hit said goal . Money is not just sloshing around in the streets for anyone walking about to pick up . Disorganized , random acts for client acquisition and revenue generation should scare you . It IS a weakness that needs to be addressed .
6 . Not Knowing If You Made Money UNTIL Your Accountant Finishes Your Tax Return
The other day , a client asked , “ What is gross profit ?” I almost choked . Do I even need to teach this ? Kevin O ’ Leary said , “ One hundred percent of the successful businesses that come on Shark Tank know their business and their numbers cold . They know where break-even is . They know their competition and their market size . They know their customer acquisition costs and lifetime value of a client . Those who don ’ t get funded are easily stumped by those numbers .”
Kevin ’ s counterpart on the show , Robert Herjavec , CEO of Cyderes ( a $ 1.2 billion MSSP ) said , “ If you don ’ t love numbers , you don ’ t love business .” The financial numbers — and sales and marketing numbers — are the heartbeat of your organization . They need to pulse on a regular , routine basis , not once a year when you listen in to find out the patient died three months ago ! Yet , so many small businesses don ’ t really know what their sales are today or will be this month or this quarter . They have no sales pipeline , no knowledge of inbound leads , appointments set , close rate , average sale , or gross margins .
Many people are beaten down by the requirement to really KNOW their business and numbers — they ’ re not excited by it . Personally , I don ’ t “ love ” all the numbers and tracking , but there are certain things you have to get good at if you ’ re going to run a successful business . My feeling is that if it has to be done , let me learn to do it RIGHT and put a system to it ( tracking the numbers , reviewing the numbers ), so it ’ s less painful to do .
Most people never get to that point . They keep running their business , denying , resisting , and resenting doing the things that must be done ( the tracking , training , and management ) — doing it only when forced to do so when things get SO bad that they cannot stand it anymore , but then still doing it poorly , desperately seeking someone to just do it for them , outsourcing or abdicating the responsibility to incompetent and inexperienced staff or vendors , starting over again and again .
We all know you can ’ t manage ( or improve ) what you don ’ t measure and track . Your sloth in these areas is your burden to bear , a cost to pay . You have to either decide you ’ re going to get ’ er done and figure it out or constantly be held back by it . If you ’ re a business owner , this IS your responsibility and your job . If you don ’ t like it , perhaps you might look to go to work for someone who will — now , there ’ s a scary thought ! n
There is no doubt about it : Robin Robins has helped more MSPs and IT services businesses to double — even triple — sales , profits and MRR growth than any other marketing consultant in the IT services industry , period . As a trusted advisor to over 10,000 IT services business owners for over 18 years , Robin knows a thing or two about what it takes to grow sales , recurring revenue streams and a profitable client base for an IT services business .
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