Profitability is a Perspective: Your business is more than your bottom line

I can just see the suits and accountants and big bad business people everywhere rolling their eyes. They are saying no, no, profits are very much not “perspective,” but clear, mathematical equations that are black and white, very measurable, very important, and very much not what you have right now.

While all this is true, it’s not the whole truth.

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I own a small, seasonal restaurant on the North Fork of Long Island, so my year from January to April looks abysmal. May and June have not been all that fantastic either.

The bottom line is not great, it’s not even good. Ok, fine, it is terrifying.

But like I said it’s seasonal so we prepare the best we can and hold a collective breath as we (hopefully) make the money we need over the summer to survive another winter.

In reality, it is easier to take the bottom line on a Profit and Loss statement and let that figure dictate your worth.

Unfortunately, this becomes THE dominating force in measuring your success. (Or failure.) Like the suits would say, it is very black and white.

But there is so much more to the story and small business owners need to start taking a different kind of inventory.

Yes, yes, of course, the bottom line matters.

But it’s not the only thing that matters.

And it’s not the only way to measure your success.

But then, how do you measure the result of all your hard work on a human level?

The thing is, you can’t. (Not the way the suits would approve, anyway.)

You can’t measure the fullness of your soul on a spreadsheet or your peace on a P&L.

At least, please don’t.

The awareness around it, however, can be measured. Let’s try it.

(This works if your working in, on or for anything you care about.)

Stop for a second and really look at what you’ve built.

Look past the hard work and the stress and the doubt and the worry, (we all have that)

and take inventory of the results.

Are you working with integrity? Are you doing what you set out to do?

Are you proud of what you’ve produced?

For me- I wanted to create a positive place to work, to eat, to drink, to meet a friend for coffee.

To be a bright space in a world that feels increasingly dark.

To prove what’s possible when you build a team on gratitude, compassion and accountability.

I still have enough cash flow to keep the doors open, the staff paid, the bills covered. So that has to count.

When I look around at other small businesses I know and love, or creators and builders, they are working with passion and grit and integrity and joy. So much joy.

Just on my street alone, which happens to be named Love Lane (their are no mistakes in this life) there are several independent businesses and in every single one of them there is an owner & their teams, with sleeves rolled up, doing what they love.

Are they profitable? I’d bet according to their P&L- no. Not right now anyway.

Check back in September, please.

When I talk to my neighbors they sound a lot like me. Yes, this winter was long but they are optimistic for the summer season. Because they know what they do matters and this is my hope for small businesses everywhere.

The last few years do look different than the decade that proceeded it and yes, the landscape is changing. Maybe it will never be as profitable as it once was.

Does that mean it’s failing? That I’m failing?

No.

No, it does not mean I am failing.

I am really, really proud of the business I built.

But I am going to continue to re-frame how I measure what success looks like:

to me,

my business,

and the people who depend on it and love it - maybe as much as I do.

If it feels like I am grasping for straws, you know what, maybe I am.

But if that’s what it takes to not give up right now, when things are hard and the bottom line is not great and the future is uncertain, then yeah, that’s what I am going to do.

Then maybe, as my neighbors & I push through and hold on and not only worry about the bottom line, we will, eventually, against all odds, manage to have a healthy bottom line.

Shine on, friends & Burn Brightly!

Carolyn