Edition 180 – Passion Builds Profit
It’s interesting the conversations I have with various family business owners. What’s even more interesting is the trends that tend to weave through those conversations at different times.
At the moment, I’m seeing a very pronounced connection between passion and profit and the momentum is building.
In my opinion, if you’re truly passionate about:
- Your business.
- Your product or service.
- Your employees.
- Your clients/customers.
- Your future in business.
Profit will always follow.
If on the other hand, you’re not that passionate about your family business and each day is like trudging through heavy mud, profit will drop off. Not markedly at the start, but it will snowball eventually.
If you focus on profit, without really being passionate about your family business, you’ll fall short of your profit targets, consistently.
To make money, don’t think about making money.
To make money, think about what you really enjoy doing and how you can monetise that. Sure, I get it that not every day in family business is beer and skittles. However, if your overall purpose for being in family business is something that you’re passionate about, you’ll see the not so fun parts of the day as speed bumps, not roadblocks.
For me, I’m passionate about helping family businesses reach their full potential. I love helping my clients build better lives for themselves, through their family business. I’m forever fascinated by the stories of how families started in business, and what keeps them in business. I’ve long argued that I have the most privileged role in the world – for my clients tell me everything that is happening, everything they’re thinking and everything they’re hoping.
I’ve come across family business owners over the years that are passionate about the industries they’re in – and often the passion is based around them seeing the opportunity their business has to change the face of the industry in which they operate.
There’s plenty of miserable builders, electricians, engineers and medicos in the world. However, the ones I work with truly believe that what they’re doing in their family business is unique – in product, service, methodology, technique or something completely intangible. Their passion for what they do means they’re excited, engaged and enthused – and in the process, convey that to their team, their customers and everyone else in their orbit. These are the family business types that are profitable.
When you unlock the front door today, take a moment to reflect on the level of passion you have for your family business. Is it high, or is it low? And how’s your profit travelling as a result.