Profit isn’t a four-letter word. There’s nothing dirty about it. Yet sometimes it seems awkward or inappropriate to talk about it. We shouldn’t scoff at profit. To the end of encouraging us to think positively about pursuing profit, here are 5 Ps for Profit to consider.
Protection. Peace of Mind. Insurance. Profit allows you to perpetuate. It keeps your business going. It is fuel in the engine of your business. Without it, the business sputters, stalls, and ceases to continue. Profits represent a warm and fuzzy feeling. Posterity or Perpetuity, you decide. They fuel the future. They allow you to sustain the game.
Provide. A business that produces profits, perpetuates, and provides. It provides for family, staff, vendors, and community. Profit allows you to provide for yourself, your family, your employees, vendors, and allows you to contribute to your community. The British economist, Nicholas Stern, has said that “capitalism is how we take care of people we don’t know.” This sounds like a good thing, doesn’t it? Producing profits prompts philanthropy. We can only give what we’ve earned in excess of our needs. More profits, more ability to share on things that we care.
Purpose. Provides clarity, direction, and a target to shoot towards. Profit targets guide. They fuel a focus by becoming a filter for decision making. Will x initiative help us produce profits? Will y effort either increase revenues or decrease expenses? If not, let’s not go there. If yes, these sound like ideas to implement.
Pride. Objective measures of accomplishment. Profit is clear. It is a way to keep score and demonstrate the value you are adding to your customer base. Profit is a feather in your cap. Perhaps, your self-worth isn’t your net worth, but collecting coins can represent a reflection of the value you’re providing somebody, somewhere. This is something of which to be proud. One thing I know is that your profits are sure to grow where you help others get to where they’re trying to go.
Patriotic. Pay local, provincial, and federal taxes. With profits come obligations whether through personal or corporate tax obligations. Your businesses’ ability to generate profits helps make our country a better place. The infrastructure and stability of our democracy that has been earned by the contributions of many over generations is the foundation upon which your business is being built. By building a profitable business yourself, you are honoring those prior contributions and continuing to support the stable structure upon which others can work to build better futures for themselves.
I hope these 5 Ps of Profit help us see the value that making money can be. The profits we produce can be seen as the potential we’re building. Profits are predictors of a better future. Those that gather some gold, we shouldn’t scold. In their steps we should seek ourselves to mould. At the end of the day, we should remember the words of Jay Goltz, “Profits aren’t optional in business.” To draw further on this idea, consider digging into the 1970 essay written by the late Milton Friedman titled “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits.” Remember the second of our two rules of business.
