Start-ups can be seriously profitable!

 

I recently heard a renowned business coach tell an audience of entrepreneurs (infants and toddlers in the life cycle of business) that they need to get real and should not expect to be profitable for up to 6 years, and that business is really hard work often without reward.

My eyes nearly popped out of my head, my mouth dropped open.  A mind virus of epic proportions had just been released to an audience of emerging entrepreneurs.  Those entrepreneurs who were not yet profitable put that gem away to bring out as evidence to support their financial position or rather, the lack there of.  It supported a limiting pattern that I work tirelessly to debunk.

There must be more urgency around maximising profit – and yes, without comprising values and without working longer and harder.  At Opening Gates, we know it is possible because we see it every day!  While we think the level of profitability is dependent on where we are in the life cycle of our business or by our circumstances – then so it will be. This thinking limits creativity and innovation.

So your business isn’t profitable?  Then I ask you – “What would your business need to look like if it was profitable.  Yes, I know that you think it isn’t possible to be profitable in the initial years – but what if it was, what would it look like?

Put me on loop until you come up with insights in order to shut me up!  Look at your business through a lens that is not blurred by limiting myths.

In the infant and toddler stages of business you might have a narrow sales focus – “I manufacture and sell widgets”.  But what if you expanded how you look at income – what else might you have to sell?  Have you developed a process, do you have unique IP, or access to a market someone else needs – what else do you have that someone else will value?  Can you consult, licence or sell intangible “stuff” without compromising your unique selling position or your patents.

This is just one of the many processes we use to challenge mindsets by changing the way we look at things so that the things we look at change.

If you think it is “normal” to be running a business at a loss, then think again.  Don’t enrol in the myth that emerging companies aren’t likely to be profitable.  It is not true and will only limit you.