God First: Then, Gross Margin

Margin is important, but, alas, God first: Then, gross margin.

“Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain.” – Psalm 127:1

If you are planning to start or grow your organization, it’s important to have first things first.

I have been blessed with decades of business experience.  And, I have advised numerous individuals and organizations.  And, given all of that, I’ve discovered the keys to success:

1. God first.
2. Have adequate margin (e.g., Gross Margin).
3. Get the rest right, too.

Margin Is Key

To be sure, you have to get things right if you want to grow and scale your organization.  After all, scaling is what I term “repeatable growth.”  And, at Blue Elevator™, we summarize this as follows: Innovate™, Accelerate™, and Replicate™.

You have to continually Innovate™.  And, after that, you need to Accelerate™.  Then, you must do it all over again: Replicate™.  This is the key to scaling through repeatable growth.

But for God, this process cannot be successfully and continually repeated unless the business has adequate margin.

Gross Margin

At Blue Elevator™, one of the key things we evaluate for our clients is gross margin.  And, we even have a top-secret formula for evaluating it.

Now, it’s possible to experience growth without adequate margin.  But, at some point, the lack of it may result in a plateau – or worse.

Even Jesus had this to say:

“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’ ” – Luke 14:28-30

Getting It Right

Do you know your gross margin?  Is it adequate enough to continually scale?

Eventually, by default, you will know whether your gross margin is adequate.  Have you experienced any of the following?

• Diminishing profits
• Reduced cash flow
• Needing to hire or acquire assets and feeling strapped

If so, these could be signs your margin is off.

But, believe it or not, you could have plenty of cash and be busier than ever.  And, still, your margin might be off.  You just don’t know it yet.

Summary

So, remember: God first – then gross margin.   This is very important if you want to scale your organization.

Contact us!  We’d love to learn more about your goals and vision for your organization.  And, we also have an extensive article series (a total of nine articles) that cover gross margin.