Sustainable Profitability

5 strategies to assure effective execution of the How to Hire the BestTM Solution: Part One of Five

In my upcoming book, How to Hire the Best, Contractor’s Edition (Coming Fall 2019), I outline 6 strategies to assure effective execution of the How to Hire the BestTM Solution. First, design your business to be sustainably profitable. 

Here’s a little story I share in the book, and I know many of you can relate in some form or another. It’s heartfelt and is something I come back to when making an investment in my business.

When I was a girl, my parents scrimped and saved to send me to private school. They dropped me off every day in our old pickup truck, or worse, our powder blue Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, which my friends nicknamed “the boat” when it became my first car. Every day I cringed in the drop-off line as my peers were dropped off in sleek, brand new Mercedes and BMWs. They wore shirts with alligators on them. When I told my mother I needed one of those, she got me a shirt with a dragon on it. Close enough, right? Wrong! Needless to say, I complained loudly at the dinner table about my parents “shortcomings” with respect to their choices in vehicles and clothing. That’s when I learned a life lesson that has stuck with me to this day.

You see, my father was a banker. Most of his customers were small business owners and they were in debt. He informed me it is possible to drive a BMW and wear alligator shirts, while you are downing in debt. In fact, he alluded to many of my peers’ parents being his customers, some of whom struggled month after month to make their payments. My parents chose vehicles and clothing we could pay for without going into debt.

Now, I admit, at the time. I still didn’t understand the full implications of “being in debt.” It wasn’t until I completed my PhD and started making payments on my student loans that I got it. Debt is crushing. Debt kept me awake at night worrying about how to pay the bills month after month. I quickly found a creative solution to paying off my student loans. (I share that tip later in the book.)

“Work supports life…not the other way around.” ~Dr. Sabrina Starling

Leave judgement at the door: self-judgement, family judgement, peer judgement. There’s no need to fit in or compete with the Jones’ when we have a clear vision of where we are going and how we’re going to get there. A profitable business gives us more than freedom to spend, it gives a clear conscious and allows us to be present to invest in ourselves, those we love, and in the experiences that we are meant to have here on this earth. I implore you to make the difficult decisions now, as a true investor in your business (see Entrepreneur as Investor Blog Post). Your future self thanks you. It’s not about martyrdom, it’s about self preservation. Immediate gratification now can put pride first. Investment in the business is self-love and takes self-discipline. 

Remember … be the dragon people, rather than in the alligator crowd. You’ll sleep better at night. 

How close are you to having a highly profitable, great place to work?
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About The Author

Dr. Sabrina Starling, The Business Psychologist and international best-selling author of the How to Hire the Best series and The 4 Week Vacation™, is the founder of Tap the Potential and host of the Profit by Design podcast. At Tap the Potential, we work to free business owners from the constant demands of a growing business.

We believe work supports life, not the other way around. Clients in our Better Business, Better Life coaching program have more time for what matters most and more money in their bank account than they’ve ever had. Next, we send them off on a 4 Week Vacation™ to celebrate their hard-earned journey to take their life back!

Dr. Sabrina and her team at Tap the Potential are on a mission to change the story of entrepreneurship from one of long hours, grinding it out, to one of sustainably profitable businesses that support and enhance life. The Tap the Potential Solution™ and our Tap the Potential Family of Business Owners are disrupting small business as usual. We are on our way to making the Tap the Potential Solution™ the mainstream model for growing business.

By 2023, 150 Tap the Potential clients will have taken 4 Week Vacations. These are the trailblazers, role modeling what’s possible for entrepreneurs. In many entrepreneurial circles, it is becoming more and more common for one entrepreneur to ask another, “Have you taken a 4 Week Vacation™?” (as opposed to asking “How many employees do you have?” or “What is your annual revenue?”). Taking a fully unplugged 4 Week Vacation is rapidly becoming the recognized symbol of entrepreneurial success.

Never one to accept the status quo or back down from a challenge, Dr. Sabrina’s How to Hire the Best series grew from her desire to solve the toughest hiring challenges interfering with her clients’ growth and profitability. What sprang from her experience working with entrepreneurs in rural areas catapulted her into becoming the world’s leading expert in attracting top talent in small businesses—no matter what hiring challenges those businesses are facing—and earned Tap the Potential’s reputation as the go-to resource for entrepreneurs committed to creating Great Places to Work with thriving coaching cultures and highly engaged team members working from strengths.

As The Business Psychologist, and with her years of driving profit in small businesses, Dr. Sabrina knows what it takes to find, keep, and motivate exceptional performance out of your biggest investment—team members.