Why become more profitable? One answer is that having more money gives you the security to spend more time with your family. Here are some thoughts from Making Money Is Not Illegal, Immoral or Fattening about how that cycles back to help your profitability:
"You must grow your business, and I understand growing your business is not necessarily opening up more stores. It also can mean growing with your people, growing with your categories. You need a succession plan, and that's much easier when you are profitable. What happens when you have no succession plan, and the owner/operator passes away?
"I was working with a retailer in California, a six million or seven million dollar retailer. I asked the retailer, 'What are you going to do with your business?' What I meant was, what would happen at the point where the owner retired. He replied, 'I don't know.'
"That's a fairly common answer when I ask that question. I said, 'Do you have any kids?' He said, 'Yes, I have two kids, a daughter who is an Emergency Medical Technician and a son who is an engineer.' 'Why aren't they interested in the business?' 'Well, they watched their mom and me work in the business six to seven days a week year after year, and we never really had a whole lot of money, and we missed a lot of soccer games and meetings, and they just didn't want the same life.'
"That makes sense. I wouldn't want it either. But it's a problem. When kids coming up through the business don't see the parents' business allowing them to do what they like to do and have enough time for the family, they don't want any part of it. So you want profitability for family reasons, succession planning, and more."
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