Five Ways to Increase Profitability By Doing The Right Thing

1. Base your business in the Magic Triangle. Honesty, integrity, and quality are the three sides of the Magic Triangle of business success. Create the kind of company that stands for something more than the bottom line, and your bottom line will increase.

2. Stop worrying about market share. The world has more than enough customers for you. When you embrace abundance--the idea that the universe provides enough to go around--all the energy you've put into chopping down competitors can be channeled into productive, growth-enhancing activities. Example: By opening up the PC architecture many years ago, IBM dropped its market share--but created a vast expansion in the overall market (and its PC revenues).

3. Partner with your competitors. It may sound counter-intuitive, but competing and complementary businesses can become your best sales agents. The world's largest companies understand this--which is why Toyota and General Motors have product development partnerships, and why FedEx and the US Postal Service cooperate to deliver Express Mail and to provide FedEx collection points at post offices.

4. Understand the true brand experience. It's not your advertising and marketing--it's what happens when a customer attempts to do business with you. How helpful and courteous are your staff, both in-store and on the phone? How friendly and useful is your website? How does the customer really feel about working with you?

5. Turn customers into sales agents. At least one third of your business should be repeat customers or people they've referred. If you're still struggling to pull in business, either you haven't set up good systems to harness these super-profitable customers, or you need to address the deeper reasons why they don't return.

By Shel Horowitz, founder of the Business Ethics Pledge (http://www.principledprofits.com/25000 influencers.html)

Copywriter, marketing consultant, and speaker Shel Horowitz is the author of six books and publisher of five websites, five webzines and three ezines. His two most recent, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First (http://www.principledprofits.com) and Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World (http://www.frugalmarketing.com) have both won awards. He's currently engaged in a campaign to get 25,000 people to sign--and spread--the Business Ethics Pledge: http://www.principledprofits.com/25000 influencers.html

---

Successful Business Decision Making

Some people make decisions without any difficulty, while others struggle.... Read More

Using the Six-Sigma Methodology to Improve Wafer Fab Productivity

As a result of consolidation of operations and significantly increased... Read More

Making a Decision to Outsource: Driving Factors

Most executives view offshore outsourcing most of all as a... Read More

Get More Impact From Your Annual Conference

How can you get more attention for your conference and... Read More

Manage Your Business from the Rockies, not the Prairies

The day job as a manager is all about managing... Read More

Project Management - I Want It ALL

The knee-jerk response to prioritizing requirements is to mark everything... Read More

The Seven Cs: Partnership Danger Signs - Competitive, Not Complementary Action

A series of articles exploring the seven critical areas that... Read More

Make Them GLAD Youre Their Boss

Criticism has the power to do good when there is... Read More

Training and ROI (Return On Investment)

Statistics consistently reinforce that the biggest challenge in today's contact... Read More

Leadership Skills

Recent studies have shown that industrial supervisors are working at... Read More

Are You A B.O.S.S. -- Boisterous, Omnipotent, Self Indulgent, Sociopath

Boisterous, Omnipotent, Self- indulgent Sociopath. Avoid the B.O.S.S. syndrome with... Read More

Business Innovation ? Status Games

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Five Days to More Effective Inventory Management

The litany of headaches related to the implementation and on-going... Read More

Designing Your Healthy Administration - A Management Overview

Management or Leadership?Simply stated, management ensures that things get done,... Read More

Cheat Sheet; Understanding The MSDS and Your Obligations In The Workplace To Employees

MSDS SHEETSMSDS stands for Material Safety Data Sheets. MSDS sheets... Read More

Seven Cs to Avoid Procedure Writing Errors

You do your best to make sure your organization is... Read More

Leaders Versus Cheerleaders

Everyone wants to describe themselves as a leader. Everyday, new... Read More

Hiring for Success

Hiring someone new to work in your business is one... Read More

Employee Motivation: It?s More Than A Paycheck

Managers often ask, usually with exasperation, "How can I keep... Read More

Which ITIL Process Should We Implement First?

The following question is usually debated a lot amongst IT... Read More

Management Procedures Usability ? How to Improve

Are your people consistently following your procedures? Each year, organizations... Read More

Enhancing the Motivational Climate of Your Workplace

It has been well documented that employees' productivity and job... Read More

5 Ideas To Leverage The 3 Stages Of Career Development In Your Organization

In most industrialized nations, the average age a student graduates... Read More

Give Yourself a Boss Day Gift, Part 2: Are You the Position or the Person?

Are you the position or the person?Bosses can lose their... Read More

Twitch Speed: Reaching Younger Workers Who Think Differently

Every parent, educator, and manager knows that "Nintendo children"--those born... Read More

Manage Your Time - Save Your Business.

If you work from home, chances are you already know... Read More

The Seven Cs: Partnership Danger Signs - Communication Breakdown

An ongoing series of articles exploring the seven critical areas... Read More

Internal Communication: 12 Essential Elements

There are 12 essential elements of a successful internal communications... Read More

Offshore This! (Outsourcing Tech Support Overseas)

So I call my telephone company and someone picks up... Read More

Understanding How Change Has Changed

There seems to be an assumption that change is a... Read More

Know the Source of Business

One of the first questions we ask a prospect or... Read More

Creativity and Innovation Directors, Consultants and Managers

Creativity and Innovation is essential for competitive advantage, yet the... Read More

Can Your Corporate Policy Pass the Monkeys, Bananas, and Water-spray Experiment?

Five monkeys were placed in a cage. A banana was... Read More