left. So, plenty of time. What’s the one question I should have asked you, but didn’t?

Adam Lean 07:18
What is the most important number to improve in a business?

Tom Poland 07:24
And what is that most important number?

Adam Lean 07:26
Most people think it’s either revenue or profit, but it’s not, it’s cash flow.

Tom Poland 07:32
Uh-huh.

Adam Lean 07:33
Revenue is how much- it doesn’t matter how much you make; it matters how much you keep. So, revenue is how much you make. Profit is also how much you make, but cash flow is how much you keep. And cash flow literally is defined as how much money is flowing into your bank account minus what’s flowing out of your bank account, whatever’s left, positive cash flow, that’s how much you get to keep and do what you want with.

Tom Poland 07:59
Perfect.

Adam Lean 07:59
That’s more revenue, more important than profit.

Tom Poland 08:02
Yeah, I mean, profits and opinion, but cash is a fact. Right?

Adam Lean 08:06
That’s right. You can make a ton of profit and not have any cash flow and you’ll be out of business.

Tom Poland 08:11
Yes. Adam Lean, thank you so much for your wisdom and insights.

Adam Lean 08:15
Thank you so much for having me.

Tom Poland 08:16
Cheers.

Tom Poland 08:18
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.

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