(regal horns and orchestral music)
- Maximizer number four.
Bigger isn't always better.
Repeat after me, bigger isn't always?
- [Audience] Better.
- It's like a body builder.
Bigger isn't always?
- [Audience] Better.
- Always better.
You talk to entrepreneurs, again, "I want to grow,
"top line revenue."
It's all about revenue.
Bigger company, bigger office.
More stuff.
More computers.
When I say the entrepreneur, what we want to have to feel,
as few assets as possible using the maximum revenue.
So don't be fooled by, "Oh, I'm doing two million,
"I'm doing three million and 10 million,
"I'm doing 20 million," it doesn't mean shit.
It does not impress me.
What's your bottom revenue?
How much cash are you putting in your pocket
based on how much assets you have?
That's what impress me.
Not how revenue going up every year,
it doesn't mean anything!
It just means if a downturn in the marketplace, right?
(paper rustling) Remember the first chart,
right, was a downturn in order to die faster.
That's all it means.
So the goal is not to get big,
the goal is to create sustainable success.
Let me ask you a question, is there a difference?
- [Audience Members] Yes.
- Is there a difference?
- [Audience] Yes.
- Think, your goal is not to get big,
the goal is to create sustainable success,
it's to ride this.
So when there is a correction, when the economy turns,
you are okay.
And the only way to make sure you're okay is in good times
you want to be what?
In good times you want to be what?
Hello?
Mm?
In good times you want to be?
- [Woman] Marketing.
- Doing more marketing, yes.
Savings, have more cash.
Because the only way a business go out of business
is when they run out of?
- [Audience Members] Cash.
- You have cash, you're okay.
You are okay.
Right?
Entrepreneurs, wrong tool, for the wrong job.
(audience laughs)
Wrong tool for the wrong job.
Exactly what levers we need to pull within a business
to maximize our profit, not always revenue.
Now it might say in the beginning,
as a business,
let's see the curve and you're a start up,
in this period of time yes.
You should spend a majority of your time in the beginning
marketing itself, getting clients, yes?
As you mature you need to take a more balanced approach,
now you look at your expenses, what is going on?
What's happening here?
Am I being effective, am I being efficient?
How much richer, here's the thing.
I notice most entrepreneurs as they grow
the problem is not getting customers,
the problem very often is keeping the customers.
So here's a question again.
Good, smart people have good answers, genius have
good questions.
How much richer would you be if you still had
every customer who ever tried you?
How much richer would you be if you still had
every customer who ever tried you?
Who ever tried you.
How much richer would you be if you still had
every customer who ever tried you?
When you ask this question, does that make you focus
and think a little bit differently?
Yes?
What do you focus on?
I would rather have a two million a year business
making 15%, than a five million a year business making 5%.
I would rather own a two million dollars a year business
making 15%, then a five million dollar
a year business making 5%.
Because the goal is not to get big,
the goal is to create sustainable success.
You look at all of these Inc. 5,000 companies.
You look at, within Canada, Profit 500.
You know that the end of those contests,
they look at your revenue for the last few years,
it's going up every year.
What you don't know if you actually look close
at those companies,
they're growing, they're growing, they're growing
to Inc. 500, in a year (makes noise) they're gone,
they're bankrupt, out of business.
Because they only focus on the revenue.
They don't have a balanced approach to growth.
So revenue's for show and profit is for dough.
Repeat after me, revenue's for show
and profit is for dough.
That's my way of saying it. (laughs)
I want to be Bruce Lee,
lean and mean and fast and flexible.
I don't want to be that guy,
bulky like that, can't move.
I want to be Bruce Lee,
lean and mean, sustainable success.
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(strong, regal horns music)