In our last blog, we discussed the typical behaviors of business owners when facing challenges. To get the quickest relief, we often will take any step, even if it’s not the right step. While this action does move us off point A, it may not move us closer to our overall business goals. This is called the Survival Trap and it is how most of us operate. The Fix This Next Assessment can help.
Why Your Ecommerce Business Needs the Fix This Next Assessment
How do you get out of the Survival Trap? How do you know the right next step? It’s easy if you take the Fix This Next Assessment.
In this assessment, you evaluate your business using the Business Priority Pyramid developed by Mike Michalowicz in his book, Fix This Next. This book was released on April 28, 2020. The Business Priority Pyramid is based on a framework similar to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs that was created to describe us as individuals.
You may recall from psychology class that our basic needs of food, clean air, and shelter lead to safety, then belonging, and ultimately tops off with Self Actualization where we fulfill our potential or talent. Our businesses also have a hierarchy where we must take care of those most basic needs before we can progress to a higher level.
Understanding the Business Priority Pyramid
As you might have guessed, the most basic level of a business is the Sales level. Through sales, we are able to generate cash. Next, we reach the level of Profit. By making an adequate level of profit, we can create stability for our business. Next, we move into Order. Order is where we create efficiencies in our business. This level focuses on systems and getting the business to a point where it can run without us, as owners. The base of this pyramid is where most small businesses operate, and it’s called the GET level. In the GET level, as businesses, we are concerned with getting customers, generating cash and becoming efficient. We are not so concerned with giving back, which is characterized the top two levels.
The fourth level is the Impact level, and it focuses on creating transformation for our clients. At this level, we have moved beyond the transactional aspect of business. Finally, the top of the pyramid is the Legacy level. This is where the business is made permanent. It can operate after we are no longer here to run it, whether that is because of selling the business, retiring, or death. As you can see, the top levels are concerned with Giving either through a transformative product or service or creating a business that transcends the founder’s involvement in operations. The Fix This Next Assessment will tell you where you’re in these five levels.
Help is a Click Away!
As a certified Fix This Next Advisor, I can help you navigate through the various levels. I invite you to take the online Fix This Next Assessment here, and then let us know where your ecommerce business is stuck. As a Mastery Level Profit Advisor, I can help with some of the vital needs at the Sales level and all of the vital needs at the Profit and Order levels. My vision has been to build a legacy business from the beginning, so my team and I have worked through many of the issues at all levels. Where we are not proficient, we have resources and referrals for you.
If your ecommerce business isn’t where you’d like it to be in terms of profitability, check out my book, Profit First for Ecommerce Sellers. It answers important questions about how to implement Profit First in an ecommerce business. Take control of your money and your business, and put Profit First to work for you! Contact bookskeep today to learn more about ecommerce accounting.
Cyndi Thomason is founder and president of bookskeep, a U.S.-based accounting, bookkeeping, and advisory firm for ecommerce sellers worldwide. She has a passion for data analysis and process development. She uses that passion to educate her clients and help them structure their businesses to maximize profits.
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