Weekly Insights
Happy Thanksgiving
This Thursday, November 27th we celebrate Thanksgiving in the United States. For Canadian readers, you celebrated Thanksgiving earlier this year. For those in other areas of the world, you might not formally celebrate a day to give thanks….but what if you did it?...
Death by 1,000 Cuts – Trying to Scale Chaos
The next death by another little cut: Trying to Scale Chaos If you try to scale chaos, you only get more chaos. And, eventually your business will implode. When you are small, i.e. less than $750,000 in revenues, you probably can do it yourself. You know exactly what...
Death by 1,000 Cuts – Don’t Answer the Telephone
The next death by another little cut Not Answering Your Telephone WAIT! Before you click off this Profitable Business …make sure that your employees DO answer your phones. And, they answer them in the way you want them to be answered. Here’s what happened…and this is...
Death by 1,000 Cuts – Ignoring Cash Trends
Ignoring Cash Trends “I look at the money in my operations account every day.” Yes, you should be doing this to spot irregularities in your operating account. However, looking at cash in the bank doesn’t give you the overall trends of your business as they relate to...
Death by 1,000 Cuts – Don’t Pay Attention to the Bottom Line as You Grow
The Ask Ruth Webinar is this Thursday, October 20, 2025 at 11 AM Eastern Topic: The Relationship between Profitability, Working Capital, and Current Ratio Click here for details and to register Now onto Financially Fit Business Pay attention to the bottom line as your...
Death by 1,000 Cuts – This Form of Chinese Torture Can Kill Your Business
Death by 1,000 cuts is how the ancient Chinese tortured people. No one single cut killed them. However, it was the accumulation of 1,000 cuts that eventually killed the person. What does this have to do with your business? It’s the little things that you don’t pay...
How to Give Your Employees a Day Off with Pay on December 26, 2025
Christmas is on a Thursday this year. The likelihood of much revenue generation on Friday, December 26, 2025 is slim. It’s a wasted day with no one really wanting to be at work. Customers don’t want to talk with you either – unless something is broken. What if you...
Don’t Let This Happen to You
A contractor (who is not a client) had good profits and profitability for the past several years. He negotiated a deal to sell his company. The process began in April and the April financial statements showed the company profitability. The business valuation and sales...
What Would You Do With $1.8 Million?
First my new manual - one version for business owners and one for CPA's bookkeepers and financial professionals: Understanding Financial Statement Trends Business owners Click here for more information CPA's bookkeepers and financial professionals Click here for more...
Five Easy Things That Could Help Your Hiring Process
First, two complimentary webinars you might want to take advantage of: I’m part of a two-day AI Summit on September 23-24, 2025. Click here for more information and to sign up for this free summit. Thursday’s Ask Ruth – I’m covering the working capital trends and...
Increase Profit and Wealth
First, thank you for reading Financially Fit Business. I hope the ideas I share help you grow a profitable business and significantly impact your life and the lives of your employees. This week is one of the rare times I use this space for me, and personal promotions....
25 Ways to be More Profitable – Conclusion
The final installment in this profitability series focuses on two often-overlooked issues: growing faster than your working capital can support and misaligning people with the wrong responsibilities. Sustainable growth and role fit can directly improve profit.
25 Ways to be More Profitable – Part 13
Here are profitability ideas for sales, marketing and customer activities. #21 – Know which of your marketing activities produce the best results Effective marketing is a combination of the right message sent to the right target customer using the right medium. Right...
25 Ways to be More Profitable – Part 12
These activities focus on billable hours or revenue producing hours. Customers write your paychecks. Your team members who produce your products and services are billable, i.e. revenue producing. Here are profitability ideas for increasing billable hours. #18 – Know...
25 Ways to be More Profitable – Part 11
Here are the next two ways to increase profitability. Your balance sheet tells you whether you are really profitable. Your P&L just tells you whether you are profitable for a specific period of time. The three ratios that I write about this week are called...