Have you ever struggled with your own productivity and profit focus? While I have discussed in the past that a “profit first” approach is not necessarily positive for entrepreneurs, any online business owner needs to take profit margins under serious consideration.
Penny Zenker, my guest this week on The Sigrun Show, is a business strategy coach who helps her clients concentrate on the most important areas to grow their business, be more productive and be profit focused.
When Penny’s father passed away unexpectedly when she was 19 years old, she learned how to get clear on what was truly important to her. She shifted to only doing what brought her joy and gave her a sense that her time was well invested.
Creating solutions that would improve processes soon became her passion and she went on to build a multi-million technology business. But she felt herself burning out and thought about the 80/20 rule: Was she really focusing on those 20% that would get her 80% of the results?
To be able to make her family her main priority and spend more time with her children, Penny decided to do things differently and started a coaching business. Today, she helps her clients think and act more strategically, be more productive and focus on profit.
In this episode, Penny talks about how you can grow your business while being profit focused at the same time, and how you can improve your productivity every day. She also reveals the 8 profit levers you can apply to increase the profit in your business.
If you want to be more productive and increase your profit, this episode is for you.
“One of the key things that helps us be more productive is structure.” - Penny ZenkerWhat you will get out of this episode:
- How losing her father made Penny see what is important in life (3:25)
- What led Penny into coaching (6:05)
- How Penny found her niche (8:03)
- Focusing on profit (10:00)
- Growing and making profit at the same time (13:13)
- Penny’s 8 profit levers (14:51)
- How to start increasing your productivity and be profit focused (19:50)
- Penny’s new book “The Productivity Zone” (25:50)
- Perfectionism for women vs men (29:39)
- What productivity has to do with confidence (32:04)
Want to know about more ways you can be productive and focus on profit? Find out how to be productive during this crisis or how journaling makes you more productive.
8 Profit Levers That Help You Become More Productive by Being Profit Focused
Creating a thriving business is not all about growth. If you think you’ll only make a profit by creating more leads and putting more ads out there, Penny’s here to prove you wrong.
While the common business model is to build your following and hold off from making a profit for a period of time until your leads turn into profitable customers, Penny says it’s possible to make profit while you grow – by implementing profit levers that focus on your existing clients.
Here, she shares the 8 profit levers that help you be profit-focused in your business.
New lead development
Every business needs growth, but it’s important that it’s positive growth. While the rest of Penny’s profit levers focus on your existing customers, this first one goes towards creating new leads and attracting potential, profitable customers.
Raise your average purchase price
Your existing customer has an average purchase price. Think about what you can do to increase it. Maybe it’s time to raise your prices, bundle your services into a package or partner with someone and get an affiliate commission?
Increase frequency
Think about how you can increase the frequency by which your customers buy from you. If they’re on a monthly program and already interested in what you do, maybe they’re open to something more frequent that they receive on a weekly basis.
Automation
Where could you automate your business so that the system will be able to do it without you? By automating something you can reduce the cost that goes into it, as well as save time.
Extending customer lifetime value
If a customer typically works with you for one year, how can you create something that keeps them in your world for longer? Find additional value that you can deliver to them.
Enhancing customer loyalty
People tend to leave you when they think you don’t care. Build a relationship and create more interaction. Your goal should be to turn your customers into raving fans.
Boosting referrals
Even though this generates new leads, it’s doing it with our existing customers. Referrals are four times likelier to buy. They’ve been referred by someone who they know and trust. You’re getting a credibility factor from the existing customers you have.
Sales conversion
You already have a lead flow that comes in, but instead of investing the money in the conversion process, invest the money in the new acquisition. This is an optimisation strategy where you focus on closing more of what you have coming in and only then ramp up to get more leads.
Step back and see which one of these profit levers has the greatest value for you right now. Start implementing it to become profit focused in your business.
Which profit lever are you going to try out? I’m curious to know! You can follow and connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.