Why you should look beyond profits as a measure of success

It can be easy to get carried away with looking at the bottom line if you own a business.

There is no denying that maximizing profits should be a major goal. But the company that spends too much of its focus on bringing in every last dollar can suffer from a bit of tunnel vision and fail to see the bigger picture.

The best companies do everything so well that profits are almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy, the byproduct of the complete operational structure of the business. It is difficult to work from profits outward, as it may leave you wanting in areas that could eventually be crucial determiners of business success.

That’s why it is crucial for you as a business owner or a prospective one to come up with other measuring sticks for success. These may differ depending on the nature of your business. Succeeding in some may even mean a lessening of profits from time to time. But a well-rounded business is one that has a much better chance of being effective over a long period of time. Profits are also sometimes affected by many other factors out of your control. Finding standards that you need to meet and can’t be negatively affected by anything besides your decision-making process will keep your business on the right track.

HBSwiss can help you make your investments wisely in the foreign exchange markets, which will help you on the monetary side of things. Making a commitment to other areas of your business will make a huge difference in keeping you afloat even when profits are lower than expected.

Building a potent work force

One measure that you can use to see if your building your best batch of employees is to decide what makes a successful employee. It obviously should be someone who is productive, but they should also be someone who sticks around for a long enough time to make a difference in the company’s overall fortunes. What kind of percentage do you have for finding these employees?

Customer retention

Devising some method of seeing how many of your customers are giving you repeat business will show you how sustainable your business might be. It can also help you to decide if there are areas of your customer service that could use improvement. A business with steady repeat customers can withstand short-term sales, knowing that their customers will eventually come back to them.

Customer satisfaction

This is along the lines of the previous item, but it can have wide-ranging effects. Dissatisfied customers will spread their unhappiness to others via word of mouth. Customers who walk away from their experience with a great feeling will also likely tell their friends about that. So, finding ways of measuring this is a solid way to let you know if you’re going to be expanding your customer base in the future.

Again, concentrating on profits isn’t a bad thing. But it shouldn’t be the only thing; keep your eyes on the wider prize and strive for your business to hit on all cylinders.